Top 10 Fun Facts for Kids - The Tiger!
The tiger is perhaps the most regal, handsome and the most favorite animal in the world.
There is nothing more endearing than watching a couple of tiger cubs splashing in a pool of water.
As is the case with all other animals, there are popular misconceptions about the tiger.
Here we try to clear those misconceptions through our series Top 10 Facts for Kids .
Presenting to you the animals that stands alone, literally - The terrific, tremendous, totally cool Tiger! 1.
The Tiger is the biggest species amongst the cat family.
The lion looks like it is, but an average tiger can weigh up to 300 kgs, about 50 kgs more than the average Lion.
Tigers are great athletes.
They can run very fast almost reaching 60 kmph over short distances.
They can leap to a distance of about 6m and can jump up in the air vertically up to 5m.
They have powerful muscular legs that sometimes remain standing even after the Tiger is dead! 2.
The scientific name for tigers is Panthera Tigris.
They are classified into nine subspecies: Bali, Java, Caspian, Sumatran, Amur or Siberian Tiger, Indian or Bengal Tiger, South China, Malayan, and Indo-Chinese.
The first three subspecies are extinct thanks mostly to us human beings who endangered their natural habitat or killed them for their fur and other body parts.
Almost all body parts of the tiger are used for medicinal purposes.
Only about 3000 tigers remain in the wild today and it is ironic that the population of this wild animal as a pet is more than it is in the wild! 3.
Tigers in captivity live for about 20 years whereas those in the wild survive about 10-15 years.
A tigress gives birth to about 5-6 cubs but only half of them survive.
When the cubs are about 6 months old, they leave the den and follow their mother on her hunts.
The cubs can start to hunt and kill their own prey around 1 years of age, but they stay with their mother till about 2 years old when they part ways with her.
After that tigers live on their own.
All adult tigers, male and female have their own territory.
They mark the boundary of their territory by making scratches on the trees.
They also use their urine(which smells like buttered popcorn) for markings.
Tigers can recognize what type of tiger (i.
e.
male or female, old or young) by the smell of the urine uses in marking the boundary! Male tigers have larger territories than their female counterparts.
Sometimes these territories can overlap.
But territories between 2 adult female tigers or 2 adult male tiger never overlap.
4.
The tiger is one of the only members of the cat family that enjoys being in the water.
They are very good swimmers and can swim up to 5 miles across rivers if needed for hunting.
You can generally find tigresses and its cubs soaking and playing in streams or pools of water to cool off in hot weather.
5.
The white tiger is a genetic abnormality that occurs in about 1 in 10000 tigers.
There is an interesting story about how white tigers came into existence.
A hunter found a white tiger cub in the wild and he took him in captivity.
The cub named Mohan is the ancestor of all white tigers.
There are many other variations of fur color in tigers like no stripes, white, gold, black and even blue! All this because of one simple hair color gene! 6.
Tigers hunt primarily in the morning and evening.
Their method of hunting is similar to that of the lions.
Unlike popular perception Tigers are not the most successful of hunters killing only 1 animal in about 10-20 attempts! They hunt smaller animals like the boar, swine, deer etc.
They hunt by first following the animal, chasing it fast, ambushing and bringing it down and finally killing it by suffocating it with a bite to the throat or the nape of the neck.
After killing its prey, the tiger drags it into a covering to hide it from view.
They eat about 35-90 pounds of meat in one sitting and once they are done, they hide the meat in the ground covering it up with dirt.
They come back to eating the carcass for about 3-6 days after the kill.
Tigers can starve to death very quickly because they are so huge and need food to support their immense size.
As a comparison human beings starve to death in about 30-40 days whereas a tiger will starve to death only in about 2-3 weeks! 7.
The pattern of stripes in tigers is as unique as fingerprints in human beings.
No two tiger have the same pattern of stripes.
The stripes are not just on the fur, so if you completely shave off a tiger's fur, you can still see the stripes.
Another unique feature about the tiger is that it retracts its claws as it walks and as such does not leave any tracks of its claw marks and as such in pug marks you just see the imprint of the fleshy part of its foot and not the actual claws.
8.
Tigers have the largest brain amongst all carnivores (except the Polar Bears) weighing about 300 grams.
A tigers' short term memory lasts about thirty times longer than the humans'.
They can remember more and do not forget as easily as us human beings.
9.
A Tiger's roar can be heard about 2 kilometers away.
However contrary to popular perception, tigers don't roar at other animals or while hunting.
They roar to communicate with other far-off tigers.
10.
While there are many stories of man-eating tigers, tigers rarely hunt human beings for food.
They will only attack a human being when threatened.
Tigers do not attack if they think the element of surprise is lost.
Sometimes rangers in the forest walk with a mask at the back of their heads so that the tigers think they are being watched! Tigers will hunt and kill human beings in very rare cases and even that is because we human beings have encroached on their habitat and as such did not leave them with enough food to sustain themselves.
