• Preface
• The typical behavior
• The territory
• Hunting and prey
• Reproduction
• An overview

To write about general behaviour in tigers is rather difficult. Many scientists won't realize one problem: As soon as they discovered and generalize a behavioral fragment, at least one tiger will come and disprove it. But this individuality is impressive.

Tigers are usually night acting. Exceptions can be found in the Ranthambore national park in India. It started 1972 during Project Tiger, as the tigers seemed to enjoy their sudden freedom. In the protection of the park they even showed themselves on daylight. Furthermore, tigers are strictly territorial. They mark the boundaries with urine in order to avoid fights. They also sharpen their claws on trees, which works also as marking. If a tiger is old or hurt, it can happen that he might be banned by a stronger one, who takes over the territory. These fights can be bloody. Usually, pairs during the mating period or tigresses with cubs can be observed peacefully together. But even male tigers can be seen while visiting their youngs at the mother. If he's not the father of these cubs, he could be a danger for them. Some males use to kill those cubs in order to spread his own genes; the female gets about two weeks after the loss of her cubs in heat, again.

Tigers seem to be lazy. Their common daily shedule contains 16-18 hours of sleep. The rest of the day, they are busied by hunting or defending their territory

Tigers are very flexible. They have spread from the cold regions Sibiriens, via the Indian sub-continent, down to Indonesia, during the recent centuries. There have been even tigers in the east of Turkey and at the Caspian Sea, a century ago. At this sea, they were exterminated by a tremendous action in order to archieve new areas. One can recognize the different sub-speciess by their skin color and the body size. The biggest ones are the Amur-tigers(Panthera tigris altaica). They also have the thickest and densest fur, since they have to tolerate temperatures of up to -50 degrees Centigrade, during the winter months. A representative in warmer regions is the bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris). He has to deal with up to 40 degress Centigrade, during the summer month. His fur is thinner and he is smaller, than his big relative from the Amur area.

It is assumed that the tigers have their roots in Sibiria. That explains the penchant of the striped cats for the wet element. Tigers love swimming ; this is also vital for cooling in tropical regions. Even mating occurs sometimes in the water. In India, Valmik Thapar - a great author of tiger books - reports from a male, that used to hunt deer in the water by suddenly appering out of the thickit on the edge of a lake.

The tiger has even reached the Indonesian islands. Three representatives can be found there: The Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), the Bali tiger (Panthera tigris balica) and the Javanese tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica). The last both became extinct and only 200-250 individuals remained of the Sumatra tiger.

The tiger's "prey-list" contains everyting from small rodents up to the Gaur, that can weigh as much as three tigers. The tiger chases every kind of deer, wild goats, and small monkeys. It would make the home page exploding to show off all prey-animals here. As concurants in case of food, you can usually find leopards, snow leopards and a couple of Indian lions, depending on climatic zones.

At the hunt, tigers creep up to their prey in a ducked position and with silent movements up to a distance of a few meters. In most cases they suddenly attempt to catch their prey from the back out of a cover. In a suitable moment, the tiger chases out of the hiding place to tear his prey to the ground. He mostly kills bigger prey with a bite into the mouth in order to choke it. In cases of smaller animals, he tries to kill it with a bite into the neck or throat. The tiger then mostly drags his dead prey into water proximity in order to eat a part and to drink something. He often relaxes before starting to eat. If something left, the tiger would drag it to a secure hiding place to eat some more later.

Tigers are not always successful hunters: Only one out of ten attacks is successful. If me misses his victim, he still runs 50 to hundred meters afterwards, until he gives up in a disappointed manner.

Tigers are usually solitary. Exceptions are tigresses with cubs. Tigers reach sexual maturity when they're 3-5 years old. Females get into heat if they have currently no cubs. They signal their readiness with scent marks at trees and by making specific sounds. Male tigers - in most cases territory neighbors - follow on it.If a male discovers a scent mark, he makes a grimace which is called Flehmen. With an organ on the palate he use to get informations about other tigers. If both sexes meet each other during the 5-7 days lasting main-estrus of the tigress, they might approach cautiously and test the situation. At first, the tigress encourages the tiger with caresses as licking, striping along his flank and lining his head, but she still wards him off in the case of trying to mount. However, the tiger manages it sometimes to press the tigress - with in most cases a neck bite - to the ground and to mount her with half bent knees. The tigress is in laying on the stomach, the rear end raised with the tail bent aside. After 3-10 seconds the tiger reaches the climax and bites into the neck of the female with moaning and growling. In this way, he attempts to calm her since she often swipes out immediately after the act. It's because of a short pain, caused by small barbs on the penis of the male. This should trigger the tigress's ovulation. Tigers are mating during the 5-7 days every 10-30 minutes. This should increase the probability of an impregnation, too. Both is an indicator for the need of a stimulation to trigger the ovulation. It has to be mentioned, that the first mounts of an estrus period may remain without any success.

110 days after mating, 2-3 young, in rare cases even more, are born in a protected den. During the first time, they are suckled by their mother. She leaves them alone only at night for the purpose of hunting. Firstly, the cubs are blind, but they open their eyes after about 14 days. Then, the first teeth also begin to grow. At eight weeks, they're getting small meat pieces brought by their mother, but she still suckles them. They're even now allowed to explore the closer environment of the den. Everything is eyed playfully. After six months, the tigress sometimes leaves their cubs alone for several days in order to go hunting. In age of about eight months, the little tigers are losing their milk teeth and the final set of teeth grows.

In age of five to six months, the little tigers are hunting the first time with their mother. She catches the prey and teaches her cubs killing it. Little tigers can swim instinctively, however, she even shows them how to swim in rivers and streams. After a year, the youngs are already able to hunt and at two years, they are killing bigger prey. Males are leaving their mother in the age of three years, females with five to find their own territories and to mate.

- Tigers are reaching maturity with 3 years and leaving their mother when they are 5 years old.

- With 6 years, tigers are full grown.

- At the age of 15-20 years, a tiger's usually life ends.