Tigers live in thick forests or areas with tall grasses to hide in and plenty of prey to eat. They don't like the open grasslands lions live in. Most kinds of tigers live where it is warm but Siberian tigers live where it gets very cold. Male tigers live alone and do not share their land or "territory" with other tigers. The size of a tiger's territory depends on how much prey there is to eat. For example, in some parts of India where there is plenty of prey, a male tiger only needs eight to sixty square miles. In Sumatra, where there is less prey, a male tiger may need as much as 150 square miles. And in Siberia, where there is little prey to be found, male tiger territories are as large as 400 square miles. Tigers hunt by stalking (sneaking up) on their prey rather than running after it like lions or cheetahs. Tigers hunt alone. Hunting in a pack would be hard in thick forests and grasslands. You might think tigers hate water because they are cats. Not only do tigers drink water, but they sometimes like to take a cool bath in ponds or rivers.
Adult tigers are solitary animals that establish their territories in areas with enough prey, cover and water to support them. The difficulty of locating prey in tiger habitat makes it more efficient for tigers to hunt alone. As a result, they do not tend to form social groups like lions. A female tiger and her cubs are the exception to this, and will form a family group for 2 to 3 years, until the cubs are able to fend for themselves. The territory of a tiger usually ranges in size from about 10 to 30 square miles (26-78 sq. km), although the territory of a Siberian tiger may be as large as 120 square miles (310 sq. km). The size of a tiger's territory depends on the amount of prey available. Tiger territories are not exclusive. Several tigers may follow the same trails at different times, and a male's territory usually overlaps those of several females. Both male and female tigers spray bushes and trees along their route with a mixture of urine and scent gland secretions. This is a way of declaring their territory. They also leave scratch marks on trees, and urinate or leave droppings in prominent places.
Most tigers are tawny brown in color with dark stripes and whitish stomachs. Reports and records indicate however, that a few wild tigers have been seen in unusual colors, including all white and all black. White tigers are not a separate subspecies of tiger, and they are not albinos, they are just white-colored Bengal tigers. White tigers are only born when two tigers that both carry the unusual gene for white coloring mate - their color is caused by a double recessive allele. A Bengal tiger with two normal alleles or one normal and one white allele is colored orange. Only a double dose of the mutant allele results in white tigers. White tigers have blue eyes, pink noses, and creamy white fur with chocolate colored stripes. Although some people think that white tigers come from Siberia where their white color helps camouflage them in the snow, this is not true - they come from India! The only wild white tigers ever reported are white-colored Bengal tigers found in India. In captivity, however there are some white tigers that are hybrids - a mix of different subspecies. White Bengal tigers are sometimes mated with tigers from other subspecies, producing white hybrid tigers
Today only about 5,000-7,400 wild tigers live across Asia. The past and present ranges of the remaining five tiger subspecies are the northernmost living tiger, the Siberian tiger, lives primarily in southeastern Russia. The South China tiger occurs only in southern China. The range of the Indochinese tiger extends across most of Southeast Asia. The Bengal tiger is found primarily in India, while the Sumatran tiger is restricted to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The Bali, Caspian, and Javan tigers have become extinct in the past 70 years.
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