Tiger
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For other uses, see Tiger (disambiguation).

Tiger

Bengal Tiger (P. tigris tigris)
Conservation status
Endangered [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Carnivora
Family:
Felidae
Genus:
Panthera
Species:
P. tigris
Binomial name
Panthera tigris(Linnaeus, 1758)

Historical distribution of tigers (pale yellow) and 2006 (green).[2]
Synonyms
Felis tigris Linnaeus, 1758
Tigris striatus Severtzov, 1858Tigris regalis Gray, 1867
The tiger (Panthera tigris) is a mammal of the Felidae family, the largest of four "big cats" in the Panthera genus.[3] Native to the mainland of Asia, the tiger is an apex predator and the largest feline species[4] in the world,[5][6] comparable in size to the biggest fossil felids.[7] The Bengal Tiger is the most common subspecies of tiger, constituting approximately 80% of the entire tiger population, and is found in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma and Nepal. It has disappeared from much of its former distribution including the Caucasus, Java and Bali.
Several subspecies are extinct and others critically endangered. Tigers have featured in ancient mythologies and folklore, and continue to be depicted in modern films and literature, as well as appearing on flags, coats of arms and as mascots for sporting teams. It is the national animal of India,[8] and some other countries.
Contents[hide]
1 Naming and etymology
2 Taxonomy and evolution
2.1 Subspecies
2.2 Extinct subspecies
2.3 Hybrids
3 Biology and behaviour
3.1 Physical characteristics
3.1.1 White tigers
3.2 Territorial behavior
3.3 Hunting and diet
3.3.1 Hunting methods
3.4 Interspecific predatory relationships
3.5 Reproduction
4 Habitat
5 Conservation
5.1 Save China's Tigers rewilding project in South Africa
5.2 Controversial release of a hand reared hybrid Tigress in the wild
5.3 Controversial crossbred Siberian/Bengal tiger Rewilding project in South Africa
6 Man-eating
6.1 Champawat Man-eating Tigress
6.2 Sunderbans Man-eaters
6.3 Tara of the Dudhwa National Park
7 Relation with humans
7.1 World's Favourite Animal
7.2 The Tiger as prey
7.3 Traditional Asian medicine
7.4 As pets
7.5 Cultural depictions
7.6 The tiger as a national animal
8 Media
9 Gallery
10 See also
11 Cited references
12 References
13 External links
//

Naming and etymology
The word "tiger" is taken from the Greek word "tigris", which itself is derived "possibly from an Iranian source." It is said that "tigris" means arrow, and that the tiger was given this name due to its speed, which was its more famous trait in Ancient times. This would presumably be the origin of the Tigris river name.[9][10] In American English, "Tigress" was first recorded in 1611. "Tiger's-eye" is a name for a golden-brown striped, chatoyant, fibrous variety of quartz used as a semi-precious gemstone. It was one of the many species originally described, as Felis tigris, by Linnaeus in his 18th century work, Systema Naturae.[11] The generic component of its scientific designation, Panthera tigris, is often presumed to derive from Greek pan- ("all") and ther ("beast"), but this may be a folk etymology. Although it came into English through the classical languages, panthera is probably of East Asian origin, meaning "the yellowish animal," or "whitish-yellow".[12]

Taxonomy and evolution
The oldest remains of a tiger like cat, called Panthera palaeosinensis have been found in China and Java. This species occurred about 2 million years ago at the beginning of the pleistocene and was smaller than a tiger. Early true tiger fossils stem from Java and are between 1.6 and 1.8 million years old. Distinct fossils from the early and middle Pleistocene were discovered in deposits from China, Sumatra and Java. A subspecies called Trinil tiger (Panthera tigris trinilensis) occurred about 1.2 million years ago and was found at the locality of Trinil, Java, Indonesia.[13] In India, and northern Asia the tiger appears for the first time in the late pleistocene. Fossil tigers were also found in eastern Beringia (but not on the American Continent) and Sachalin island. Tiger fossils of the late Pleistocene have also turned up in Japan. These fossils indicate that the Japanese tiger was not bigger than the island subspecies of tigers of recent ages. This may be due to the phenomenon in which body size is related to environmental space (see island dwarfism), or in the case of a large predator like a tiger, availability of prey. Until the Holocene tigers occurred also in Borneo, where it is not present today.

Subspecies
There are nine recent subspecies of tiger, three of which are extinct, one of which is almost certain to become extinct in the near future, and five of which still occur.[3] Their historical range (severely diminished today) ran through Russia, Siberia, Iran, Afghanistan, India, China and south-east Asia, including the Indonesian islands. These are the surviving subspecies, in descending order of wild population:

