Look at this beautiful animal in the picture. Do you know the name of this animal?
Yes it is a tiger. Lets learn a bit more about this animal.
The tiger is the biggest of all the members of the 'cat family'. They can weigh up to 300kg and be 3.3m long.
Answer these questions and do some research
- Which other cats are part of the 'cat family'?
- All over the world we find different kinds of tigers. Look at the list of names below of the different kinds and try and find a picture of each to see what they look like.
Subspecies of the tiger include the Sumatran Tiger, Siberian Tiger, Bengal Tiger, South China Tiger, Malayan Tiger and Indochinese Tiger.
There are very few left of certain of these species of tigers since humans would hunt them for theri beautiful fur and also destroy their habitat. (The place they live)
The tiger babies which are called 'cubs' will stay with their mothers until they are 2 years old and only half of these cubs live to become older than 2 years of age.
Tigers love to swim and can swim very far, up to 6 km at a time. This is totally different from the other members of the cat family, who do not really like water. They also hunt at night and they usually do this alone. Lions will hunt together, but the tiger prefer to hunt alone. They can run really fast, up to 65 km/h, but only a few of their hunt are successful.
They can jump more than 5 m high, so besides from jumping right over your head, you will not be able to outrun a tiger.
A lot of tigers are kept in zoo's or privately by people who try and protect them.
Various tiger subspecies are the national animals of Bangladesh, India, North Korea, South Korea and Malaysia.
These countries see the tigers as almost 'holy' and will protect them to any cost. This is a good thing, since the tigers are busy dying out so quickly and if they are not protected, they will soon become extinct.