Brittni Gustafson The Bengal Tiger Classification Kingdom Animalia

Brittni Gustafson The Bengal Tiger

Classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Felidae Genus Species: Panthera tigris 1

General Information Looks- The coat of a Bengal Tiger is reddish orange with narrow black, gray , or brown stripes, generally in a vertical direction. Their bellies are a cream or white. Size- Male tigers can be up to ten feet and 500 lbs. Females can be up to nine feet and 300 lbs. They are the largest existing members of the cat family. Tigers are endothermic. They hunt at night ; their stripes help them hide in the tall grasses. They stalk and pounce because they are not able to chase their prey. To mark his territory a male tiger usually travels alone, marking his boundaries with urine, droppings, and scratch marks. A tiger can consume as much as 88 lbs of meat in one feeding. -It is estimated that there are less than 3, 000 Bengal tigers left in the wild

Habitat Bengal tigers tend to live in tropical jungles, marsh lands, and tall grasslands. Usually in Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Bhutan, and Burma. Many live in zoos.

Diet Tigers are carnivores. They eat medium to large prey. Examples are pigs, deer, antelopes, and buffalo, etc.

How Do They Reproduce? Tigers have internal fertilization and direct development. They are viviparous. They do not mate for life and tigers tend to be solitary animals. Tigresses, or female tigers, take care of the young. Mating usually occurs between November and April. The females can have cubs at the age of 3 -4 years. After the gestation period of 103 days, 2 -5 cubs are born. Newborn tigers are blind and helpless. The mother feeds them milk for 6 -8 weeks and then the cubs are introduced to meat. Cubs of Bengal Tigers depend on the mother for 1. 5 years and then they start hunting on their own.

Human Impact Humans have hunted tigers for their beautiful pelts for a long time. India has made it illegal to hunt the Bengal tiger but that doesn’t stop poachers. The main threats to tigers are poaching, loss of habitat, and population fragmentation. All of these have caused tigers to be put onto the endangered species list. There are laws to protect tigers. There is also the Tiger Project in India. Keeping tigers in zoos causes them to live up to ten years longer!

Works Cited � 1. http: //www. seaworld. org/animal-info/animalbytes/animalia/eumetazoa/coelomates/deuterostomes/chordata/craniata/mammalia/carnivora/bengaltiger. htm#sc � 2. http: //www. indiantiger. org/bengal-tigers/bengal-tiger-information. html � 3. http: //www. indiantiger. org/bengal-tigers/indian-bengal-tiger. html � 4. http: //sybilsden. com/caresheet/tigers. htm