Bengal tiger
The Bengal tiger or the Royal Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is found in parts of India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Burma. It lives in varied habitats: grasslands, subtropical and tropical rainforests, scrub forests, wet and dry deciduous forests and mangroves. The Indian government's estimated population figure for these tigers is between 3,100 and 4,500, some 3,000 of which are found in India alone. However, many Indian tiger conservationists doubt this number, seeing it as overly optimistic. The number of Bengal tigers in India may be fewer than 2,000,[14] as most of the collected statistics are based on pugmark identification, which often gives a biased result. Even though this is the most 'common' tiger, these tigers are under severe pressure from both habitat destruction and poaching. In 1972, India launched a massive wildlife conservation project, known as Project Tiger, to protect the depleting numbers of tigers in India. The project helped increase the population of these tigers from 1,200 in the 1970s to 3,000 in the 1990s and is considered as one of the most successful wildlife conservation programs. At least one Tiger Reserve (Sariska) has lost its entire tiger population to poaching.[15] Males in the wild usually weigh 205 to 227 kg (450–500 lb), while the average female will weigh about 141 kg.[16] However, the northern Indian and the Nepalese Bengal tigers are supposed to be somewhat bulkier than those found in the south of the Indian Subcontinent, with males averaging around 520 lbs (236 kg).[17]

Indochinese Tiger
The Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti), also called Corbett's tiger, is found in Cambodia, China, Laos, Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam, preferring to exist in forests in mountainous or hilly regions. Estimates of its population vary between 1,200 to 1,800, with only several hundred left in the wild, but it seems likely that the number is in the lower part of the range; it is considered Endangered. The largest current population is in Malaysia, where illegal poaching is strictly controlled, but all existing populations are at extreme risk from habitat fragmentation and inbreeding. In Vietnam, almost three-quarters of the tigers killed provide stock for Chinese pharmacies. Also, the tigers are seen by poor natives as a resource through which they can ease poverty. Indochinese tigers are smaller and darker than Bengal tigers. Males weigh from 150–190 kg (330–420 lb) on average while females are smaller at 110–140 kg (242–308 lb).
The Malayan tiger (Panthera tigris malayensis), exclusively found in the southern (Malaysian) part of the Malay Peninsula, was not considered a subspecies in its own right until 2004. The new classification came about after a study by Luo et al. from the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity Study,[18] part of the National Cancer Institute of the United States. Recent counts showed there are 600–800 tigers in the wild, making it the third largest tiger population behind the Bengal tiger and the Indochinese tiger. The Malayan tiger is a national icon in Malaysia, appearing on its coat of arms and in logos of Malaysian institutions, such as Maybank.

Sumatran tiger
The Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) is found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and is critically endangered.[19] The wild population is estimated at between 400 and 500, seen chiefly in the island's national parks. Recent genetic testing has revealed the presence of unique genetic markers, indicating that it may develop into a separate species, if it is not made extinct.[20] This has led to suggestions that Sumatran tigers should have greater priority for conservation than any other subspecies. Habitat destruction is the main threat to the existing tiger population (logging continues even in the supposedly protected national parks), but 66 tigers were recorded as being shot and killed between 1998 and 2000, or nearly 20% of the total population. The Sumatran tiger is the smallest of all living tiger subspecies. Adult males weigh between 100–130 kg (220–286 lb), females 70–90 kg (154–198 lb). Their small size is an adaptation to the thick, dense forests of the Sumatra island where they reside, as well as the smaller-sized prey. On February 3, 2007 a pregnant Sumatran Tiger was caught by people from Rokan Hilir village at Riau province. Indonesian fauna conservation officials are planning to transfer her to the Bogor Safari Park in Java.

Siberian tiger
The Siberian Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), also known as the Amur, Manchurian or North China tiger, is confined completely to the Amur region in far eastern Siberia, where it is now protected. The last two censuses (1996 and 2005) found 450–500 Amur tigers within their single and more or less continuous range making it one of the largest undivided tiger populations in the world. Considered the largest subspecies, with an average weight of around 227 kg (500 lb) for males.[21] The Amur tiger is also noted for its thick coat, distinguished by a paler golden hue and a smaller number of stripes. The Amur tiger is the largest and heaviest of all naturally-occurring felines. A six-month old Amur tiger can be as big as a fully grown leopard.

South China tiger
The South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis), also known as the Amoy or Xiamen tiger, is the most critically endangered subspecies of tiger and is listed as one of the 10 most endangered species in the world.[22] will almost certainly become extinct. It is one of the smaller tiger subspecies. The length of the South China tiger ranges from 2.2–2.6 m (87–104 in) for both males and females. Males weigh between 127 and 177 kg (280–390 lb) while females weigh between 100 and 118 kg (220–260 lb). From 1983 to 2007, no South China tigers were sighted.[23] In 2007 a farmer spotted a tiger and handed in photographs to the authorities as proof.[24][23] In 1977, the Chinese government passed a law banning the killing of wild tigers, but this may have been too late to save the subspecies. There are currently 59 known captive South China tigers, all within China, but these are known to be descended from only six animals. Thus, the genetic diversity required to maintain the subspecies may no longer exist, making extinction a possibility. Currently, there are breeding efforts to reintroduce these tigers to the wild by 2008.

