Bengal Tiger Facts

The tiger belongs to the same family as the cat, and is the largest wild cat of the world. Among all the subspecies of tigers that are found on earth, the Bengal tiger is the second largest subspecies. It comes just behind the Siberian tiger. As these tigers are most commonly found in India, it is often referred to as the Indian Bengal tiger. There are a few other countries where it is found which include Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Tibet.

Facts about Bengal Tiger

The Bengal tigers are well-known for their attractive physical appearance. Its back has beautiful black, gray or brown colored vertical stripes, over a base color of reddish orange. The underside portion of their body and the inner side of the limbs and tail have a creamy white color. As they prefer to hunt in the dark, the stripes on their body often help them to hide in the shadows of wild grass.

On an average. the size of a male Bengal tiger is about 3 meters or 10 feet, and weighs about 500 pounds. The body of a female species is about 9 feet and weighs 300 pounds. So far, the largest recorded size of a Bengal tiger is 857 pounds.

Those Bengal tigers which are living in wild forests have an average lifespan of 15 years. On the other hand, when it is living in a captivated environment, it is likely to survive for a slightly longer period of time which could be up to 16 to 18 years.

Bengal tigers hunt down wild animals like pigs, deer, antelopes, buffalo of medium to large size, to get their food. In one feeding, a Bengal tiger can eat almost 70 pounds of meat! They love to spend a lot of time in water. So, they often have this tendency to chase their prey into the water and eat it there.

Basically, the Royal Bengal tigers are solitary creatures and love to live alone. They usually carry out activities like hunting and feeding on their own. They mark large areas of the forest as their territories with droppings, urine and scratch marks of claws, to keep away other rival hunting tigers. They are seen with another tigers only during the time of mating.

A female Bengal tiger gets sexual maturity at the age of 3 to 4 years, whereas the males get it when they are 4-5 years old. The gestation period of these tigers are just 98 to 110 days or roughly 3 months. The female tiger gives birth to 2 to 4 cubs at a time. Interestingly, these cubs are blind at the time of birth. The cubs start hunting at the age of around 18 months.

White Bengal Tiger Facts

Today, white tigers are hardly found in wild habitats and are almost on the verge of extinction. We get to see them only in zoos. Many people wrongly assume that the white Bengal tiger is an altogether different subspecies of the tiger. However, the fact is that they are actually born to the Royal Bengal tigers only. They carry an unusual gene that give them this unique white body color. The gene is so rare that it is found in 1 out of 10000 Bengal tigers. In a span of 100 years, hardly, 12 white tigers have been found in the wild. Their majestic white fur with black stripes have an amazing visual appeal of its own. What make them more attractive are their freezing blue eyes and pink colored nose. There is one rarest variety of white Bengal tigers that have a pure white coat with no stripes on it. Apart from the white complexion, the rest of the characteristics of a white Bengal tiger are the same as any other Bengal tigers.

From the Bengal tiger facts given here, you can understand the uniqueness of these creatures. Unfortunately, over a period of last hundred years, the number of these tigers have drastically gone down. Currently, the population of the Bengal tigers is estimated to be not more than 1500. For that reason, these species of tigers badly need help or else they will become extinct animals in no time. This in turn will adversely affect the entire ecological balance of nature.