Genus: Panthera
Species: tigris tigris
The Bengal Tiger is a beautiful animal. The base color is orange/brown, and white on the cheeks, mouth, eyebrows, and stomach. The tiger also has long black stripes on it. The weight of the tiger can be up to 575 pounds. The Bengal tiger is not the biggest tiger in the world, Its cousin the Siberian tiger is the largest tiger. The body of the Bengal tiger is broad with legs that are slender. The fur of the tiger is very fine in texture. The Bengal tiger is very sneaky and quiet. The cubs look the same. The Bengal tiger can get up to ten feet long and three feet tall.
The Bengal tiger lives in the Sundarban regions of India, Bangladesh, China, Siberia, and Indonesia. The tiger reaches maturity at the age of five, and the life span of the tiger is about 15 years. The Bengal tiger mates about any time of year. The Bengal tiger can have a litter of up to four cubs. The cubs don't hunt for themselves until they are at least 18 months old. Then they go hunting with their mother. The gestation period is about three months and ten days.
The Bengal tiger is a carnivore. It eats boars, wild oxen, monkeys, and other animals. The Bengal tiger can catch big animals, but prefers killing either young or old animals because they don't run as fast. The Bengal tiger is a nocturnal and greatly feared predator. It eats wild oxen and other animals, which eat plants , which are part of the food web. So it helps balance the web.
In the year 1900 there were 50,000 tigers on the earth, but now there is only 4,000 left in the world. So you can see that the population has decreased because of poachers and other cruel and selfish people. The Bengal tiger is protected in many places such as: The Nagarahole National Park 250 guards, and The Ranthambhore National Park 60 guards. The guards in the national parks are important because they know the kind of tools and weapons poachers use, so the guards can identify poachers. In India the Indian government made an effort to save the tigers. It was called "Project Tiger", and it was thought up in 1972 from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Under this protection from the government, hunting and trading tiger parts were banned. A sad thing happened 8 years ago when 850 pounds of tiger bones, which adds up to about 42 tigers were found in New Delhi, India hunted by poachers. The reason why poachers and other people hunt beautiful animals like tigers is because the eyes, bones, and even whiskers are very valuable to researchers who are making medicine to treat or cure human ailment, and to give people a longer life.
Babette B. 2001
Bibliography:
Emanoil, Mary. Encyclopedia of Endangered Species , Detroit: Gale Research Co. 1994
Worrall, Mary. Oxford Children's Encyclopedia volume 5. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1991
"The Tiger Page",http://www.mtsu.edu/~jpurcell/Walker/Wildlife/tigers.html, (October, 2000)