Extinct subspecies

A hunted down Balinese Tiger.
The Balinese tiger (Panthera tigris balica) has always been limited to the island of Bali. These tigers were hunted to extinction—the last Balinese tiger is thought to have been killed at Sumbar Kima, West Bali on 27 September 1937; this was an adult female. No Balinese tiger was ever held in captivity. The tiger still plays an important role in Balinese Hindu religion.
The Javan tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) was limited to the Indonesian island of Java. It now seems likely that this subspecies became extinct in the 1980s, as a result of hunting and habitat destruction, but the extinction of this subspecies was extremely probable from the 1950s onwards (when it is thought that fewer than 25 tigers remained in the wild). The last specimen was sighted in 1979, but there was a re-ignition of reported sightings during the 1990s.[25][26]
The Caspian tiger or Persian Tiger (Panthera tigris virgata) appears to have become extinct in the late 1950s,[27][28] with the last reliable sighting in 1968, though it is thought that such a tiger was last shot dead in the south-eastern-most part of Turkey in 1970. Historically it ranged through Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, the former Soviet Union, and Turkey.[27] The Caspian tiger was a large subspecies and reached nearly the dimensions of the Bengal Tiger. The heaviest confirmed weight of a male was 240 kg. The ground colour was comparable to that of the Indian subspecies, but differed especially in the tight, narrow striping pattern. The stripes were rather dark grey or brown than black. Especially during the winter, the fur was relatively long. The Caspian tiger was one of two subspecies of tiger (along with the Bengal) that was used by the Romans to battle gladiators and other animals, including the Barbary Lion. The Romans traveled far to capture exotic beasts for the arena. There are still occasional reported sightings of the Caspian Tiger in the wild.[28]

Hybrids

A liger is the offspring of a male lion and female tiger.
Further information: Panthera hybrid, liger and tigon
Hybridization among the big cats, including the tiger, was first conceptualized in the 19th century when zoos were particularly interested in the pursuit of finding oddities to display for financial gain.[29]
Lions have also been known to breed with tigers (most often the Amur and Bengal subspecies) to create hybrids called ligers and tigons.[30] The liger is a cross between a male lion and a tigress.[31] Because the lion sire passes on a growth-promoting gene, but the corresponding growth-inhibiting gene from the female lion is absent, ligers grow far larger than either parent. They share physical and behavioural qualities of both parent species (spots and stripes on a sandy background). Male ligers are sterile, but female ligers are often fertile. Males have about a 50% chance of having a mane, but if they grow one their manes will be modest: around 50% of a pure lion mane. Ligers are typically between 10 to 12 feet in length, and can be between 800 and 1,000 pounds or more.[31] The less common tigon is a cross between the lioness and the male tiger.[32] Such hybrids were once commonly bred in zoos, but this is now discouraged due to the emphasis on conserving species and subspecies. Hybrids are still bred in private menageries and in zoos in China.

Biology and behaviour

Physical characteristics

Skeleton
Tigers are the heaviest cats found in the wild,[33] but the subspecies differ strongly in size, tending to increase proportionally with latitude, as predicted by Bergmann's Rule. Large male Siberian Tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) can reach a total length of 3.5 m and a weight of 306 kg.[34] Apart from those exceptional large individuals, male Siberian tigers usually have a head and body length of 190–220 cm and an average weight of 227 kg[35] (The tail of a tiger is 60–110 cm long). The heaviest siberian tiger 384 kg,[36] but according to Mazak these giants are not confirmed via reliable references.[34] Females are smaller, those of the Siberian or Indian subspecies weigh only between 100 and 181 kg. Isle tigers like the sumatran subspecies (P. t. sumatrae) are much smaller than mainland tigers and weigh usually only 100–140 kg in males and 75–110 kg in females. The extinct Bali Tiger (P. t. balica) was even smaller with a weight of 90–100 kg in males and 65–80 kg in females.[34]
Tigers have rusty-reddish to brown-rusty coats, a fair (whitish) medial and ventral area and stripes that vary from brown or hay to pure black. The form and density of stripes differs between subspecies, but most tigers have over 100 stripes. The pattern of stripes is unique to each animal, and thus could potentially be used to identify individuals, much in the same way as fingerprints are used to identify people. This is not, however, a preferred method of identification, due to the difficulty of recording the stripe pattern of a wild tiger. It seems likely that the function of stripes is camouflage, serving to hide these animals from their prey. The stripe pattern is found on a tiger's skin and if shaved, its distinctive camouflage pattern would be preserved.

A pair of white tigers at the Singapore Zoo

White tigers
Main article: White tiger
There is a well-known mutation that produces the white tiger (the correct term used is chinchilla albinistic),[37] an animal which is rare in the wild, but widely bred in zoos due to its popularity, and because white tigers have proved helpful in solving the continual problem of inbreeding; many initiatives have taken place in white and orange tiger mating in attempt to remedy the issue. Recordings of white tigers were first made in the early 19th century.[38] They can only occur when both parents carry the rare gene found in White tigers; this gene has been calculated to occur in only one in every 10,000 births. The white tiger is not a separate sub-species, but only a colour variation, and this is a common misconception. Another misconception is that White tigers are albinos, despite the fact that pigment is evident in the White tiger's stripes. They are distinct not only because of their white hue; they have distinctive blue eyes and pink noses. There are also unconfirmed reports of a "blue" or slate-coloured tiger, and largely or totally black tigers, and these are assumed, if real, to be intermittent mutations rather than distinct species.[37]
Like most cats, tigers are believed to have some degree of colour vision.[39]

