INDIAN TIGER

Tigers Subspecies

There are nine subspecies of tiger, three of which are extinct and one of which is almost certain to become so in the near future. Their historical range (severely diminished today) ran through Russia , Siberia , Iran , Afghanistan , India , China and Southeast Asia , including the Indonesian islands . The South China Tiger is believed to be the first tiger. These are the surviving subspecies, in descending order of wild population:

Bengal tiger, The Bengal tiger or the Royal Bengal tiger ( Panthera tigris tigris ) is found in parts of India , Bangladesh , Nepal , Bhutan , and Myanmar . It lives in varied habitats - grasslands, subtropical and tropical rainforests, scrub forests, wet and dry decidious forests and mangroves. The Indian government's estimated population figure for these tigers is between 3,100 and 4,500, 3,000 of which are found in India alone. However, many Indian tiger conservationists doubt this number, seeing it as overly optimistic.

The number of Bengal tigers in India may be lower than 2000, as most of the collected statistics are based on pugmark identification, which often gives a biased result. Even though this is the most 'common' tiger, these tigers are under severe pressure from both habitat destruction and poaching. In 1972 , India launched a massive wildlife conservation project, known as Project Tiger , to protect the depleting numbers of tigers in India. The project helped increase the population of these tigers from 1,200 in the 1970s to 3,000 in the 1990s and is considered as one of the most successful wildlife conservation programs.

Recently these numbers have been found to be cooked up; At least one Tiger Reserve (Sariska) has lost its entire tiger population to poaching. Male Bengal tigers can range anywhere from 200 to 295 kg (440-650 lb) and females range between 120-180 kg (264-400 lb). Most males in the wild usually weigh 205 to 227 kg (450-500 lb), while the average female will weigh about 140 kg (310 lb). However, there are recorded instances of shot males that weighed more than 300 kg. One large male killed in Nepal in 1942 weighed 318 kg (700 lbs), while another, killed in 1910 in India, weighed 317 kg (700 lbs). The largest Bengal tiger ever shot was a male 3.3 m in total length and weighed close to 390 kg (858 lb.); this feline giant was killed in 1967.

Indian Tiger

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