Tigers

A Bengal tiger’s home range might be just 8 square miles (20 square kilometers), while a Siberian tiger might need 400 square miles (1,000 square kilometers)!

Tigers need to drink about 10 to 20 gallons (approximately 38 to 76 liters) of water each day — that’s 320 cups of water in a day!

Tigers can survive for about two weeks without food but only a few days without water!

Life Cycle

Tiger cubs are born blind and helpless, weighing only about 2 pounds (1 kg) — about as much as a pineapple!

Tiger cubs start learning to hunt when they’re about 6 months old!

Tiger cubs stay with their mother for about 2–3 years before living on their own!

Female tigers usually have 2–4 cubs at a time, but can have up to 7!

Tiger cubs are born with milky blue eyes that change to amber or yellow when they’re about 3 months old!

Tigers learn to swim when they’re very young — some cubs can swim by the time they’re 2 to 6 months old!

A tiger mother teaches her cubs everything they need to know about hunting and survival!

Tiger cubs practice their hunting skills by play-fighting with their siblings!

Tigers reach their full adult size when they’re about 2–5 years old!

A mother tiger is pregnant for about 3-3.5 months before her cubs are born!

Tiger cubs start eating meat at around 2 months old but continue drinking their mother’s milk for 5–6 months!

Young male tigers usually travel farther from their birthplace than females when establishing their own territory!

Female tigers can have cubs throughout the year — there’s no specific breeding season for most tiger subspecies!

Only about half of all tiger cubs survive to adulthood in the wild!

Diet & Feeding

An adult tiger can eat up to 88 pounds (40 kg) of meat in one sitting — that’s like eating 160 hamburgers!

Tigers are successful in only about 1 out of every 10 hunting attempts!

Tigers can go up to two weeks without eating after a large meal!

Tigers prefer to hunt large hoofed animals like deer and wild pigs!

A tiger can take down prey that’s up to twice its own body weight!

Tigers usually hunt at night and can see their prey from over 300 feet (91 meters) away!

Tigers drag their large prey to a safe place before eating and may return to feed for several days!

Tigers have rough tongues that can lick the paint off a building — this helps them clean meat off bones!

A growing tiger cub needs to eat about 11 pounds (5 kg) of meat every day!

Tigers kill their prey by biting the back of the neck to break the spinal cord!

Tigers typically eat the muscles and organs of their prey first, as these parts contain the most nutrients!

A wild tiger might need to eat the equivalent of 50 deer each year to survive!

Tigers usually stalk their prey quietly, getting as close as possible before charging for a quick attack!

Tigers sometimes bury leftover food and return to it later, covering it with leaves and dirt to hide it from scavengers!

Unlike lions, tigers don’t usually scavenge dead animals and prefer to catch their own prey!

Conservation & Population

There are fewer than 6,000 tigers left in the wild today!

The Siberian (Amur) tiger is the largest tiger subspecies, but only about 500 remain in the wild!

Three tiger subspecies (Bali, Javan, and Caspian) have gone extinct!

India has more wild tigers than any other country — over half of all wild tigers live there!

Tigers need large areas of connected forest to survive — one tiger needs as much space as 6,000 football fields!

The main threats to tigers are habitat loss and poaching (illegal hunting)!

Scientists use hidden cameras called “camera traps” to count and study wild tigers!

Some countries have special police forces just to protect tigers from poachers!

The South China tiger is the most endangered tiger subspecies, with possibly none left in the wild!

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists tigers as “Endangered” on their Red List!

Tiger parts are illegally used in some traditional medicines, even though they have no proven medical benefits!

Some tiger reserves use elephants to patrol and look for poachers because they can travel quietly through the forest!

Fun Comparisons

A tiger’s roar can be heard from up to 2 miles (3 kilometers) away — that’s like hearing a sound from 35 football fields away!

A tiger’s paws have soft pads that help them walk silently — they can sneak up closer than the length of your classroom without being heard!

A tiger’s heart makes up only about 0.5% of its body weight but can pump blood through its huge body for miles of running!

If you could line up all the remaining wild tigers in the world, they would fit about 170 soccer fields!

An adult Siberian tiger’s paw print can be as big as a dinner plate — much larger than a human hand!

A tiger’s roar sounds different from a lion’s — a tiger’s roar is more like a series of barks ending in a growl!