Territorial behavior

Lithograph (based on photograph) showing a bull Nilgai killed and partly eaten by a tigress and two cubs. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 1888.[40]

The same bull nilgai after the second meal by the tigress and two cubs. JBNHS, 1888.
Adult tigers are fiercely territorial. The size of a tiger's home range mainly depends on prey abundance, and, in the case of male tigers, on access to females. A tigress may have a territory of 20 km² while the territories of males are much larger, covering 60–100 km². While females can at times be aggressive towards other females, their territories can overlap and they do tolerate each other. Males, however, are usually intolerant of other males within their territory. Because of their aggressive nature, territorial disputes can be violent, and may end in the death of one of the males. To identify his territory, the male marks trees by spraying urine and anal gland secretions on trees as well as by marking trails with scat. Males show a grimacing face, called the Flehmen response, when identifying a female's reproductive condition by sniffing their urine markings.
Male tigers can mingle easily with females in their territories and will even share kills. George Schaller observed a male tiger share a kill with two females and four cubs. Females are often reluctant to let males near their cubs, but Schaller saw that these females made no effort to protect or keep their cubs from the male. This suggests that the male might have been the father of the cubs. In contrast to male lions, male tigers will allow the females and cubs to feed on the kill first. Females will also share kills, even more so than the males. They are also much more tolerant of sharing kills with individuals of the same sex.[41]
Tigers have been studied in the wild using a variety of techniques. The populations of tigers were estimated in the past using plaster casts of their pugmarks. In recent times, camera trapping has been used instead. Newer techniques based on DNA from their scat are also being evaluated. Radio collaring has also been a popular approach to tracking them for study in the wild.

Hunting and diet

Tiger dentition. The large canines are used to make the killing bite, but they tear meat when feeding using the carnassial teeth
In the wild, tigers mostly feed on larger and medium sized animals. Sambar, gaur, water buffalo, chital, wild boar and nilgai are the tiger's favored prey in India. In Siberia the main prey species are Mandchurian elk, wild boar, sika deer, roe deer and musk deer. In Sumatra rusa deer, wild boar and Malayan tapir are preyed on. In the former Caspian tiger's range saiga, camels, Caucasian Wisent, yak and wild horses were preyed. Like many predators, they are opportunistic and will eat much smaller prey such as as monkeys, peacocks, hares and fish.
Adult elephants are too dangerous to tigers to serve as common prey, but conflicts between elephants and tigers do sometimes take place. A case where a tiger killed an adult female Indian rhino has been observed.[42] Young elephant and rhino calves are occasionally taken. Tigers also sometimes prey on domestic animals such as dogs, cows, horses and donkeys. These individuals are termed cattle-lifters or cattle-killers in contrast to typical game-killers.

Hunting methods

"Tiger chasing a Deer" in Milan Museum of Natural History

Tigers' extremely strong jaws and sharp teeth make them superb predators.
Tigers hunt alone and prefer medium to large sized herbivores. They ambush their prey as other cats do, overpowering them from any angle, using their body size and strength to knock large prey off balance. Even with their great masses, tigers can reach speeds of about 49-65 km/h (35-40 mph). Tigers prefer to bite the throats of large prey and use their muscled forelimbs to hold onto the prey, bringing it to the ground. The tiger remains latched onto the neck until its prey dies. With small prey, the tiger bites the nape, often breaking the spinal cord, piercing the windpipe, or severing the jugular vein or carotid artery. The prey is killed instantly.
In the wild, tigers can leap as high as 5 m (16 ft) and as far as 9–10 m (30–33 ft), making them one of the highest-jumping mammals (just slightly behind cougars in jumping ability).
They have been reported to carry domestic livestock weighing 50 kg (110 lb) while easily jumping over fences 2 m (6 ft 6 in) high. Their heavily muscled forelimbs are used to hold tightly onto the prey and to avoid being dislodged, especially by large prey such as gaurs. Gaurs and water buffalos weighing over a ton have been killed by tigers weighing about a sixth as much. The combination of claws and power behind a tiger's paws enables it to kill an adult human with one swipe.[43]

Interspecific predatory relationships
Tigers may kill such formidable predators as leopards, and pythons. Tigers have been known to kill even crocodiles on occasion,[44][45][46] although predation is rare and the predators typically avoid one another. Tigers have been known to severely suppress wolf populations in areas where the two species coexist.[47][48] Dhole packs have been observed to attack and kill tigers in disputes over food, though not usually without heavy losses.[49] Siberian tigers and brown bears are a serious threat to each other and usually avoid confrotation; however, tigers will kill bear cubs and even some adults on occasion. Bears (Asiatic black bears and brown bears) make up 5-8% of the tigers diet in the Russian Far East.[34] Sloth bears are quite aggressive and will sometimes drive tigers away from their kills although the opposite happens as well and in some cases tigers even prey on sloth bears.[34]

