V. Physical Discription:

Tigers are the largest of the cat family, with the Siberian tiger being the largest of the species. They are easily recognizable, with thick black vertical stripes covering an orange body. The belly and throat are a creamy white. Male tigers have a ruff around the back of the head, which is especially pronounced in the Sumatran male. No two tigers have the same stripe pattern - each is unique, like human fingerprints. Tiger stripe patterns commonly differ between the two sides of an individual's body. The last recorded wild white tiger was documented in 1951. This male cub later became the progenitor of most white tigers in captivity. The stripes of white tigers are brown.

Mortality and Longevity:

Tigers can live to 20 years of age in zoos but only 15 years in the wild. And most wild tigers do not live that long. Only half of all cubs survive to independence from their mother at about two years of age. Only 40 percent of these survivors live to establish a territory and begin to produce young. The risk of mortality continues to be high even for territorial adults, especially for males, which must defend their territories from other males.

Height, Length and Weight:

Tigers are the largest of a group of cats known as the great cats (tigers, lions, leopards, jaguars) Great cats are distinguished from the other cats by their ability to roar. Tigers are the largest living cat species. Their size differs for each subspecies, but on average their length from 47-114 in. (119-290 cm) plus an additional 21-47 in. (53-119 cm) for the length of the tail, stands 48 inches (105 cm) at the shoulder, and can weigh from 300-600 pounds (136 - 272 kg). According to the Guinness book of world records, the largest tiger was a male Siberian tiger, who weighed 1025 lb (465 kg).

Fur coloration:

Tigers have a ground coloration ranging from a rusty orange to yellow orange color, with its underbody and face being creamy to white, and are flanked by large vertical stripes. The color of the tiger's body can vary depending on where it lives. Siberian tigers tend to have lighter ground coloration, less vivid stripes, and less contrast between the white areas and the orange areas. Bengal tigers, on the other hand, tend to have much contrast in its coloration, with dark orange ground coloration, dark black stripes, and vivid, clearly defined white areas.
It is believed that the Siberian tiger originated from other tigers that lived further south, because the Siberian tiger has stripes, which is useless to camouflage it, since there is very little grass in the Siberian tundra. Tigers can be white as well, and the white ones can have stripes or not. White tigers without stripes are known as "snow-whites". Only the Bengal tiger subspecies carry the gene to be white. White tigers, like other white animals such as lions, are not albinos because they have stripes and their eyes have color: being blue and not pink or red. White tigers, as well as white lions, are the result of a genetic mutation known as leucism. There also exist "golden" tigers, where their base coloration is rusty yellow, but their stripes are a lighter dark brown rather than black. This color form is very rare and again only seen in captivity.
The existence of a melanistic, or black, tiger is poorly documented, and no living specimen has been seen. They are reportedly solid black with lighter colored stripes on their flanks. Only one specimen has been caught: a skin taken from a poacher in Delhi in October 1992. It is debated whether or not this is really a melanistic tiger or if the skin has been tampered with. No photographic evidence for solid black tigers exists. There are, however, tigers that have exceptionally broad and dense stripes, with very little ground coloration showing through. These tigers may be what people believe are black tigers. Tigers have not displayed true melanism that is so common among many species of cat. Also sporadically recorded is the mysterious "blue tiger", or "Maltese tiger". This tiger is supposed to have bluish background coloration with dark grey stripes. Most of the reports of blue tigers have come from the Fujian Provence of China.

Fur length and types:

Tigers generally have very short, dense fur, with long tufts of fur on the sides of the face. The exception is the Siberian, which has long hair all over its body to keep it warm in the cold Siberian tundras. Tigers from warmer climates have shorter and less dense hair than tigers from colder climates. Also, tigers in more temperate climates, as well as the Siberian tiger, have fur length that varies with the seasons. The fur is longer in the winter.The hair is typically shorter on the back, legs and face, and is longer and thicker on the belly, sides of the head, and the back of the neck. Tropical tiger's fur length ranges from 0.35 - 0.9 inches (7 - 20 mm) on the back and 0.68 - 1.6 inches (15 - 35 mm) on the stomach, while the Siberian tiger's fur ranges from 1.8 - 2.7 in (40 - 60 mm) on the back and 3.2 - 4.8 in (70 - 105 mm) on the stomach. The fur of colder-climate tigers like the Siberian tiger is also much denser than a tropical tiger. The density of a Siberian tiger's fur is approximately 3,000 hairs per square cm, while tropical tigers like the Sumatran have a density of 1,700 hairs per square cm. That would be approximately 6600 hairs per square inch, and 3740 hairs per square inch.

Tigers also have numerous thick, white whiskers, also known as vibrasse. These sensitive hairs helps the tiger to navigate around in the dark, or when it cannot see very well. The longest whiskers are on its upper lip, called the mystacial whiskers. The whiskers above the eyes are called the supercilliary whiskers. There are also whiskers on either cheek, called genial whiskers. Other whiskers can occur not only on the face, but on the back of the paws as well. These whiskers are called carpel hairs. These whiskers are present on all cats, and most carnivores to some degree, but are most well-developed in the cats.

Markings:

Most tigers have stripes that are solid bars as well as double stripes that are two bars "fused together" at the ends. The solid bars appear on the face, legs and tail, while the double bars most often occur on the back and sides of the animal. Many biologists believe that tigers' stripes evolved from spots, most likely rosette spots that had stretched out to form stripes, which explains the "holes" in the middle of the stripes. The stripes on the tigers are believed to help camouflage it from its prey. It actually helps to break up the tiger's outline in tall grass, because the black stripes look like the shadows of grass blades on the ground. Each tiger's stripes are unique; no two tigers have the same pattern.

Tigers, like many cat species, also have "eyespots" on the backs of their ears. Their ears are solid black on the backs with a large white circle in the center. These "eyespots" serve to communicate their moods: if you can see their eyespots (the ears would be laying flat against their head, a sign of anger in cats) you know from a distance to avoid the tiger.

Other Physical Attributes:

Tigers generally have amber yellow eyes with round pupils. The exception is the white bengal tiger, which has blue eyes. Tigers, like all cats, have a special layer on the back of the eyes called the tapetum lucidum, which reflects light back to the retina and allows them to see much better in poor light conditions. They can see about 6 times better than a human. Tiger's ears are small and rounded, and filled with hair. Tigers, like most cats, have an excellent sense of hearing. Tiger's have large, retractable claws, that are about 4.5 in (10 cm) long. Their feet are 5.5 inches (14 cm) long and 4.5 inches (11.4 cm) wide. Tigers have 5 toes on their front feet and four on their back feet. Adult tigers have 30 teeth. The canine teeth are about 2.5 - 3 in (5.5 - 6.6 cm) long.