BENGAL TIGER

Bengal Tiger Behavior

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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.

Status of the Bengal Tiger

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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.

BENGAL TIGER SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION

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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)

Bengal Tiger

Habitat of the Bengal Tiger

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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

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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

2012-01-01T07:37:00.000-08:00

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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BENGAL TIGER FUN FACTS

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BENGAL TIGER FUN FACTS

1. Since Bengal Tigers hunt mostly at dusk and dawn their stripes help them hide in the shadows of tall grasses. They stalk and pounce because they are not able to chase prey a long distance.
2. The territorial male Bengal tiger usually travels alone, marking his boundaries with urine, droppings, and scratch marks to warn off trespassers.
3. A Bengal tiger can consume as much as 40 kg (88 lb.) of meat in one feeding.
4. Bengal Tigers may drag their prey to water to eat. They are commonly seen in the shade or wading in pools to cool off.
5. Since white tigers have pigmented stripes and blue eyes, they are not albinos.
6. It is estimated that there are less than 3,000 Bengal tigers left in the wild.
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Bengal Tiger Reproduction

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Bengal Tiger Reproduction

Mating can occur at any time, but happens to be usually between November and April. The Bengal tiger females can have cubs at the age of 3-4 years; Bengal tiger males reach maturity in about 4 years. After the gestation period of 103 days, 2-5 cubs are born. Newborn babies weigh about 1 kg (2.2 lb) and are blind and helpless. The mother feeds them milk for 6-8 weeks and then the cubs are introduced to meat. The cubs depend on the mother for 1.5 years and then they start hunting on their own.
Bengal Tiger
bengal-tiger-physiology

BENGAL TIGER Physiology

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BENGAL TIGER Physiology

Previously it was considered the second largest subspecies, behind the Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), however a recent study suggest that in the actuality this could be the largest one. The total length for the Bengal tiger males is of 270-310 cm meanwhile those of the Bengal tiger females is of 240-265 cm;[10] the tail measure 85-110 cm of long and the height at the shoulders is of 90-110 cm.[11] The average weight is of 221.2 kg (487.7 lb.) for the males and 139.7 kg (308 lb.) for the females,[12] however those who inhabit the north of India and Nepal have an average weight of 235 kg (518 lb.) for the males and 140 kg (308.6 lb.) for the females.

Officially, the heaviest Bengal tiger with confirmed weight was a male of 258.6 kg (570 lbs) and was shot in Northern India in 1938; however, the heaviest male captured by a scientist at this time is a male of 270 kg (595 lb), tagged in Nepal in 1984. The largest Bengal tiger, measured between pegs, was a male hunted by Archibald Dunbar Brander, which measured 221 cm of head and body length, 150 cm of chest girth, a shoulder height of 109 cm and a tail of just 81 cm, maybe cut off by a rival male. This specimen couldn’t been weighed, but it was calculate in no less than 270 kg. Finally, according with the Guinness Book of Records, the heaviest Bengal tiger know was a huge male hunted in 1967, it measure 322 cm in total length between pegs (338 cm over curves) and weighed 388.7 kg (857 lb.). This specimen was hunted in the north of India by David Hasinger and is actually in exhibition in the Smithsonian Institution, at the Mammals Hall.

In the beginning of the 20 century, there was reports of big Bengal tiger males measuring about 360 cm. in total length, however there was not scientific corroboration in the field and it’s probable that this measurements were taken over the curves of the body.

They are able to stay out in cold weather, because their skin is able to handle the temperature all over in any kind of weather. Its coat is yellow to light orange, and the stripes range from dark brown to black; the belly is white, and the tail is white with black rings. A mutation of the Bengal subspecies — white tigers — have dark brown or reddish brown stripes on a white background color, and some are wholly white. Black tigers have tawny, yellow or white stripes on a black background color. The skin of a black tiger, recovered from smugglers, measured 259 cm and was displayed at the National Museum of Natural History, New Delhi. The existence of black tigers without stripes has been reported but not substantiated.

