Bengal Tiger Behavior









Bengal Tiger Behavior

Royal Bengal Tigers are usually solitary. Tiger couples have sometimes been seen, however a family group commonly consists of a mother and her cubs that live with her for around 2 years. Male tigers are known to fight over territory. A male tigers territory usually overlaps the territory of more than one tigress. Tigers mark their territory by urinating and spraying scent from a specialized gland. A tigress retires to a den to bear her litter, which usually consists of 2-4 cubs. In the wild, Bengal tigers live from 8- 15 years. In zoos, tigers have been recorded as living up to 26 years.
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Status of the Bengal Tiger









Status of the Bengal Tiger

Royal Bengal Tiger is an endangered species. Their numbers were recorded as below 2000 in the 1970's, after which Project Tiger was initiated in India in 1973 in wildlife national parks and sanctuaries of India. There has been a steady increase in the population of tigers in India where they are protected in 27 tiger reserves, wildlife national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. The threat of poaching due to the demand for tiger bones and body parts in traditional Chinese medicine remains a pressing issue. The loss of habitat as well as human population pressure on wildlife reserves in India is another concern for the Bengal Tiger.
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BENGAL TIGER SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION










BENGAL TIGER SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION


COMMON NAME: Bengal tiger
KINGDOM: Animalia
PHYLUM: Chordata
CLASS: Mammalia
ORDER: Carnivora
FAMILY: Felidae
GENUS SPECIES: Panthera (panther, leopard) tigris (tiger)

About-bengal-tiger: difference-between-siberian-and-bengal tiger

Habitat of the Bengal Tiger













Habitat of the Bengal Tiger

The Bengal Tiger can be found in India as well as, Bengladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar. The map below shows the areas of the Indian subcontinent where Bengal Tigers can be found currntly as well as the maximum area inhabited by Bengal Tigers.

Bengal tigers are often found in Mangrove forests as well as dense forest and swamplands through out the Indian subcontinent. Bengal Tigers are solitary animals, except for females with cubs. Bengal Tigers spend most of their time alone hunting in their territory. Male Bengal Tigers will occupy territories upto 20 square miles in size and the females will occupy an area upto 17 square miles.

Bengal Tigers spend most of their days sleeping, hunting at night. the Bengal Tiger is a Carnivore. The Bengal Tigers prey include dear, water buffalo, wild pigs and small birds. The Tigers catch their prey by sneaking up on them and catching them in their powerful jaw. Bengal Tigers like many other predators usually look for weak or young animals that are easier to catch than larger, older and faster animals.


The habitat of the Bengal Tiger has decreased greatly. Some reports claim that the Bengal Tiger population is around 4,000 Tigers compared to the 50,000 around 1900. This decreases is contributed to human expansion into the Tiger's habitat. Many farmers land was once the habitat of Bengal Tigers. This has caused many Bengal Tigers to hunt on the farm land, this hunting often ends up with the death of the tiger.

Some conservationist have suggested that tiger reserves be created to help save the Bengal Tiger from extinction and give them a place to roam that will not endanger human or tiger lives.

BENGAL TIGER FAST FACTS










BENGAL TIGER FAST FACTS


DESCRIPTION: Reddish orange with narrow black, gray or brown stripes, generally in a vertical direction. The underside is creamy or white; a rare variant has a chalky white coat with darker stripes and icy blue eyes.
SIZE:
MALE To 3 m (10 ft.)
FEMALE To 2.7 m (9 ft.)
WEIGHT: Largest existing member of the cat family
MALE To 225 kg (500 lb.)
FEMALE To 135 kg (300 lb.)
DIET: Medium to large prey such as pigs, deer, antelopes, and buffalo
GESTATION: 98-110 days; 2-4 cubs born
SEXUAL MATURITY:
MALE 4-5 years
FEMALE 3-4 years
LIFE SPAN: Average probably not more than 15 years in the wild; 16-18 years in controlled environments
RANGE: Fragmented areas of Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Bhuton, and Burma
HABITAT: Tropical jungle, brush, marsh lands, and tall grasslands
POPULATION: GLOBAL Less than 3,000 within natural range
STATUS: IUCN No data
CITES No data
USFWS Endangered

