Horrid Tiger News and Tiger Info

So in an article I found on the BBC, Researchers at 2 different animal parks in China were offered tiger wine. This is pretty much tiger, yes ferocious, growly, cute, stripy tiger, soaked in rice wine. Despite a ban on poaching and using tigers for goods, numbers are still declining. You can read more here.

Since I found this article, I will talk about tigers for a bit.

Scientific Name: Panthera tigris

This cat is the largest of the cats. There are 8 subspecies of tiger; 3 of which are already extinct. No two tigers have the same stripe pattern. They are as unique as a humans fingerprints. The last wild white tiger was seen in the 1950's. It was a cub and became the "father" of all white tigers in captivity. White tigers are usually larger at birth and adulthood, probably a genetic trait allowing better chance for survival despite their coloration. However, due to inbreeding in captivity, birth defects are emerging. They are inbred because this trait is in high demand.

Behavior
Tigers are a bit strange in that, unlike all other cats, they LOVE water and are very strong swimmers. They are also very solitary except for a mother with cubs. They are very territorial.

Reproduction
Females are only receptive for a few days and in these days mating is very heavy. Gestation is only 16 weeks and cubs are about 2 pounds when born.

There is tons of information online on how we can help save these big cats. There are only about 7,500 of them left in the wild.

A great video to watch is Kingdom of the Tiger, an IMAX film.