Reproduction
A female is only receptive for a few days and mating is frequent during that time period. A pair will copulate frequently and noisily, like other cats. The gestation period is 16 weeks and 3–4 cubs of about 1 kg (2 lb) each are born. The females rear them alone. Wandering male tigers may kill cubs to make the female receptive. At 8 weeks, the cubs are ready to follow their mother out of the den. The cubs become independent around 18 months of age, but it is not until they are around 2–2½ years old that they leave their mother. The cubs reach sexual maturity by 3–4 years of age. The female tigers generally own territory near their mother, while males tend to wander in search of territory, which they acquire by fighting and eliminating another male. Over the course of her life, a female tiger will give birth to an approximately equal number of male and female cubs. Tigers breed well in captivity, and the captive population in the United States may rival the wild population of the world.[41]

Habitat

Sumatran tiger
Tigers are found in a variety of habitats, including both tropical and evergreen forests, woodlands, grasslands, rocky country, swamps, and savannas. The Caspian tiger was also found in steppes and mountainous areas. Compared to the lion, the tiger prefers more dense vegetation, for which its camouflage is ideally suited, and where a single predator is not at a disadvantage compared to a pride. Among the big cats, only the tiger and jaguar are strong swimmers; tigers are often found bathing in ponds, lakes, and rivers.

Conservation
Main article: Tiger hunting

Tiger headcount in 1990
Humans are the tiger's most significant predator, as tigers are often poached illegally for their fur. Many Indian tigers' parts found their way to Tibet, where they were widely used for making traditional costumes.
At the Kalachakra Tibetan Buddhist festival in South India in January 2006 the Dalai Lama preached a ruling against using, selling, or buying wild animals, their products, or derivatives. The result when Tibetan pilgrims returned to Tibet afterwards was much destruction by Tibetans of their wild animal skins including tiger and leopard skins used as ornamental garments. It has yet to be seen whether this will result in a long-term slump in the demand for poached tiger and leopard skins.[50][51][52]
Tiger conservation efforts in India, which harbors the largest population of wild tigers in the world, have also been underway, though are also continually threatened by poachers. [2]
Their bones and nearly all body parts are used in traditional Chinese medicine for a range of purported uses including pain killers and aphrodisiacs. The use of tiger parts in pharmaceutical drugs in China is already banned. China has even made some offenses in connection with Tiger poaching punishable by death. Though it has been made illegal, China's wealthy businessmen are known to eat Tiger penis as they feel it is an aphrodisiac.[53] Poaching for fur and destruction of habitat have greatly reduced tiger populations in the wild. A century ago, it is estimated there were over 100,000 tigers in the world but the population has dwindled to between 7,000 and 5,000 tigers.[54] Some estimates suggest the population is even lower, with some at less than 2,500 mature breeding individuals, with no subpopulation containing more than 250 mature breeding individuals.[1] The threat of extinction is mitigated somewhat by the presence of some 20,000 tigers currently in captivity,[55] although parts of the captive population (eg. the 4-5,000 animals in China's commercial tiger farms) is of very low genetic diversity and can be of little use in keeping the species alive.

Save China's Tigers rewilding project in South Africa


A South China tiger of the Save China's Tigers project with his blesbuck kill
The organisation Save China's Tigers working with the Wildlife Research Centre of the State Forestry Administration of China and the Chinese Tigers South Africa Trust secured an agreement on the reintroduction of Chinese Tigers into the wild. The agreement, which was signed in Beijing on 26 November 2002, calls for the establishment of a Chinese Tiger conservation model through the creation of a Pilot Reserve in China where indigenous wildlife including the South China Tiger will be reintroduced. A number of Chinese tiger cubs will be selected from zoos in China and sent to a 300 square kilometre reserve near the town of Philippolis in South Africa where they will be taught to hunt for themselves, the offspring of the trained tigers will be released into the pilot reserves in China, while the trained tigers will continue to stay in South Africa to continue breeding.[56] A second Chinese tiger rehabilitation project is also being run in Fujian, China.[57] It is planned that in time, successfully rehabilitated South China Tigers will be released into a Pilot Reserve in China. China will conduct the work of surveying land, restoring habitat and prey with in the Pilot reserve. The first Chinese Tigers are expected to be reintroduced into the wild to coincide with the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008[58]
Save China's Tigers understands that the tigers must know how hunt prey and has to be able to defend itself, in order to survive in the wild. Once in captivity for long, an animal will lose its ability to survive in the wild, such as skills like hunting and self-defence. It will inevitably die once released. Thus Save China's Tigers started a re-habilitation programme to help the tigers regain their surviving skills in the wild. Some re-habilitation steps taken by the project includes feeding the tiger cubs with carcasses of small game. Once the tigers are eating and opening the new food items, live animals similar to those taken dead will be occasionally introduced to the cubs. Larger food items and larger live animals will also be used for the rewilding training subsequently.


