Bengal Tigers

Tigers

When a Bengal tiger is born, a mother will nurse the cubs quite frequently. To produce the milk that they need, she needs to hunt at least once every day. She will hide her cubs until she comes back. When the cubs are old enough, she will bring back part of the carcass and let the cubs chew at the left over meat.

A mother tiger will play with her cubs and teach them the basics in hunting. Once they can move well enough on their own, she will take them out to watch her hunt. If a cub is making to much noise while she is teaching them to be quiet, she will growl or swat at the cub with a paw.

A special layer of cells on a tiger’s eye allow them to see in the dark. They can detect the slightest sounds in the dark. A tiger will ignore the sound of an animal that they don’t prey on. However, they will immediately come to attention when the sound of the animal that they are preying on comes within hearing distance.

When tigers hunt, they have to be very quiet. When they crouch down and crawl slowly, this is called stalking. At first the tiger will crouch very low to the ground, and then calculate how far away their prey is. When they get close enough, they launch themselves at the prey.

This picture is of a young tiger that will have to try again at trying to catch a meal. A tiger will spend most of its waking hours hunting. A tiger may spend up to several days without eating. Once it does catch a meal, they will do a very quick and efficient job of killing its meal.

In the year of 1991, this was when the most illegal tiger poaching took place. Between fifty and seventy tigers, in all tiger populations were illegally killed. There was a dramatic decrease in the population of tigers.

Tigers live in some of the most of the dense forests. When people cut down the forests, they are taking away places for tigers to live, so they will eventually move closer to people possibly killing them. With this happening, the tiger population will take a turn for the worse. Tigers will prey on grazing deer, something else that humans hunt.

A tiger will quickly run from any danger it senses. Although sometimes it isn’t quick enough, they will often find a safe place to hide. Usually they will hide in dense areas of trees, or sometimes near o water source, since they enjoy water.

When a tiger spots its prey; it will remain crouched in the grass thirty to sixty feet away. They don’t roar when they attack, so that they don’t scare off prey. Once a tiger is within range of its prey, it will explode from its hiding place. Almost always, they will catch their prey.

In 1988 a Malaysian project was designed so farmers could let their livestock roam free. The livestock roaming freely had just invited tigers to eat all they could. Scientists then advised farmers to lock up their livestock from six a.m. to nine a.m. since that was the time period when a tiger will usually hunt.