Tiger Species: Part 3

The Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris)
The Bengal tiger, also known as the Royal Bengal tiger is the second largest tiger sub-species and is the most numerous of all tigers...as ironic as it sounds! With 2500 of them left in the wild, they live primarily in India with smaller populations in Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Burma. This is one unique tiger as they have orange coats with either brown or black stripes and each cat has its own unique stripped patterns and may I add a white belly! They weigh around 550 pounds and grow to be about 10 feet long. The average weight for males is 221.2 kg while that of females is 139.7 kg. Interestingly, the white tiger (i'll talk about them real soon) is a recessive mutant of the Bengal tiger.

They live in a variety of habitats, including the cold Himalayan forests, the hills of Indian Peninsula, the wet forests of Northern India, the arid forests of the Rajasthan and the mangroves of the Sundarbans; the only mangrove forest where tigers are found. However, due to the rise in sea levels as a result of climate change, the Sundarbans are increasingly being threatened. Bengal tigers feed on deer, pigs, wild cattle, young elephants, antelopes and buffaloes. An interesting fact, the roar of the Bengal tiger can be heard from two miles away!

Though the creation of India's tiger reserves in the 1970s helped stabilize their numbers, poaching in the recent years has once again put them at risk. In addition, from the year 1997 to 2006, Bengal tigers are thought to have lost more than 50% of their habitat with their largest decrease in India. They are classified under the IUCN Red List as Endangered.

Did you know that the Bengal tiger is the national animal for both India and Bangladesh? Yet, sadly, poaching is rampant in these regions. The main threats facing these creatures is poaching and habitat loss. There's so much we can do to help these lovely creatures, we just have to identify what it is. And if by writing these articles, i help save even one tiger, I will be so very content.

An interesting fact for you movie lovers...in the Life of Pi...the tiger was a Bengal tiger :)

Happy Weekend and thanks again readers!