Bengal Tiger

Bengal Tiger Population







Bengal Tiger Population


A Bengal Tiger in a natural reserve in Karnataka, India. Following the revelation that only 1,411 Bengal tigers exist in the wild in India, down from 3,600 in 2003, the Indian government has decided to set up eight new tiger reserves.

The current population of wild Bengal tigers in the Indian subcontinent is now estimated to be between 1,300 and 1,500.[37] Of these, 1,411 are found in the wild in India while about 280 are found in Bangladesh, mostly in the Sunderbans. Over the past century tiger numbers have fallen dramatically. Of eight sub-species alive in 1900, three are now extinct and we have lost over 90 per cent of wild tigers.

The Project Tiger initiative launched in 1972 initially reversed the species' population decline, the decline has resumed in recent years; India's tiger population decreased from 3,642 in the 1990s to just over 1,400 from 2002 to 2008. Since then, the Indian government has undertaken several steps to reduce the destruction of the Bengal tiger's natural habitat in India. In May 2008, forest officials at the Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan, India spotted 14 tiger cubs. In June 2008, a tiger from Ranthambore was successfully reintroduced to the Sariska Tiger Reserve.

Habitat losses and the extremely large-scale incidences of poaching are serious threats to species survival. Poachers kill Bengal tigers not only for their pelts, but also for body parts used to make various traditional East Asian medicines. Other factors contributing to their loss are urbanization and revenge killing. Farmers blame tigers for killing cattle and shoot them. Poachers also kill Bengal tigers for their bones and teeth to make medicines that are alleged to provide the tiger's strength. The hunting for Chinese medicine and fur is the biggest cause of the decline of the tigers. In Bangladesh , retired Indian Army personnel are being recruited to save the Bengal tiger from bobadas

India probably lays claim to about two-thirds of the world's wild tigers, according to the Cat Specialist Group. But Indian censuses of wild tigers have relied on the individual identification of footprints (known as pug marks), a method widely criticized for its inaccuracy.

An area of special interest lies in northeast India where 11 protected areas are found in the Terai Arc, comprising dry forest foothills and dune valleys at the base of the Himalayas. "The whole idea," says Seidensticker, "is to maintain the connection between them, to create a necklace (of habitat) along the Nepal-India border, involving 1,000 miles from the Royal Chitwan National Park to Cobett National Park."

Once a royal hunting reserve, Chitwan became a national park in 1973. New economic incentives give villagers a direct stake in this renowned tourist attraction, with more than a third of revenues from park entrance fees being returned to the 300,000 people living in 36 villages in the surrounding buffer zone. As a result, locals are now creating and managing tiger habitat and consider themselves guardians of their tigers.

Rivaling Chitwan for the title of the world's best tiger habitat is the Western Ghats forest complex in southwestern India, an area of 14,400 square miles stretching across several protected areas. The challenge here, as throughout most of Asia, is that people literally live on top of the wildlife. The Save the Tiger Fund Council estimates that 7,500 landless people live illegally inside the boundaries of the 386-square-mile Nagarhole National Park in southwestern India. A voluntary if controversial resettlement is underway with the aid of the Karnataka Tiger Conservation Project led by Ullas Karanth of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Nepal, with a maximum of 200 tigers split into three isolated and vulnerable sub-populations, reports stability after a serious decline.

To the east of Nepal, in Bhutan, scientists in this small Buddhist kingdom have evidence of a richer Bengal tiger population than previously estimated. Camera traps snapped photos of a wild tiger high in the Himalayas, at the surprising elevation of 13,000 feet. This offers new possibilities for suitable tiger habitat.
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