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Spencer 1

Landen Spencer

Mrs. Schinzing

Exploration

5 May 2021

Tigers

There is one species of cat that is the largest, strongest, and smartest of all feline species. It is the

Tiger. Tigers are known for their beautiful and unique orange and black horizontal striped coat it

differentiates them from all other cats. Tigers are truly a magnificent animal, because of their

unique characteristics, their habitat, where they are on the food chain and the difference between

them and other species.

Tigers are a unique creature from head to tail. Their hunting features are their claws,

teeth, and coloring of skin and fur. Their claws are like knives, deadly weapons against their prey

or even humans. For feet tigers have four claws on each paw and one special claw called the

dewclaw. Tigers’ claws are at least ten centimeters long. Their claws are used for hooking their

prey and to capture them, also for climbing. When a tiger does not need their claws a skin covers

them, and they do this also when they are stalking their prey. They do not want their nails to

make a ticking sound if it hits a rock. If a tiger’s nails are dull, they use a tree and scrap their

nails against it to sharpen them. Tiger's teeth are their vital weapon if they have dull teeth a tiger

simply cannot survive, because they cannot kill their prey. Tigers have 30 teeth in all with 14 on

top and 16 on the bottom. Each one is sharp as a knife. They are each three inches long. The

teeth are key aspects to hunting as it is how they kill their prey. The front teeth of a tiger are for

either picking feathers of meat, picking meat off bones, or for biting down on their prey to kill it.

The back teeth are for shearing and slicing the meat, because tigers do not chew. The back teeth

cut, then the tiger swallows the meat whole.

The fur of a tiger is a very unusual quality for animals, especially for a feline. A tiger’s

fur/skin is an orange brownish pallet. Some tigers have more of an orange coloring, and some

have a browner coloring. One tiger specifically has white fur. The orange coloring is not all,

because tigers have horizontal stripes that are parallel to the spine. These special coloring: and

markings are what a tiger uses for camouflage for hunting. Tigers’ stripes camouflage them in

trees and tall grass. Each feline has completely different stripe patterns. No tiger has the same,

just like a human fingertip. Each is different and that is why they are so special. The tiger’s skin

is also colored and striped underneath, so not just the fur is colored.

The head features of a tiger are made up of eyes, nose, ears, and whiskers. The eyes of a

tiger are a very cool part of the tiger. Instead of slit pupils, like a domesticated feline, it has

round pupils. A tigers night vision is a lot better than a human, at least six times better vision

during dark. A tiger’s eyes usually are yellow, but a white tiger has blue eyes. Tigers have good

night vision because they are nocturnal, so they can hunt, and since humans are around during

the day, they can avoid human contact, and patrol their den or home. A tiger’s nose, which is

called a snout, is not actually for hunting. It is more for smelling various things, like smelling

other tigers’ territories. The snout is not immensely helpful though, unless for trivial things. The

tiger’s ears are a very cool part of the tiger. They are used for hunting as they are like radar

dishes that can detect various noises for hunting their prey. The ears of a tiger can also show

their feelings. If they’re angry, their ears become twisted. When they are being defensive, they

put their ears back. But if the tiger is in a good mood, it will keep its ears up. A tiger’s ears have

a spot on it and we humans do not know what it is for. Some have guessed it is to act as eyes on

the back of their heads to warn of other animals. There is one white spot on the back of the ear

that is on every subspecies. The whiskers of a tiger are extremely helpful when a tiger walks

through the forest. They are not just for a pretty face, but they are used to walk through trees to
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send a message to the brain that it is too small of a squeeze, so they do not get stuck. Also, if a

human accidently eats these whiskers, they will die of eternal bleeding because the whisker are

so sharp.

Body features of a tiger include muscle, brain, legs, and their tails. A tiger’s muscles

make up 70% of their body weight, unlike a lion, which only takes up 50% of their body weight.

A Tiger’s legs are strong for catching prey by running and pouncing on them and climbing. A

tiger is strong enough to jump 10 meters to catch their prey. Tigers are so strong that if they die

standing up, they will stay standing even if they are dead. A tiger’s brain is fascinating because

the tiger is the smartest feline species in the world. And their brain is 25% smarter than a lion,

also they are smart enough to lift a rope with meat at the end, from the bottom of a cliff, instead

of jumping down to get it. A tiger’s brain ways up to 300 grams and is the 2nd largest brain of

carnivores. They can climb cliffs with ease. The hind legs are longer than the front ones, and the

front legs have stronger bones to hold up their very heavy head. A tiger’s walk is quite different.

They walk like a camel in a way, but people believe their two legs on the same side do the same

thing when they walk. A tale of a tiger is 3 feet long and is used to keep their balance.