South China tigers 327 and Madonna of the Save China's Tigers project
The prey species provided for the training are small animals like rabbits and guinea fowls and medium sized antelopes like blesbucks and springbucks. There are plans to introduce larger games like the Blue wildebeest, the tigers have been provided with wildebeest carcasses and will soon be presented with live wildebeests for them to hunt. The prey needed for wild training of the tigers do not have to be the same as those in the original food chain of the tigers. Tigers’ food menu is fairly extensive: deer, antelope and wild boars etc are tigers’ primary food in their habitat. Once a tiger knows how to hunt the same sized wild animals, it will not mind what kind of prey animal it is.[59]
No captive-born large predators have ever been successfully reintroduced into the wild before.[60] This is the first ever experiment by any organization and country, to attempt to save a large carnivore by re-introducing them into the wild. It is a daring and heroic experiment of combining in-situ and ex-situ conservation. Its success will have a profound impact on international conservation and should set precedence for zoos throughout the world.[61]

Controversial release of a hand reared hybrid Tigress in the wild
Tara, a hand-reared (supposedly Bengal) tigress acquired from Twycross Zoo in England in July 1976 was trained by Billy Arjan Singh and released to the wild in Dudhwa National Park, India with the permission of India’s then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in an attempt to prove the experts wrong that zoo bred hand reared Tigers can ever be released in the wild with success. In the 1990s, some tigers from Dhudhwa were observed which had the typical appearance of Siberian tigers: white complexion, pale fur, large head and wide stripes. With recent advances in science it was subsequently found that Siberian Tigers genes have polluted the otherwise pure Bengal Tiger gene pool of Dudhwa National Park. It was proved later that Twycross Zoo had been irresponsible and maintained no breeding records and had given India a hybrid Siberian-Bengal Tigress instead. Dudhwa tigers constitute about 1% of India's total wild population, but the possibility exists of this genetic pollution spreading to other tiger groups, at its worst, this could jeopardize the Bengal tiger as a distinct subspecies[62][63][64][65][66].[67][68][69][70][71]

Controversial crossbred Siberian/Bengal tiger Rewilding project in South Africa
There is a Tiger rewilding project started by John Varty (South African conservationist and filmmaker) in 2000. This project involves bringing captive-bred zoo tiger cubs, and for them to be trained by their human trainers so that the tigers can regain their predatory instincts. Once they prove that they can sustain themselves in the wild, they would be released into the wilderness of Africa to fend for themselves. Their trainers, John Varty and Dave Salmoni (Big Cat expert and zoologist), have to teach them how to stalk, hunt, and most importantly to associate hunting with food. All of these instincts would be taught to them by their biological mothers in the wild.
Two tigers have already succeeded in re-wilding and two more tigers are currently undergoing their re-wilding training. The tiger canyons project is not an attempt to introduce tigers into Africa, but an experiment to create a free-ranging, self-sustaining tiger population outside Asia. From this population, third and fourth generations of tigers can be returned to parks in Asia that meet a set of criteria which give the tigers a chance of surviving in Asia. This project is featured by The Discovery Channel as a documentary, "Living With Tigers". It was voted one of the best discovery channel's documentary in 2003.
A strong criticism about this project is with the chosen cubs. Experts state that the four tigers (Ron, Julie, Seatao and Shadow) involved in the rewilding project are not purebred Bengal tigers and should not be used for breeding. The tigers are bred by Ron Witfield, world renowned as having the best breeding line of Bengal tigers, and the tigers' genealogy can be traced back through many generations. However, the four tigers are not recorded in the Bengal tiger Studbook and should not be deemed as purebred Bengal Tigers. Many tigers in the world's zoos are genetically impure and there is no reason to suspect these four are not among them.[72] The 1997 International Tiger Studbook lists the current global captive population of Bengal tigers at 210 tigers. All of the studbook-registered captive population is maintained in Indian zoos, except for one female Bengal tiger in North America.[73] It is important to note that Ron and Julie (2 of the tigers) were bred in the USA and hand-raised at Bowmanville Zoo in Canada[74], while Seatow and Shadow are two tigers bred in South Africa.[75]
The Tigers in the Tiger Canyons Project have recently been confirmed to be crossbred Siberian/Bengal tigers. Tigers that are not genetically pure are not allowed to be released into the wild and will not be able to participate in the Tiger Species Survival Plan which aims to breed genetically pure tiger specimens and individuals.[76] In short, these tigers do not have any genetic value.[77]

Man-eating
Although attacks on human are uncommon, the tiger has killed more people than any other cat. It is mostly old and injured tigers that attack and eat humans. Tigers labeled man-eaters will get captured, shot or poisoned. Man-eaters have been a recurrent problem for India, especially in Kumaon and Garhwal in the early part of the twentieth century, notable accounts of the hunting of which have been written by Jim Corbett. The Sundarbans mangrove swamps of Bengal, where some healthy tigers have been known to hunt humans, have had a higher incidence of man-eaters.
Of all the sub-species of tiger it is the Bengal which has gained the worst reputation as a man-eater. It has been said that "at one time, in parts of India, at the beginning of the 19th century, man-eaters were so prevalent that it seemed to be a question of whether man or tiger would survive." Each night, fires encircled the villages and the native people only ever travelled in large groups, fully armed and beating drums to scare the cats."[78]
Tigers are more easily intimidated from attacking humans than most lions, especially if they are unfamiliar with people and have not learnt how easy humans are to catch and kill. Unlike man-eating leopards, even established man-eating tigers will seldom enter human settlements, usually sticking to village outskirts.[79] Nevertheless, attacks in human villages do occur.[80]

