Essay on Endangered Species: Tiger

Tiger is the most majestic animal of the jungle. With their signature orange fur and black stripe tigers have become icons of beauty, power and importance of conservation. It is a charismatic mega fauna featured prominently in ancient mythology and folklore. It can be found in modern films and literature, appearing on coats of arms as mascots for sports team and many flags. Thus it is the national animal of India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and South Korea. Tiger taxonomy is a little complicated for long time. It was thought that there are 8 subspecies of tiger but recent studies has concluded that are really only two:

1. panthera tigris tigris (Mainland Asian tiger) and
2. panthera tigris sondaica (sunda island tiger)

The study found that there wasn’t enough information to prove that the variance population of tiger were different enough to be classified as distinct subspecies and the level were just used as convenience on basis of morphology .Now what we have is only two species of tiger that contain several different population of tiger described by name like Siberian tiger or amur ,Indochinese tiger ,Malayan tiger ,Bengal tiger ,Sumatran tiger and so on.

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Tigers are the largest species of cat in the world and the mainland Asian tigers which include Siberian tiger are truly king of kings. These male measures up to 3.9m/ 13ft long including their tail , weights up to 300kg /661ib and much bigger then female (70% on average). Mainland Asian tigers are much larger than their island dwelling cousins, the Sumatrian tiger for eg weights 140 kg half the weight of Siberian tiger 300 kg. This size disparity is partly explained by Berkmanns law which says that animals that live in colder climate tentegral larger than animals live in warmer climates.

This is part due to thermal regulation. The bigger cats are able to retain more heat than smaller one due to the larger cat smaller surface to weight ratio which radiates more heat slowly. In their prime tiger could be found across Asia from pacific to black sea, but their current range is just 7% of their historic range .Comparing last decades tiger range has decreased by 41% and now they can now be found in small patches of forest .they are endangered but this isn’t 1st time they are facing extinction .about 73 thousand years ago the massive volcanic eruption almost pushed them to the age of extinction .the eruption eliminated several mammals in Asia. But the group of tiger survived to re populate continent .but due to population bottle neck they lost lots of genetic diversity.

Tigers are the member of panthera genus .despite of similarities to size with lions they are actually close related to snow leopard and jaguars they are ambush hunter and primarily eat ungulates like deer, wild boars but will eat anything that they can catch including fellow predators like sloth bear, snakes and crocodiles. Unlike many other species of cat tigers are pretty good endurance allying them to chase the prey lot longer than their sprinting cousins .king of jungle is title often associated with lions but lion hunts on plains indeed tiger rules the jungle .their territory is made up of dense vegetation tall grasses and trees making orange with black stripe the perfect camouflage when stocking preys habitat of vertical lines .As their territory shrinks their prey disappears .tiger need to take any opportunity available to eat. They can go up to two weeks without food and when they do eat they will consume around one fifth of their body weight .When fresh prey is not available they will mussel their way in from stealing catches from smaller predator. They have huge fans the longest of any big cat. Their preferred method of killing prey is to clip the powerful jaws around their prey’s throat as fixating them. This strategy allow them kill the prey weighing up to 1 tons including water buffaloes. Unfortunately the diet of some tigers is made up of us .human eating tigers are mostly older tigers who can’t catch other prey so they go after humans .There is an expectation on this role however and it’s the sundarbans a vast coastal forests located mostly on the southern greaches of Bangladesh along its border with India in this unique habitat young healthy tigers prey on humans –kills approximately 50 people every year.

In order to combat this conservation group called world conservation union started distributing and wearing masks whose face is on the back of their heads. This to a tiger makes a look like they are always watching them preventing them from being able to sneak them upon humans. This hilarious technique has been incredibly successful and reduces the number of attacks on wearing masks to zero. This idea come from nature and tiger coincidentally use the same strategy .If you look the back of the tigers ears you will notice two white spots somewhat resembling of your eyes making you look like they are always looking behind them. A lot of other species do this as well many butterfly and birds have markings that looks like eye in order to detour predators to sneak on them.

Unlike lion tigers are solitary usually only meeting to mate. Mating can happen year around with gestation lasting 3-4 months .Cubs weight around 1kg when born and feed on mother’s milk for around 6 months. Adult tigers provide a lot of nourishment to their cubs even letting them eat before they eat. They need lots of care and protection from other predators even from their father. It is said that male will kill their cubs in order to make their mother interested in mating again. When juvenile male are older ready to settle their own then initially will setup near their mum .Then later they move out and find territory unclaimed by other tigers or they challenge other male for their territory. This is the most dangerous point in tiger’s life. Tigers territory is huge some male have territory of 290sqkm and they mark it with scent using their urine and anal gland, so let other tiger notice stay out. The female tiger territory is much smaller with some female have territory of about 80 sq km. Tigers have webbed toes of tem living near bodies of water. Tigers have adapted for a semi aquatic lifestyle and they are excellent swimmers. They can swim up to 7km in a single go and 29km in a day .They appears to enjoy being on water, they push back greater volume of water on each stroke with webbed paws to propel on water.

Tigers occasionally will mate with lions they only have made on zoos. If male is lion and female is tiger its called liger. And if female is lion and male is tiger its called tigon. Other way the hybrids are infertile. Some Bengal tigers have a recessive gene that makes them white tiger, the most gorgeous animal that ever walked on earth. The classic coloration of most tigers is caused by the pigments Eumelanin which turns fur black and pheomelanin which turns the fur orange. The production of pheomelanin is triggered by the gene SLC45A2. White tigers carry the mutated version of this gene which prevents them from production of orange pigmentation.

The tiger count has dramatically fallen in 100 years by 96%. Fewer than 4000 tigers remain in wild now. At the turn of 21 centuries approximately 100000 ruled the wild year 1900, living as far as turkey and far north as Russia.

Tiger trade as complex problem poaching as a royal game, medicine, human animal conflicts so on. Horrific reality of tiger poaching has challenged conservation .Dozens of confiscated snares, traps, automatic rifles has made many innocent tigers as well as wild animals its victim. Some loss their limbs toes ,lucky one are rescued but death to some is slow an unbearably painful to innocent ones including cubs .Since, the world is busy making money and earning luxury the poor people have been engaged to fulfill the demand of high-class society out there .Making medicines ,wines ,clothing ,carpet materials as showoff and so on.

Over the past few decades programs have been put for protection of tigers and their habitat with the help of global community. And still there is a hope, lots of things can be done but it has to be now. As Leonardo DiCaprio (UN messenger of peace) at the opening of climate summit 2014 told on UN assembly “you are the last best hope of earth we ask you protect it or we and all living things we cherish are history.”