The food chain position and what a tiger hunts for are remarkably interesting because a

tiger is one of the strongest carnivores. The prey of a tiger is anything from a termite to elephant

calves, but a tiger’s main course is usually deer, hog, antelope, and water buffalo. A tiger’s prey

could even include a bear if they hunt brown and black bears during the summer. A tiger’s

favorite prey is deer and wild pig. A tiger is the predator to all mammals and even non-

mammals, because they also eat fish. Tigers do not really have predators except for humans.

Sometimes in an incredibly special case, a cobra will kill a tiger, but there is a rare chance of

that. A tiger does not have animal predators, but it has challengers like bears or elephants or

excessively big buffalo and humans, which hunts them for their bones for medicines which is
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illegal. but people still do it, and which seems very evil. Other times people poach tigers because

they are threatening them or hurting people.

Tiger’s hunting is very interesting. A tiger stalks its prey from the back while it grazes,

then it sneaks closer slowly, towards the unsuspecting prey and when they are close enough, they

pounce or jump their prey and extend their claws to hook on their rear. If they do not catch their

prey during their pounce, they chase it and grab it with their claws. After the catching is done,

they kill, so they bit down on the prey’s neck and wait till it is dead. Once it is dead, they use

their teeth to rip the meat off the bones; a tiger can eat up to 75 pounds of meat at one meal.

After that they are full of food for up to two weeks.

There are nine distinct species of tiger each having unique characteristics from their

weight to their fur color, they are unique from the other species. The first tiger is the Siberian

also known as the Amur; it is known as the strongest, but also the biggest species of panther. The

Siberian can weigh up to 320 kilograms and it is 200 centimeters in length. The Siberian lives in

Russia’s birch forests. The Indochinese tigers live near forest areas on mountains. They have a

smaller head then most of the other species, with thinner black stripes. They can weigh up to 195

kilograms and its length gets to 270 centimeters. The Indochinese tiger lives in Myanmar or

Thailand in the mountain regions, though this tiger was announced genetically different from the

Indochinese tiger in 2004. The South china tigers live in China-Guangdong. South China tiger is

the second smallest species of Tigris. They weigh up to 180 kilograms and its length is 260

centimeters long. The south Chinese tiger has a narrow skull and long muzzle, they have vivid

orange palette and more of a rhombus looking stripes. The Malayan tiger was announced

genetically different from the Indochinese tiger in 2004. The Malayan tiger lives in the

Malaysian peninsula, unlike the Indochinese. The Malayan weighs up to 119 kilograms and it is

280 centimeters long. Bengal is the second largest tiger in the world, and it weighs 235
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kilograms and is 310 centimeters in length. Bengal has the longest teeth of all feline species. The

Bengal tiger is vastly different from the other species because of its yellowish pallet. The Bengal

lives in India unlike most tigers. The White Bengal tiger is the most special of all the tigers

because of its fur. The white Bengal is identical to the Bengal except for their pallet. The white

Bengal weighs 235 like a Bengal and its length is 310 centimeters just like a Bengal. The reason

of their color is because of their lack of pheomelanin. The White Bengal tiger cannot have

offspring because of the lack of pigment. The white Bengal lives in India with its twin the

Bengal. White tigers are exceedingly rare to see in the wild, but captive ones have so much cross

breeding that they have far more of them then in the captivity.

The tiger, this magnificent beast, is the strongest, biggest, smartest, and most fascinating

cat in the world. Tigers have tons of amazing features and characteristics such as their hunting

features: their claws, teeth, fur color. And the face parts like their eyes, nose, ears, and whiskers.

Are unique their body features: such as their muscles, brain, legs, and tail which make them great

hunters. The food chain of a tiger is also the prey of a tiger, the predators which they are the

predator, and the hunting of a tiger. After that there is the differences of all species: Amurs also

known as the Siberian, the Indochinese, the South Chinese, the Malayan, the Bengal, and the

white Bengal each one as special and unique as the next. Which one is your favorite?
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Works Cited

“Tigers: What’s the difference?” YouTube, uploaded by Green Mumbles, 23 Feb 2016,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fpBIgM

“Tigers Guide,” Discover Wildlife, 1 July 2018. Discoverwildlife.com/animal-

facts/mammals/facts-about-tigers/. Accessed 11 April 2021

Wyche, Ryan. Personal Interview, 11 April 2021

Detroit Zoo, 10 Mile Rd Royal Oak, MI 48067, 10 March 2021.

Ward, Geoffrey C, “Making Room for Wild Tigers.” National Geographic, December

1997,7.

“Tigers,” Britannica School, Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 October 2020.

School.eb.com/level/middle/article/tiger/277356.

Server, Lee. Tigers: A portrait of the animal world. TODTRI, 1998.