What Are the Characteristics of a Tiger?

Size

• The specific size of tigers changes slightly from subspecies to subspecies. Within subspecies, however, female tigers tend to be smaller than male tigers. Female Sumatran tigers, the smallest tiger still in existence, weigh between 165 to 243 pounds; male Siberian tigers, the largest of the living subspecies, weigh 420 to 675 pounds. In terms of length, tigers tend to range from about 7 feet to almost 11 feet from head to tail. A tiger's canine teeth can grow up to 3 inches long and their whiskers can grow up to 6 inches long.

Coat

• The vast majority of tigers have an orange coat and a white underbelly. Although rare, all-white tigers do exist. Bengal tigers are the only subspecies to carry the white gene, although some white Siberian type tigers have been produced via crossbreeding. All tigers have gray, brown or black stripes on their coats, but some are significantly more obvious than others. Some white tigers with gray stripes may appear to have no stripes until the light strikes them at a certain angle.

Habitat

• The tiger's natural habitat ranges from Siberia in the north to Indonesia in the south and from Turkey in the west to China in the east. Different subspecies live in different areas, but the subspecies' common names (South Chinese tiger, Bengal tiger, Siberian tiger, etc.) tend to give you an idea as to their specific locals. Tigers live in a wide variety of climates, from tropical rain forests to swamps to grasslands.

Diet

• Tigers are carnivorous mammals. Because of their size, they need to prey on larger animals like moose, cows, pigs and buffalo to sustain themselves. In one sitting, a tiger can eat up to 88 pounds of meat. Although few animals prey on tigers, they are an endangered species. This is largely due to a lack of suitable food for tigers and humans hunting them for their fur and the supposed medicinal properties of their parts.

Life Span and Reproduction

• A tiger's average life span in the wild is 10 to 15 years, although they usually live slightly longer in captivity. The common gestation period for a tiger is roughly 103 days, after which the tiger produces a litter of one to five cubs. It takes tigers about a year and a half until they can completely hunt and sustain themselves on their own.