tiger

1 a fierce or audacious person; "he's a tiger on the tennis court"; "it aroused the tiger in me"

2 large feline of forests in most of Asia having a tawny coat with black stripes; endangered [syn: Panthera tigris]

see Tiger

English

Alternative spellings

• tyger italbrac dated

Etymology

• From Middle English tigre < Old English tīgras (p) and influenced by Old French tigre, both < Latin tigris < Greek τίγρις, possibly of Iranian origin.
• Middle Dutch: tijger

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aɪɡə(r)

Noun

1. A large carnivorous animal (Panthera tigris) of the cat family indigenous to Asia.
   • "Save the Tiger Fund", Dedicated to providing information to help preserve the remaining five subspecies of tigers. News, research, a kid's section, and a live tiger cub cam feed...http://www.savethetigerfund.org/ - 21k - 14 Apr 2006
2. In the context of "South African|dated|_|but still used": A leopard.
   • 1976, Sir Percy Fitzpatrick: Jock of the Bushveld p.251. Longmans ISBN 0582161231. (First published 1907).

   "Jim rearked irrelevantly that tigers were 'schelms' and it was his conviction that there were a great many in the kloofs round about."

3. A person (especially a man) very who is very athletic during intercourse.

Scientific names

• Panthera tigris

Related terms

• Bali tiger
• Bengal tiger
• blind tiger
• paper tiger
• tigerish
• tiger shark
• tiger snake
• tigress
• tigrine
• Sumatran tiger
• Siberian tiger
• Tasmanian tiger
• Tigger
• Asian Tiger (business)

Translations

Norwegian

Noun

1. tiger mammal

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

1. tiger, an animal

Verb

tiger

1. present tense of tiga

The tiger (Panthera tigris) is a mammal of the Felidae family, the largest of four "big cats" in the genus Panthera. Native to much of eastern and southern Asia, the tiger is an apex predator and an obligate carnivore. Reaching up to 4 metres (13 feet) in total length and weighing up to 300 kilograms (660 pounds), the larger tiger subspecies are comparable in size to the biggest extinct felids. Aside from their great bulk and power, their most recognizable feature is the pattern of dark vertical stripes that overlays near-white to reddish-orange fur, with lighter underparts.

Highly adaptable, tigers range from the Siberian taiga, to open grasslands, to tropical mangrove swamps. They are territorial and generally solitary animals, often requiring large contiguous areas of habitat that support their prey demands. This, coupled with the fact that they are endemic to some of the more densely populated places on earth, has caused significant conflicts with humans. Of the nine subspecies of modern tiger, three are extinct and the remaining six are classified as endangered, some critically so. The primary direct causes are habitat destruction and fragmentation, and hunting. Their historical range, which once reached from Mesopotamia and the Caucasus through most of South and East Asia, has been radically reduced. While all surviving species are under formal protection, poaching, habitat destruction and inbreeding depression continue to be threats.

Nonetheless, tigers are among the most recognizable and popular of the world's charismatic megafauna. They have featured prominently in ancient mythology and folklore, and continue to be depicted in modern films and literature. Tigers appear on many flags and coats of arms, as mascots for sporting teams, and as the national animal of several Asian nations.

Naming and etymology

The word "tiger" is taken from the Greek word "tigris", which is possibly derived from a Persian source meaning "arrow", a reference to the animal's speed and also the origin for the name of the River Tigris. In American English, "Tigress" was first recorded in 1611. It was one of the many species originally described, as Felis tigris, by Linnaeus in his 18th century work, Systema Naturae. 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".

Range

In the historical past tigers were widespread in Asia, from the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea, to Siberia and Indonesia. During the 19th century the striped cats completely vanished from western Asia, and became restricted to isolated pockets in the remaining parts of their range. Today, this fragmented relic range extends from India in the west to China and Southeast Asia in the east. The northern limit is close to the Amur River in south eastern Siberia. The only large island inhabited by tigers today is Sumatra. Tigers vanished from Java during the second half of the 19th century, and in Borneo are known only from fossil remains.

