Author: Noelle M. Brooks

Most tigers live in forests or grasslands, for which their camouflage is ideally suited, and where it is easy to hunt prey that is faster or more agile.

While some hunting occurs in the daytime, tigers are mostly nocturnal, exhibiting activity that coincides with their prey.

Tigers are one of the only cats that are strong swimmers and enjoy lounging in shaded waters to deal with high temperatures.

Tigers breed well in captivity, and the captive population in the United States may rival the wild population of the world.

Tigers are not runners and rarely pursue prey more than 150 meters, but rather, they rely on explosive acceleration.

The stripe pattern is found on a tiger's skin, as well as on the fur.

The Indian subcontinent is home to more than 80% of the wild tigers in the world.

Nine subspecies of the tiger are recognized.

Tiger cubs are born blind, deaf, and helpless.

Only Bengal tigers have been found with a white coat, which has far fewer apparent stripes than an orange coat.

The tiger is the largest and most powerful of all living cat species.

Tigers have the longest and biggest canine teeth of all the wild cats.

Tigers are tolerant of an unbelievably wide range of habitat conditions from dry forests to steamy jungles and even freezing temperatures.

Tigers are digitigrade and walk on their toes to distribute their weight and walk fluidly and silently.

Poaching of tigers for the use of their bones in traditional Asian medicine may drive the tiger to extinction.

Tiger cubs are raised solely by their mothers until they embark for their own territories at around 2-2.5 years of age.

Tigers are one of the highest-jumping mammals, perhaps second only to the puma.

Of the living tiger subspecies, Sumatran tigers are the smallest, and Bengal tigers are the largest.

Wandering male tigers may kill cubs to make females receptive.

Many tigers are conflict-killed, harmed by people seeking to protect life and livestock.

Of all the land carnivores, the tiger is the only species known to take down a full-grown male elephant, one-on-one.

A tiger's gestation period is 96-111 days and 1-5 cubs are born.

The thirteen Tiger Range Countries pledged to double the world’s tiger population by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger on the Asian lunar calendar, with a goal of achieving at least 6,000 tigers.

Tigers can take ungulate prey at least five times their weight, including large bovids, elephants, rhinos, leopards, and bears.

Tigers are generally solitary, maintaining exclusive territories, or home ranges, and only interacting for mating.

Tigers need to kill 50-60 large prey animals per year.

Tigers are opportunistic predators and their diet includes birds, fish, rodents, insects, amphibians, reptiles, and even other mammals such as primates and porcupines.