Champawat Man-eating Tigress
In the 1930s tigers killed between 1,000 and 1,600 people each year, causing terror among the human population. One famous tigress known as Champawat killed some 200 men and women before being driven out of Nepal. She moved to another location, this time in India, and continued to kill bringing her total up to 436 before she was tracked down and killed in 1937.[81]The Champawat tigress is the greatest man eater known to date; she killed over 400 humans, and those are only the ones who were reported. She actually killed in two different countries, Nepal and India before she was hunted by Jim Corbett. She was so bold that she would enter the villages at night or even during daylight, and walk around roaring, forcing people to flee in panic to their huts.[82]
The Champawat tigress was, as man eaters usually are, extremely cunning, and she was only found by Jim Corbett because he managed to follow the trail of blood the tigress left behind after killing her last victim; a 16-year-old girl.[83] Later examination of the tigress showed the upper and lower canine teeth on the right side of her mouth were broken -- the upper one in half, the lower one right down to the bone. This permanent injury, Corbett claimed, "had prevented her from killing her natural prey, and had been the cause of her becoming a man-eater."[84]

Sunderbans Man-eaters
While killings by Siberian tigers are almost unheard of, the Bengal tigers of the Sundarbans (translation: 'beautiful forest'), bordering India and Bangladesh, used to regularly kill fifty or sixty people a year. This was strange given that the tigers were usually in prime condition and had adequate prey available. Approximately 600 tigers live in this region, the largest population anywhere in the world.[85]
About 5,000 people frequent the swamps and waterways of the Sundarbans. Fishing boats traverse the area and many stop so the villages can collect items like firewood or honey. In the dark tangled forest tigers find it easy to stalk and attack a man absorbed in his work. Even fishermen in small boats have been attacked due to the tiger's incredible swimming ability.[86]
It is necessary to place these attacks in perspective. Firstly, the kill rate has dropped significantly due to better management techniques and now only about three people lose their lives each year. Even at the rate of fifty or sixty kills per year kills would only provide about 3% of the yearly food requirements for the tiger population of the Sundarbans. Therefore, despite the notoriety associated with this area, man is only a supplement to the tiger's diet; they do not provide a primary food source.[87]

Tara of the Dudhwa National Park
The Sundarbans is very well-known throughout the world for its tiger attacks. Less remembered is Dudhwa National Park which was once severely affected by man-eaters. Just over 20 years ago Dudhwa became famous for its tiger attacks. The first one was on the 2nd March, 1978; this was closely followed by 3 further kills. The population demanded action from authorities. As is usual in cases of this type, the natives wanted the man-eater shot or poisoned. The killings continued, each one making headlines. Officials soon started to believe that the likely culprit was a tigress called Tara. Conservationist Billy Arjan Singh had taken the British born cat from Twycross Zoo and raised her in India, with his aim being to release her back into the wild. His experiments were also carried out on leopards with a respectable element of success.
Experts always felt that Tara would not have the required skills and correct hunting techniques to survive in the wild and controversy surrounded the project. She also associated men with providing food and comfort which meant she would probably approach villages. Officials later became convinced Tara had taken to easier prey and become a man-eater. A total of 24 people were killed before the tigress was shot. Billy Arjan Singh joined in with the hunt, but firm confirmation regarding the correct identity of the tiger never came.
Despite many years having passed, this debate still rages. Supporters of Billy Arjan Singh continue to claim that the tiger was not Tara and the conservationist has produced evidence to that effect. Meanwhile, officials continued to maintain the tiger was definitely Tara.[88]
There were other renown man-eaters from Dudhwa National Park[89], but Tara remained the most famous man-eater of Dudhwa Tiger reserve because she was the first captive-bred tiger to be trained and released into the wild and Tara becoming a man-eater seems to imply that Billy Arjan Singh's tiger rewilding project has failed.
Problems at Dudhwa have been minor in the past few years. Occasional tiger attacks still occur, but these are no higher than at other wildlife reserves. For instance, on average, two villagers get attacked at Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve each year. This happens most commonly during the monsoon season when the locals enter the reserve to collect grass.[90]

Relation with humans

World's Favourite Animal
In a poll conducted by Animal Planet, the Tiger was voted World's Favourite Animal, narrowly beating the man's best friend, the dog. More than 50000 viewers from 73 countries voted in the poll. The tiger received 21 percent of the vote, the dog 20, the dolphin 13, the horse 10, the lion 9, the snake 8, followed by the elephant, the chimp, the orangutan and the whale. Tigers obtained 10 904 votes, just 17 votes more than dogs.[91][92][93][94]
Animal behaviourist Candy d'Sa, who worked with Animal Planet on the list, said: "We can relate to the tiger, as it is fierce and commanding on the outside, but noble and discerning on the inside".[91]
Callum Rankine, international species officer at the World Wildlife Federation conservation charity, said the result gave him hope. "If people are voting tigers as their favourite animal, it means they recognise their importance, and hopefully the need to ensure their survival," he said.[91]

The Tiger as prey
The tiger has been one of the big game animals of Asia. Tiger hunting took place on a large scale in the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries, being a recognised and admired sport by the British in colonial India as well as the maharajas and aristocratic class of the erstwhile princely states of pre-independence India. Tiger hunting was done by some hunters on foot; others sat up on machans with a goat or buffalo tied out as bait; yet others on elephant-back.[95] In some cases, villagers beating drums were organised to drive the animals into the killing zone. Elaborate instructions were available for the skinning of Tigers and there were taxidermists who specialised in the preparation of Tiger skins.