Taxonomy and evolution

The oldest remains of a tiger-like cat, called Panthera palaeosinensis, have been found in China and Java. This species lived about 2 million years ago, at the beginning of the Pleistocene, and was smaller than a modern tiger. The earliest fossils of true tigers are known from Java, and are between 1.6 and 1.8 million years old. Distinct fossils from the early and middle Pleistocene were also discovered in deposits from China, and Sumatra. A subspecies called the Trinil tiger (Panthera tigris trinilensis) lived about 1.2 million years ago and is known fossils found at Trinil in Java.

Tigers first reached India and northern Asia in the late Pleistocene, reaching eastern Beringia (but not the American Continent), and Japan, and Sakhalin. Fossils found in Japan indicate that the local tigers were, like the surviving island subspecies, smaller than the mainland forms. This may be due to the phenomenon in which body size is related to environmental space (see insular dwarfism), or perhaps the availability of prey. Until the Holocene, tigers also lived in Borneo.

Subspecies

There are nine recent subspecies of tiger, three of which are extinct, and one of which is almost certain to become extinct in the near future. However, the northern Indian and the Nepalese Bengal tigers are somewhat bulkier than those found in the south of the Indian Subcontinent, with males averaging around 236 kg (520 lb). While conservationists already believed the population to be below 2,000, the most recent audit by the Indian Government's National Tiger Conservation Authority has estimated the number at just 1,411 wild tigers (1165-1657 allowing for statistical error), a drop of 60% in the past decade. Since 1972, there has been a massive wildlife conservation project, known as Project Tiger, to protect the Bengal tiger. The project is considered as one of the most successful wildlife conservation programs, though at least one Tiger Reserve (Sariska Tiger Reserve) has lost its entire tiger population to poaching.

• The Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti), also called Corbett's tiger, is found in Cambodia, China, Laos, Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam. These tigers are smaller and darker than Bengal tigers: Males weigh from 150–190 kg (330–420 lb) while females are smaller at 110–140 kg (242–308 lb). Their preferred habitat is forests in mountainous or hilly regions. Estimates of the Indochinese tiger population vary between 1,200 to 1,800, with only several hundred left in the wild. 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.
• The Malayan tiger (Panthera tigris malayensis), exclusively found in the southern 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, 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.
• The Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) is found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and is critically endangered. It is the smallest of all living tiger subspecies, with adult males weighing between 100–130 kg (220–286 lb) and 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. 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 does not go extinct. This has led to suggestions that Sumatran tigers should have greater priority for conservation than any other subspecies. While Habitat destruction is the main threat to the existing tiger population (logging continues even in the supposedly protected national parks), 66 tigers were recorded as being shot and killed between 1998 and 2000, or nearly 20% of the total population.
• The Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), also known as the Amur, Manchurian, Altaic, Korean or North China tiger, is confined to the Amur-Ussuri region of Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk Krai in far eastern Siberia, where it is now protected. Considered the largest subspecies, with an average weight of around 227 kg (500 lb) for males, the Amur tiger is also noted for its thick coat, distinguished by a paler golden hue and fewer stripes. A six-month old Siberian tiger can be as big as a fully grown leopard. 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.
• 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. It will almost certainly become extinct. 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. In 2007 a farmer spotted a tiger and handed in photographs to the authorities as proof.
• The Caspian tiger or Persian tiger (Panthera tigris virgata) appears to have become extinct in the wild in the late 1950s, 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. Lions have been known to breed with tigers (most often the Amur and Bengal subspecies) to create hybrids called ligers and tigons. 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.

The liger is a cross between a male lion and a tigress. Because the lion sire passes on a growth-promoting gene, but the corresponding growth-inhibiting gene from the female tiger 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, even if they do, their manes will be only around half the size of that of a pure lion. Ligers are typically between 10 to 12 feet in length, and can be between 800 and 1,000 pounds or more.

Biology and behaviour

Physical characteristics

Tigers are the heaviest cats found in the wild, but the subspecies differ markedly 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 kilograms. 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 (The tail of a tiger is 60–110 cm long). The heaviest wild Siberian tiger on record weighed in at 384 kg, but according to Mazak these giants are not confirmed via reliable references. Females are smaller, even those of the large Siberian and Indian subspecies weigh only between 100 and 181 kg. Island-dwelling tigers, such as the Sumatran subspecies, 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 was even smaller, with a weight of 90–100 kg in males and 65–80 kg in females.