The Bengal tiger's roar can be heard for up to three miles away.
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BENGAL TIGER KEY FACTS

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BENGAL TIGER KEY FACTS
Size
Length: Males, 9-10 ft., head to tip to tail.
Shoulder height: 36 in.
Weight: Male 400-575 lb.
Breeding
Sexual maturity: 3-4 years.
Mating: Usually in spring.
Gestation : 95-112 days.
Litter size: 2-4 cubs.
Lifestyle
Habit: Solitary and nocturnal.
Diet: Chital, wild boar, monkeys, gaur, buffalo.
Call: Roar, growl, or purr.
Lifespan: 15 years under normal conditions.
Bengal Tiger
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BENGAL TIGER FOOD & HUNTING

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BENGAL TIGER FOOD & HUNTING

Bengal tigers are nocturnal: they hunt at night. Though powerful and quick over short distances, they stalk their prey because they cannot outrun faster prey. The Bengal tiger kills small prey with a bite on the back of the neck and large prey with a bite to the throat.

Bengal Tigers mainly hunt gaur (wild ox) and buffalo. Although a tiger is capable of killing a bull gaur more than twice its size, it prefers to attack young or old animals that put up less resistance.

In the Sundarbans region of India and Bangladesh, the tiger's prey are chital (axis deer), wild boar, and monkeys. Bengal Tigers will sometimes attack porcupines.
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BENGAL TIGER BREEDING

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BENGAL TIGER BREEDING

Bengal tigers usually breed in the spring. A neighboring male will mate with a female in her home range. Of the 20-80 days he remains with her, she is fertile for only 3-7 days. After mating, the male returns to his home range and plays no part in rearing the cubs.

Bengal Tiger Baby Cub

Approximately 15 weeks later, the tigress gives birth to two to four cubs. She suckles them for 8 weeks, after which she brings them prey to eat as well. At 11 months, the cubs can hunt on their own. The Bengal tiger cubs stay with their mother for 2-3 years, at which time she is ready to mate again.
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BENGAL TIGER HABITAT

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BENGAL TIGER HABITAT

The Bengal tiger is most numerous in the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans in eastern India and Bangladesh where the River Ganges meets the Bay of Bengal. They are also found in other areas of India as well as some parts of Nepal and Burma.

Since Bengal tigers are solitary and do not like to share their hunting grounds, they need large home ranges in which to hunt. Males occupy about 20 square miles, while females typically require 17 square miles. A Bengal tiger usually has several dens in its home range and uses whichever one is most convenient at the time.
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Bengal Tiger

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Bengal Tiger

Tigers are the largest members of the cat family and are renowned for their power and strength.

There were eight tiger subspecies at one time, but three became extinct during the 20th century. Over the last 100 years, hunting and forest destruction have reduced tiger populations from hundreds of thousands of animals to perhaps fewer than 2,500. Tigers are hunted as trophies, and also for body parts that are used in traditional Chinese medicine. All five remaining tiger subspecies are endangered, and many protection programs are in place.

Bengal tigers live in India and are sometimes called Indian tigers. They are the most common tiger and number about half of all wild tigers. Over many centuries they have become an important part of Indian tradition and lore.

Bengal Tigers live alone and aggressively scent-mark large territories to keep their rivals away. They are powerful nocturnal hunters that travel many miles to find buffalo, deer, wild pigs, and other large mammals. Bengal Tigers use their distinctive coats as camouflage (no two have exactly the same stripes). They lie in wait and creep close enough to attack their victims with a quick spring and a fatal pounce. A hungry Bengal tiger can eat as much as 60 pounds (27 kilograms) in one night, though they usually eat less.

Despite their fearsome reputation, most Bengal tigers avoid humans; however, a few do become dangerous maneaters. These animals are often sick and unable to hunt normally, or live in an area where their traditional prey has vanished.

Females Bengal tiger give birth to litters of two to six cubs, which they raise with little or no help from the male. Cubs cannot hunt until they are 18 months old and remain with their mothers for two to three years, when they disperse to find their own territory.
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