Traditional Asian medicine
Many people in China have a belief that tiger parts have medicinal properties, and tiger parts are used in some traditional Chinese medicines. There is no scientific evidence to support this belief. Although all trade in tiger parts is illegal under CITES and a domestic trade ban has been in place in China since 1993 there are still a number of tiger farms in the country specializing in breeding the cats for profit from meat and other tiger products. It is estimated that between 4000 and 5000 captive-bred, semi-tame animals live in these farms today.[96][97]

As pets
The American Zoo and Aquarium Association estimates that up to 12,000 tigers are being kept as private pets in the USA, which is significantly more than the world's entire wild population.[98] 4000 are believed to be in captivity in Texas alone.[98]
A well known pop culture reference to the keeping of tigers as pets can be found in the Brian De Palma remake of Scarface starring Al Pacino. Pacino's character, Tony Montana, aspires to obtaining all the exterior trappings of the American Dream, which in the character's opinion included the ownership of a pet tiger, in this case kept on chain on his property.
Part of the reason for America's enormous tiger population relates to legislation. Only nineteen states have banned private ownership of tigers, fifteen require only a licence, and sixteen states have no regulations at all.[98]
The success of breeding programmes at American zoos and circuses led to an overabundance of cubs in the 1980s and 90s, which drove down prices for the animals.[98] The SPCA estimate there are now 500 lions, tigers and other big cats in private ownership just in the Houston area.[98]

Cultural depictions
The tiger replaces the lion as King of the Beasts in cultures of eastern Asia[99], representing royalty, fearlessness and wrath.[100] Its forehead has a marking which resembles the Chinese character 王, which means "king"; consequently, many cartoon depictions of tigers in China and Korea are drawn with 王 on their forehead.[citation needed]
Of great importance in Chinese myth and culture, the tiger is one of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals. Also in various Chinese art and martial art, the tiger is depicted as an earth symbol and equal rival of the Chinese dragon- the two representing matter and spirit respectively. In fact, the Southern Chinese martial art Hung Gar is based on the movements of the Tiger and the Crane. In Imperial China, a tiger was the personification of war and often represented the highest army general (or present day defense secretary),[100] while the emperor and empress were represented by a dragon and phoenix, respectively. The White Tiger (Chinese: 白虎; pinyin: Bái Hǔ) is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. It is sometimes called the White Tiger of the West (西方白虎), and it represents the west and the autumn season.[100]
The Tungusic people considered the Siberian tiger a near-deity and often referred to it as "Grandfather" or "Old man". The Udege and Nanai called it "Amba". The Manchu considered the Siberian tiger as Hu Lin, the king.[101]
The Hindu goddess Parvati (Sanskrit: पार्वती) has been depicted astride a tiger or lion. In southern India the god Aiyappa was associated with a tiger.[102]
The weretiger replaces the werewolf in shapeshifting folklore in Asia;[103] in India they were evil sorcerers while in Indonesia and Malaysia they were somewhat more benign.[104]
"Nimer" (tiger) is a common Arabic male first name (see 'Abd al-Majid Nimer Zaghmout, [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], ), fulfilling a similar function (i.e. calling a man by the name of a strong and powerful animal) as "lion" names such as Leon, Leo or Leonard in various European languagues.
The tiger continued to be a subject in literature; both Rudyard Kipling in The Jungle Book and William Blake in Songs of Experience depict the tiger as a menacing and fearful animal. In The Jungle Book, the tiger, Shere Khan, is the wicked mortal enemy of the protagonist, Mowgli. However, other depictions are more benign: Tigger, the tiger from A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories, is cuddly and likable. In the Man Booker Prize winning novel "Life of Pi," the protagonist, Pi Patel, sole human survivor of a ship wreck in the Atlantic Ocean, befriends another survivor: a large Bengal Tiger. The famous comic strip Calvin and Hobbes features Calvin and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes. A tiger is also featured on the cover of the popular cereal "Frosted Flakes" (also marketed as "Frosties") bearing the name "Tony the Tiger".

The tiger as a national animal
The Tiger is the national animal of:
Bangladesh (Royal Bengal Tiger)
India (Royal Bengal Tiger)[105]
Malaysia (Malayan Tiger)
Nepal (Royal Bengal Tiger)
North Korea (Siberian Tiger)
South Korea (Siberian Tiger)

Media
Video of the Panthera tigris at Disney's Animal Kingdom
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Gallery

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Indian painting, by Indischer Maler, c. 1650
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See also
Black tiger (animal)
Tiger Temple, a Buddhist temple in Thailand famous for its tame tigers
Siegfried & Roy, two famous tamers of tigers
Project Tiger, India
Maltese Tiger