White tigers

There is a well-known mutation that produces the white tiger, technically known as chinchilla albinistic, an animal which is rare in the wild, but widely bred in zoos due to its popularity. Breeding of white tigers will often lead to inbreeding (as the trait is recessive). Many initiatives have taken place in white and orange tiger mating in an attempt to remedy the issue, often mixing subspecies in the process. Recordings of white tigers were first made in the early 19th century. 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. Nor are they in any way more endangered than tigers are generally, this being 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 also have 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.

Territorial behavior

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 square kilometres 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 of urine and anal gland secretions, as well as 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.

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. This method was found faulty and attempts were made to use camera trapping 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

In the wild, tigers mostly feed on larger and medium sized animals. Sambar, gaur, domestic buffalo, chital, 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, prey included Saiga Antelope, camels, Caucasian Wisent, yak, and wild horses. Like many predators, they are opportunistic and will eat much smaller prey, such as monkeys, peafowls, 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 Rhinoceros has been observed. 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.

Old tigers, or those wounded and rendered incapable of catching their natural prey, have turned into man-eaters; this pattern has recurred frequently across India. An exceptional case is that of the Sundarbans, where healthy tigers prey upon fishermen and villagers in search of forest produce, humans thereby forming a minor part of the Tiger's diet.

Tigers hunt alone and 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 kilometres per hour (35-40 miles per hour). When hunting large prey, tigers prefer to bite the throat 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 of strangulation. With small prey, the tiger bites the nape, often breaking the spinal cord, piercing the windpipe, or severing the jugular vein or common 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 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.

Tigers will occasionally eat vegetation for dietary fiber, the fruit of the Slow Match Tree being favoured. although predators typically avoid one another. When seized by a crocodile, a tiger will strike at the reptile's eyes with its paws. Leopards dodge competition from tigers by hunting in different times of the day and hunting different prey. Dhole packs have been observed to attack and kill tigers in disputes over food, though not usually without heavy losses. Siberian Tigers and Brown Bears can be competitors and usually avoid confrontation; 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 Tiger's diet in the Russian Far East. Some bears emerging from hibernation will seek out tigers to steal their kills, although the tiger will often defend its kill. Sloth Bears are quite aggressive and will sometimes drive tigers away from their kills, although in other cases Bengal tigers prey on sloth bears.

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. 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.

Russia

The Siberian tiger was on the brink of extinction with only about 40 animals in the wild in the 1940s. Under the Soviet Union, anti-poaching controls were strict and a network of protected zones (zapovedniks) were instituted, leading to a rise in the population to several hundred. Poaching again became a problem in the 1990s, when the economy of Russia collapsed, local hunters had access to a formerly sealed off lucrative Chinese market, and logging in the region increased. While an improvement in the local economy has led to greater resources being invested in conservation efforts, an increase of economic activity has led to an increased rate of development and deforestation. The major obstacle in preserving the species is the enormous territory individual tigers require (up to 450 km2 needed by a single female). Currently, there are about 400-550 animals in the wild.

Tibet

In Tibet, tiger and leopard pelts have traditionally been used in various ceremonies and costumes. In January 2006 the Dalai Lama preached a ruling against using, selling, or buying wild animals, their products, or derivatives. It has yet to be seen whether this will result in a long-term slump in the demand for poached tiger and leopard skins.

Rewilding

The first attempt at rewilding was by Indian conservationist Billy Arjan Singh, who reared a zoo-born tigress named Tara, and released her in the wilds of Dudhwa National Park in 1978. This was soon followed by a large number of people being eaten by a tigress who was later shot. Government officials claim that this tigress was Tara, an assertion hotly contested by Singh and conservationists. Later on, this rewilding gained further disrepute when it was found that the local gene pool had been sullied by Tara's introduction as she was partly Siberian tiger, a fact not known at the time of release, ostensibly due to poor record-keeping at Twycross Zoo, where she had been raised.

Save China's Tigers

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 original animals will stay in South Africa to continue breeding. A second Chinese tiger rehabilitation project is also being run in Fujian, China.

China will conduct the work of surveying land, restoring habitat and prey within the pilot reserve. The first Chinese Tigers are expected to be reintroduced into the wild to coincide with the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Relation with humans

Tiger as prey

The tiger has been one of the Big Five 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. 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.

