A vibrant shock of
vivid orange broken up by bits of midnight. Deep, daring yellow eyes.
Unfathomably powerful muscles, flexing with even the most subtle of movements.
You’ve just spotted the
incredible tiger, one of the handsomest animals in the world. No matter how
many times you see him, no matter how familiar he is, each time you see
another, your breath is taken away, just as if this is your first glimpse of
something so beautiful.
And powerful! Very few
can come close to taking him down. He often eats the gentle deer, he has also
been known to hunt and eat baby elephants and rhinos and even buffalo. Not too
many animals can overpower the full grown tiger.
Yet, he has been
defeated. In the last century, three separate subspecies of the tiger family
have gone extinct. All were driven there by rifles and traps.
Bali Tiger: This tiger, exclusive to Indonesia, was among the smallest of the
species.
Javan Tiger: Also from Indonesia, this guy was forced to make way for local
plantations.
Caspian Tiger: A native of the Middle East, there’s some speculation that this guy
may have lasted until as late as the 1990’s.
There are six species
remaining on earth, - all are now critically endangered. In fact, The World Wildlife Federation estimates there are as few as 3200 tigers left in the wild.
We’ll never see another
animal quite like the tiger ever again, no question. Here are just a few of the things that make this creature one of Mother Nature’s most incredible creations.
·
Their huge roar
can be heard as far as two miles away.
·
When there is a
kill, male tigers are courteous enough to stand back and let females and cubs
eat first.
·
No two tigers
have the same stripe pattern. They are like finger prints.
·
Tigers may run as
fast as 35 – 50 km/hr., although only for a short distance.
·
Tigers have been known
to imitate the noises of other animals to attract prey.
·
A group of tigers
is called a “streak” or an “ambush”.
The Siberian
Tiger is the largest animal in the record books. The males can grow to be a little
more than 10 feet long, and weigh as much as 675 lb. That’s one big cat!
Tigers
are simply amazing, beautiful and irreplaceable creatures. And, hopefully, we’ll
never have to try.
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