There is nothing more endearing than watching a couple of tiger cubs splashing in a pool of water.
As is the case with all other animals, there are popular misconceptions about the tiger.
Here we try to clear those misconceptions through our series Top 10 Facts for Kids .
Presenting to you the animals that stands alone, literally - The terrific, tremendous, totally cool Tiger! 1.
The Tiger is the biggest species amongst the cat family.
The lion looks like it is, but an average tiger can weigh up to 300 kgs, about 50 kgs more than the average Lion.
Tigers are great athletes.
They can run very fast almost reaching 60 kmph over short distances.
They can leap to a distance of about 6m and can jump up in the air vertically up to 5m.
They have powerful muscular legs that sometimes remain standing even after the Tiger is dead! 2.
The scientific name for tigers is Panthera Tigris.
They are classified into nine subspecies: Bali, Java, Caspian, Sumatran, Amur or Siberian Tiger, Indian or Bengal Tiger, South China, Malayan, and Indo-Chinese.
The first three subspecies are extinct thanks mostly to us human beings who endangered their natural habitat or killed them for their fur and other body parts.
Almost all body parts of the tiger are used for medicinal purposes.
Only about 3000 tigers remain in the wild today and it is ironic that the population of this wild animal as a pet is more than it is in the wild! 3.
Tigers in captivity live for about 20 years whereas those in the wild survive about 10-15 years.
A tigress gives birth to about 5-6 cubs but only half of them survive.
When the cubs are about 6 months old, they leave the den and follow their mother on her hunts.
The cubs can start to hunt and kill their own prey around 1 years of age, but they stay with their mother till about 2 years old when they part ways with her.
After that tigers live on their own.
All adult tigers, male and female have their own territory.
They mark the boundary of their territory by making scratches on the trees.
They also use their urine(which smells like buttered popcorn) for markings.
Tigers can recognize what type of tiger (i.
e.
male or female, old or young) by the smell of the urine uses in marking the boundary! Male tigers have larger territories than their female counterparts.
Sometimes these territories can overlap.
But territories between 2 adult female tigers or 2 adult male tiger never overlap.
4.
The tiger is one of the only members of the cat family that enjoys being in the water.
They are very good swimmers and can swim up to 5 miles across rivers if needed for hunting.
You can generally find tigresses and its cubs soaking and playing in streams or pools of water to cool off in hot weather.
5.
The white tiger is a genetic abnormality that occurs in about 1 in 10000 tigers.
There is an interesting story about how white tigers came into existence.
A hunter found a white tiger cub in the wild and he took him in captivity.
The cub named Mohan is the ancestor of all white tigers.
There are many other variations of fur color in tigers like no stripes, white, gold, black and even blue! All this because of one simple hair color gene! 6.
Tigers hunt primarily in the morning and evening.
Their method of hunting is similar to that of the lions.
Unlike popular perception Tigers are not the most successful of hunters killing only 1 animal in about 10-20 attempts! They hunt smaller animals like the boar, swine, deer etc.
They hunt by first following the animal, chasing it fast, ambushing and bringing it down and finally killing it by suffocating it with a bite to the throat or the nape of the neck.
After killing its prey, the tiger drags it into a covering to hide it from view.
They eat about 35-90 pounds of meat in one sitting and once they are done, they hide the meat in the ground covering it up with dirt.
They come back to eating the carcass for about 3-6 days after the kill.
Tigers can starve to death very quickly because they are so huge and need food to support their immense size.
As a comparison human beings starve to death in about 30-40 days whereas a tiger will starve to death only in about 2-3 weeks! 7.
The pattern of stripes in tigers is as unique as fingerprints in human beings.
No two tiger have the same pattern of stripes.
The stripes are not just on the fur, so if you completely shave off a tiger's fur, you can still see the stripes.
Another unique feature about the tiger is that it retracts its claws as it walks and as such does not leave any tracks of its claw marks and as such in pug marks you just see the imprint of the fleshy part of its foot and not the actual claws.
8.
Tigers have the largest brain amongst all carnivores (except the Polar Bears) weighing about 300 grams.
A tigers' short term memory lasts about thirty times longer than the humans'.
They can remember more and do not forget as easily as us human beings.
9.
A Tiger's roar can be heard about 2 kilometers away.
However contrary to popular perception, tigers don't roar at other animals or while hunting.
They roar to communicate with other far-off tigers.
10.
While there are many stories of man-eating tigers, tigers rarely hunt human beings for food.
They will only attack a human being when threatened.
Tigers do not attack if they think the element of surprise is lost.
Sometimes rangers in the forest walk with a mask at the back of their heads so that the tigers think they are being watched! Tigers will hunt and kill human beings in very rare cases and even that is because we human beings have encroached on their habitat and as such did not leave them with enough food to sustain themselves.