A result of persistent demand, their bones, and other body parts are used for modern health tonics and folk remedies, and their skins are sought after as status symbols among some Asian cultures. Every part of the tiger-from whisker to tail-has been found in illegal wildlife markets. Poaching is the most immediate threat to wild tigers. The South China tiger is believed to be functionally extinct. The continental tigers currently include the Bengal, Malayan, Indochinese and Amur (Siberian) tiger populations, while the Caspian tiger is extinct in the wild. These are popularly known as Sumatran tigers. All remaining island tigers are found only in Sumatra, with tigers in Java and Bali now extinct. Since 2017, IUCN has recognized two tiger subspecies, commonly referred to as the continental tiger and the Sunda island tiger. They are forced to compete for space with dense and often growing human populations. Individuals mark their domain with urine, feces, rakes, scrapes, and vocalizing.Īcross their range, tigers face unrelenting pressures from poaching, retaliatory killings, and habitat loss. Individual tigers have a large territory, and the size is determined mostly by the availability of prey. Tigers are mostly solitary, apart from associations between mother and offspring. Within both subspecies, males are heavier than females. For males of the smaller subspecies-the Sunda tiger-the upper range is at around 310 pounds.

Males of the larger subspecies, the continental tiger, may weigh up to 660 pounds. Tigers have been known to reach up to 20 years of age in the wild. Juvenile mortality is high, however-about half of all cubs do not survive more than two years. Tigers generally gain independence at around two years of age and attain sexual maturity at age three or four for females and four or five years for males. If all the cubs in one litter die, a second litter may be produced within five months. On average, tigers give birth to two to four cubs every two years. A tiger can consume more than 80 pounds of meat at one time. They typically hunt alone and stalk prey. The largest of all the Asian big cats, tigers rely primarily on sight and sound rather than smell for hunting. There are two recognized subspecies of tiger*: the continental ( Panthera tigris tigris) and the Sunda ( Panthera tigris sondaica).

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