The Siberian Tiger, also known as the Amur Tiger, is the world’s largest wild cat. This tiger’s population is the largest unfragmented tiger population, concentrated mostly in the Russian Far East birch forests. In the 1940s, the Amur Tigers were on the brink of extinction, but the number continued to increase over the decades after restoration and reproduction efforts, and more than 6,000 additional tigers are predicted by 2022.
Facts About Siberian Tiger
The facts about Siberian tigers include their hunting strategy, diet, and their characteristics. Here are some intriguing facts about Siberian tigers:
The Siberian tiger’s scientific name is Panthera tigris altaica. In Ancient Greek, the word ‘tigris’ means tiger. Apparently, however, the Greeks borrowed the term from other languages, including Persian. The word ‘altaica’ comes from the name of the Altaic language group, spoken in Central and Eastern Asia.
Currently, the Siberian tiger is listed as a tiger subspecies, making it closely related to the Caspian tiger, Bengal tiger, and Malay tiger. There was some controversy over how many subspecies of the tiger actually exist. A genetic study suggested six different subspecies of tiger lives.
These groups are geographically separated by thousands of miles across Asia, though they are technically the same species. As for the lion, jaguar, and leopard, the tiger is part of the same genus.
A few million years ago, it possibly branched off from the rest of the group, maybe somewhere in Central Asia. The tiger is most closely related within the felid family to the wildcats, domesticated cats, and cougars, among other genera.
The tiger’s size can vary considerably, but the largest specimens can be about 11 feet tall and about 700 or even 800 pounds in weight, making these creatures almost the size of a grand piano. This is one of the facts about the Siberian Tiger that is frightening.
The Siberian tigers have a dense coat of fur to shield them from the frigid conditions of their native habitat. The fur consists mostly of pale orange colors head, legs, and back, plus some additional white colors around the eyes, snout, cheeks, and inner legs.
The narrow black stripes around the head and body are the most recognizable characteristic of the Siberian tiger, offering camouflage and stealth in the forests. Compared to other tiger subspecies, however, it has comparatively fewer stripes.
The thick paws, short pointed ears, flattened head and snout, a large muscular body, and a tube-shaped tail with black and white markings distinguish the Siberian tiger features. It has longer hind legs than front legs, allowing it to jump to subdue prey at truly incredible distances in the air.
Siberian tigers mainly live in eastern Russia’s birch forests, although some exist in China and North Korea. These animals have some advantages, although their northern habitat is much colder than that of other tigers.
Northern forests give the lowest human density of any tiger habitat and the fullest ecosystem. As Russia’s timber industry is currently less extensive than that of many other nations, the vast woodlands also give Siberian tigers much more space to roam.
These facts about Siberian Tiger show their sexual attachment and the power of their senses. The Siberian tiger prefers to live on its own, like other tigers. Every Siberian tiger has a significant amount of territory of its own. The male tigers will generally cross many females’ territories but will typically not cross other males’ territories. Siberian tigers usually have a den in a cave or other place in their territory.
Females give birth to litters of two to six cubs that are raised with little or no assistance from the male. Cubs cannot hunt until 18 months of age and stay with their mothers for two to three years when they scatter to find their own territories.
Because Siberian tigers live in such cold regions, in order to survive, an adult need to eat at least 9 kilograms (20 lb) of food each day, but adults can eat up to 50 kilograms of meat. The Siberian tigers feed primarily on wild boar, elk, and deer but eat lynx and even bears. If the tiger is unable to find larger prey, it feeds on fish, mice, and rabbits instead. About 50 percent of the tiger’s diet would be wild boar in normal circumstances. Among all the facts about Siberian Tiger’s feeding is the surprising one cause 50 kilogram is not a joke!!!
To drive their competitors away, tigers live alone and actively scent-mark large territories. They are strong hunters who travel several miles on nocturnal hunts to find prey, such as elk and wild boar. As camouflage, tigers use their distinctive coats and hunt by stealth.
They lie in wait and creep close enough to strike their victims with a swift spring and a deadly pounce. A hungry tiger can consume as much as 60 pounds in one night, although they normally eat less. The fact about Siberian Tiger being a hunter is genetic as they belong to the wildcat family.
Although often seen as a dangerous threat, Tigers are actually very elusive and tend to avoid humans at all costs. It is typically due to them being sick or wounded and thus unable to hunt properly in some instances where tigers become aggressive towards humans. Occasionally, a declining population of prey species can also lead individual tigers to this behavior.
However, there are interesting and frightening exceptions to this rule. In the book’ The Tiger, John Vaillant recounts the story of a hunter called Vladimir Markov, a poacher in Far East Russia. He shot and injured a tiger until he killed a portion of it. That wounded tiger stalked the hunter, ransacked his cabin, and then waited for him at the door to come home before it killed and ate him. This unusual case seemed to suggest that the tiger was waiting for the hunter for up to two days before killing him in an apparent act of revenge.
This is considered an unusually uncommon activity, although there are populations of tigers who also kill humans relatively regularly in India. This has contributed to humans’ revenge killings, further raising the threat to the tiger populations. This fact about Siberian Tigers shows how lethal and aware they can be. Never make tigers your enemy.
This is the list of facts about Siberian Tiger along with its lifestyle, habitat, and characteristics. Tigers are among one of the most preserved and close to endangered species. Their appearance, diet, and size all are scary when you think of the meeting one-to-one in the jungle.
(Last Updated On: July 25, 2021)
Originally published at https://yocover.com on September 9, 2021.
