Bengal Tiger
Throughout the Ice Age, the Bengal Tiger lived throughout Eurasia. Until the 1800's, tigers ranged most of the Asian continent. Today, only a few hundred are left there. Man has moved them out or killed them off. This is the largest of the cat family, admired for its strength and beauty. Yet, like the lion, a tiger is known to avoid people. Not living as a group, the tiger is a solitary animal but not unfriendly. Two tigers may meet crossing paths, rubbing heads together in a greeting... then a quick departure. Several tigers may share a kill. Tigers communicate by many sounds including a roar which can be heard for up to two miles.
Tigers live in almost every region of climate. They can be found in hot rain forests of Malaya, the dry woods of India and the cold snowy spruce of Manchuria. They survive also in grasslands, swamps and marshes but they seldom go into open country like the lion. The territory of a single tiger may cover 25 to 300 sq. miles depending on the availability of prey. A male's territory may cover the smaller territories of 1-2 females.
Less then 2000 now remain in the wild.
Siberian Tiger
Siberian Tigers are known as "The Great Wanderers". Hunting solely at night, they can consume up to 70 pounds of meat in one sitting. Cubs, ranging normally 2-4 pounds at birth, are born blind and helpless depending entirely on their mother. At one year, the cub is taught how to hunt. They will stay with their mother for 2-3 years, with a full life span of up to 20 years.
There are protected areas of Russia today for this animal - The Sikhote Alin, Lazousky, and Kedrovaya Pad Reserve. A law of the Russian Federation on Environmental Protection and Management of 1992, gave the Siberian Tiger legal protection.
The Siberian Tiger's range is the frozen tundra of the Soviet far east and covers areas of 1200-1600 square miles.. Some were found near the Chinese/North Korean border in 1990.
It is estimated that there are 150-430 Siberian Tigers still existing in the wild. There are 490 existing in captivity.
Royal White Bengal Tiger
The White Tiger is just that. This is not a separate subspecies of the Bengal Tiger and they are not albinos. They have ice blue eyes, a pink nose, creamy white fur and chocolate brown to black stripes. A white tiger can be born from a mating of two orange tigers carrying the recessive gene known as a double recessive allele. A Bengal tiger with two normal allele or one normal and one white allele is colored orange. Only a double dose of the mutant allele results in a white tiger.
There is no such thing as a snow tiger. All white tigers originate from the first white tiger "Mohan", from India. The white tiger was hunted to extinction in the 1700's by the Maharajah, who thought if he killed the Great Ghost Cat, it would bring him spiritual greatness. They disappeared until "Mohan" was spotted in 1959.
During the last 100 years, only about 12 such white tigers have been seen in India, resulting in 1 in every 10,000. Ancestry traces back to a single white male known as Mohan, captured in 1959. The Maharajah who captured the Mohan soon figured out the only way to produce additional white tigers was to breed Mohan to his own daughter creating the first generation in this century. Prices for a white tiger today start at $60,000.
The information on this page is from the Bridgeport Nature Center