Man-eating tigers

Although humans are not regular prey for tigers, they have killed more people than any other cat, particularly in those places where population growth, logging, and farming have put pressure on tiger habitats. Most man-eating tigers are old and missing teeth, acquiring a taste for humans because of their inability to capture preferred prey. Almost all tigers that are identified as man-eaters are quickly captured, shot, or poisoned. Unlike man-eating leopards, even established man-eating tigers will seldom enter human settlements, usually remaining at village outskirts. Nevertheless, attacks in human villages do occur. Man-eaters have been a particular problem in India and Bangladesh, especially in Kumaon, Garhwal and the Sundarbans mangrove swamps of Bengal, where some healthy tigers have been known to hunt humans.

Traditional Asian medicine

Many people in China have a belief that various tiger parts have medicinal properties, including as pain killers and aphrodisiacs. There is no scientific evidence to support these beliefs. The use of tiger parts in pharmaceutical drugs in China is already banned, and the government has made some offenses in connection with tiger poaching punishable by death. Furthermore, all trade in tiger parts is illegal under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and a domestic trade ban has been in place in China since 1993. Still, there are a number of tiger farms in the country specializing in breeding the cats for profit. It is estimated that between 4,000 and 5,000 captive-bred, semi-tame animals live in these farms today.

As pets

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums estimates that up to 12,000 tigers are being kept as private pets in the USA, significantly more than the world's entire wild population. 4,000 are believed to be in captivity in Texas alone. representing royalty, fearlessness and wrath. 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.

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 Ga 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),

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.

The widely worshiped Hindu goddess Durga, an aspect of Devi-Parvati, is a ten-armed warrior who rides the tigress (or lioness) Damon into battle. In southern India the god Aiyappa was associated with a tiger.

The weretiger replaces the werewolf in shapeshifting folklore in Asia; in India they were evil sorcerers while in Indonesia and Malaysia they were somewhat more benign.

"Nimer" (tiger) is a common Arabic male first name, 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 continues 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 Pacific 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 is the national animal of Bangladesh, Nepal, India (Bengal Tiger) Malaysia (Malayan Tiger), North Korea and South Korea (Siberian Tiger).

World's favourite animal

In a poll conducted by Animal Planet, the Tiger was voted the world's favourite animal, narrowly beating man's best friend, the dog. More than 50,000 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 chimpanzee, the orangutan and the whale.

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".

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.

Gallery

See also

• Black tiger (animal)
• Maltese Tiger
• Project Tiger, India
• Siegfried & Roy, two famous tamers of tigers
• Tiger Temple, a Buddhist temple in Thailand famous for its tame tigers

Cited references

References

• (1993). Big cats kingdom of might, Voyageur press.
• & (eds). 2005. The Treasures of Indian Wildlife. Bombay Natural History Society and Oxford University Press, Mumbai.
• (1981). Panthera tigris. (PDF). Mammalian Species, 152: 1-8. American Society of Mammalogists.
• (1999) Walker's Mammals of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-5789-9
• Abridged German translation of Return of the Tiger, Lustre Press, 1993.
• . (1999) Riding the Tiger. Tiger Conservation in Human-dominated Landscapes Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521648351
• . (2001) Animal Habitats P. 172

External links

• Center for Animal Research and Education Providing Sanctuary for over 50 big cats
• Save The Tiger Fund
• Save China's Tigers Information regarding the South China Tiger rewilding project in Africa
• Sundarbans Tiger Project Research and Conservation of tigers in the largest remaining mangrove forest in the world.
• Tiger Conservation Securing a future for Tigers in the wild
• Tigers in Crisis Information about the Earth's vanishing Tigers.
• BBC Wildfacts: Tiger
• Can India's tigers survive extinction? Author Valmik Thapar on the tiger crisis
• Why India's tigers may yet survive Scientist Ullas Karanth on the road ahead
• Tiger Haven Sanctuary
• Tiger Canyons Homepage Information regarding the Crossbred Tiger Rewilding project
• Kanha National Park
• 21st Century Tiger Raises funds for wild tiger conservation projects
• Indian tiger vertical leap as high as an elephant's head

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