What makes tigers so special

Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. These cats are hyped for stripes. The feline has a big-time appetite. They have a lot in common with your cat. Tigers are splashy. Read this next. Get cool pics and facts! Why are tigers awesome? Why are sloths so super? Despite their uniqueness, the stripes all serve the same goal: break up the tiger's silhouette and make it harder for would-be prey to spot them before they pounce.

Unlike lions, tigers keep to themselves and hunt alone during the night. Tiger eyesight while hunting is about six times better than human night vision. With hind legs longer than their front legs, they're able to leap almost 33 feet and have a top running speed of 40 mph. Despite all these adaptations for hunting, only one in 10 of a tiger's hunts is successful.

Most felines are notorious for their aversion to water, but tigers are the exception. Tigers will swim and play in the water and even sit in it to cool off during the day's heat. With webbed toes to enable them to swim effectively, they regularly swim across rivers 5 miles wide. Classification of modern tigers generally sorts them into six living and three extinct subspecies. Scientifically speaking, under modern taxonomy rules, there are only two subspecies : Panthera tigris tigris and Panthera tigris sondaica.

The first includes all tigers found in mainland areas, while the second consists of only tigers found on the Sunda Islands. For humans and other animals, the vocal folds are triangular at the point where they enter the airway. Tigers and lions have square vocal folds thanks to fat within the structure's ligaments. The square shape allows these big cats to roar louder while using less lung pressure.

These low-frequency roars are 25 times the volume of a lawnmower. The most important part of their vocalizations is the extraordinarily low frequencies undetectable by the human ear. Within those infrasound frequencies, there exists the power to paralyze prey animals, including humans. They rarely roar while hunting, reserving it for when the prey decides to fight back.

White tigers aren't albinos, and they didn't turn white to better survive in snow. Their white fur is the result of a genetic mutation that shuts off the genes that generate yellow and red pigments.

The mutation is recessive, so both parents must have the gene to be expressed in an offspring. The last wild white tiger was shot in , though a very pale tiger was spotted in Inbreeding of captive white tigers has led to numerous health problems, such as hip issues, clubbed feet, and crossed eyes. Habitat loss and poaching are the main threats facing tigers. They compete with humans for the large ungulates like deer and wild pigs that they require for food. Tropical hardwood logging, oil palm plantations, other agriculture, and housing increasingly encroach on tigers' natural range.

There is no particular breeding season, with female tigers entering oestrus, and therefore able to conceive, every 3—9 weeks. However, tigers usually breed in the cooler months from November to April. Females attract males and let them know they are ready to reproduce by vocalising and marking their territory with distinct smelling urine. Litters of two to six cubs are born around 16 weeks after copulation. Male tigers have nothing to do with the female or the young.

Cubs remain with their mothers for two to three years, after which they disperse to find their own territory. Hunting lessons begin when cubs are around six months old, with them becoming competent hunters at around 11 months and fully independent at around 18 months. Large predators need to be able to sneak up on their prey, and the tigers distinctive coat acts as camouflage, hiding them as they stalk prey in dense vegetation.

No two tigers have the same stripes, enabling individuals to be identified by their unique pattern of stripes.