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Obligate Carnivores
Tigers are obligate carnivores, that is, meat-eaters that rely almost entirely on flesh to survive. By comparison, a jackal, a small wild dog that shares much of the tiger's native range, is relatively omnivorous by habit, eating fruit as readily as other animals. In terms of any food web in which it participates, the tiger functions as an apex, or top-level, predator. A healthy adult tiger is not regularly preyed upon by any other animal and sits at the very summit of the food chain. In this respect, it resembles certain other big cats, like lions and jaguars, as well as large crocodiles, sharks, orcas and golden eagles.
Diet
Across their broad range, tigers primarily target medium- to large-sized hoofed mammals. In birch woods in the Russian Far East, an Amur tiger might bring down Manchurian wapiti or wild boar. In a dry forest in the Indian hills, the Bengal subspecies pursues a variety of deer species as well as the occasional gaur, a massive wild cow, or one-horned rhinoceros calf. A Sumatran tiger hunts tapir and wild pigs. But the big cats certainly don't restrict themselves to ungulates: collectively they may tackle anything from pangolins, monkeys and porcupines to crocodiles and Asiatic black bears.
Adaptations
Tigers are aided in their predatory lifestyle by some of the most formidable assets of any mammalian hunter. Bengal tigers have the lengthiest canines of any living carnivore -- approaching 4 inches long. They are also supremely muscular, with massive forelegs they employ when grappling with large prey. The famous striping found on all tiger subspecies are also adaptations for hunting: It helps them blend in to the forested and tall-grass country they favor as they stalk prey.
Hunting
Tigers can also be accurately classified as ambush hunters. Like most other big cats, tigers hunt mainly by stealth, creeping close to an intended victim and then bursting out of hiding with an impressive but short-duration blast of speed. Compare this strategy with that of a gray wolf or dhole -- both of which compete with the tiger in various parts of its range. These lean, long-legged predators rely on their endurance to run down hoofed mammals in chases that may last miles, an approach called cursorial hunting.