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White TigersThis
information page for White
Tigers has been created to guide you into Tigerhomes Sanctuary's
beautiful animal habitats. If we have your attention then we are
doing our job in speading awareness!
You are ONE CLICK AWAY  >> Free Snapshots from your computer << More Information on White Tigers Can be found in the Education Center Although white tigers are extremely beautiful animals, they serve
no conservation purpose, with the exception of increasing attendance
to zoos. Thus increasing public awareness and education of the plight
of all endangered animals. For this reason, the SSP (Species Survival
Plan) coordinators for the various surviving subspecies of tiger
do not authorize breeding the white tiger in their managed programs.
Still this remarkable animal continues to bring hundreds of thousands
of fascinated visitors to zoos and educational facilities across
the world. Public awareness is the first step in conservation.
Info: Tigers in general are the biggest cats in the world. They live in steamy hot jungles as well as icy cold forest habitats. There are five different kinds or subspecies of tiger alive in the world today. These tigers are called Siberian, South China, Indochinese, Bengal, and Sumatran. Their Latin name is Panthera tigris. Tigers are an endangered species; only about 5,000 to 7,400 tigers are left in the wild. Three tiger subspecies, the Bali, Javan, and Caspian tigers have become extinct in the past 70 years. Habits: Unlike some big cats like lions, adult tigers like to live alone (except for mother tigers with cubs). This is partly because in the forest, a single tiger can sneak up and surprise its prey better than a group of tigers can. Range and Habitat: The size of a tiger's territory depends on the amount of food available, and usually ranges from about 10 to 30 square miles (26-78 sq. km). Siberian tigers sometimes have really big territories (as large as 120 square miles). Although tigers usually live alone, tiger territories can overlap. A male tiger's territory usually overlaps those of several female tigers. Today only about 5,000–7,000 wild tigers live across Asia. The past and present ranges of the remaining five tiger subspecies are illustrated. The northernmost living tiger, the Amur or 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. Reproduction and Rearing: Female tigers reach maturity when they are about 3 years old, males a year or so later. In temperate climates, a tigress comes into estrus (heat) only seasonally; however in tropical climates, she may come into estrus throughout the year (unless she is pregnant, or is raising cubs). She signals her readiness with scent markings and locating roars. The brief act of copulation occurs continually for a five day period. Tigers are induced ovulators, and must be stimulated through frequent copulation in order to become pregnant. To help stimulate ovulation, the male tiger's penis has spines. |
 Baby White Tigers, The Cutest of all the Cubs Following mating, the gestation
period for tigers is approximately103 days. The
male tiger does not stay with the female after mating, and
does not participate in raising the cubs. The average litter
size of tigers is 2 or 3 cubs (the largest is 5). One usually
dies at birth. Once a tigress has mated and given birth to
cubs, she will not come into estrus again until her cubs
are between one and a half and three years of age, with enough
skills to begin life on their own.
Diet: Over much of the tiger's broad geographic range, wild pig, wild cattle and several species of deer are its major prey. All prey are forest or grassland ungulates that range in size from 65 to 2,000 pounds (30-900 kg). Typically, wild tigers gorge themselves on fresh kills, and can eat as much as 40 pounds (18 kg) of meat at one time. The tiger will not eat again for several days. Status: At the beginning of this century it is estimated that there were 100,000 wild tigers, today the number is less than 8,000. Simply put, tigers are disappearing in the wild. The main threats to tigers are poaching, habitat loss and population fragmentation. Conservation & Ecology: Across all of Asia, once vast forests have fallen for timber
or conversion to agriculture. Only small islands of forest
surrounded by a growing and relatively poor human population
are left. As forest space is reduced, the number of animals
left in the forest is also reduced, and tigers cannot find
the prey they need to survive. As a result, tigers begin to
eat the livestock of villagers who live near them. Sometimes
tigers even attack humans. People sometimes kill the tigers
in order to protect themselves and their livestock. As human
populations move farther into the forest, groups of tigers
become separated from each other by villages and farms. This
means that tigers in one area can no longer mate with tigers
in nearby areas. Instead, tigers must breed repeatedly with
the same small group of animals. Over time, this inbreeding
weakens the gene pool, and tigers are born with birth defects
and mutations. |
