Page 59 - Animals of the Wild April 2017(1)_Neat

The tiger is the largest cat specie in the world. The word tiger means arrow, pointed or sharp. They
are solitary and territorial animals. Male tigers have a large territory and crosses a couple of female
territories to make mating easier. Territories are marked with urine, scat markings and markings on
trees and ground. Female cubs will stay in their territory close to the mother where the males will
share their territory with other male tigers until they are old enough to challenge that tiger. Tigers
are strong swimmers and will cool down in water in the middle of the day. Tigers communicate with
roars (in aggressive situations), moaning (when tense), chuffing (in friendly situations), grunts,
woofs, snarls, meows, hisses and growls.

They can be recognised by the black stripes on the orange fur. These stripes are unique to each
individual tiger. The stripes are also on the skin not only on the fur. Tigers have powerful front limbs,
large heads and long tails. They have small rounded ears with a white spot on the back surrounded
with black. Their eyes are round with yellow irises. They have heavy growth of fur around the neck
and jaws with long whiskers, especially in the males. Females are smaller than the males. Males
have wider forepaw pads than females.

Male tigers allow the female and cubs to eat on the carcass with him, unlike lions. Tigers normally
hunt alone and ambush their prey. They rely on their sight rather than smell when hunting. They use
their body size to overpower the prey and bite the throat of the prey. Old and wounded tigers will
move closer to humans and will hunt domestic animals and become man-eaters.

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