The Rare White Bengal Tigers
How being "special" has affected these beautiful animals...
Habitat
(Buzzle)
- Most of the tiger population resides
in the forests of India
- Bangladesh is home to the second
highest population of the tigers
- Northwest Myanmar
- Nepal
- Bhutan
Terrain:
- Tropical forests, mangrove swamps, moist jungles
- Generally support dense vegetation and
have a good source of fresh water
Living Areas/home:
- In area from 10-30 sq. miles
- Area has enough prey, shelter,
and water for survival (depends on food availability)
Food
Wild Boar
(food in wild)
Water Buffalo
(food in wild)
Deer
(food in wild)
Carnivore
Food:
In the wild~
- larger/medium sized animals
- the tigers hunt in their environmental habitats
- sometimes the Bengal white tigers enter villages to kill and eat livestock (because of the decrease of space due to human settlement)
At the zoo~
- chickens, horses, kangaroos, pigs
meat at a time, tigers don't need to eat for several days
Predators:
- Humans have hunted and captured
- the tigers have lost a lot of its
(for both: growing human settlement and agriculture)
(Buzzle and WIKI)
Description
- Mammal (WIKI)
Special Body Covering:
- White fur with faint grey-ish stripes (rare)
Size:
- females can grow to a length of 5-6 ft.
and a height of 2.5 ft.; they weigh approximately 250-450 lbs
Communication:
- purr when they are happy/hurt
- roar
- use their tails
- make visual markings like scrapes
on the ground and bark of trees
Unusual Characteristics:
has rare fur type:
- The fur can only be white if both parents
have the gene for white coloring. The coloring
only shows up, once in every couple hundred
to a thousand births in the wild.
(WIKI and yahoo answers)
Reproduction
- The cubs are born blind and weigh around 1-3 lbs.
- The cubs live on milk for 6-8 weeks, then the mother takes them to kill and feed.
- They don't start killing on their own until they're 18 months of age.
- Mothers keep their young for 2-3 years, until the young could feed themselves.
(Buzzle)
Life Span
- a white tiger that is captured as a cub and put into captivity can live to the age of about 20. In the wild, the life span may be approximately 12 to 15 years.
Adaption
- Their coat protects them in cold and hot weather.
- Bengal tigers are excellent swimmers.
- Plus they have a strong sense of smell, and their eyesight is rather sharp.
- White tigers have extremely strong jaws and teeth, which are very helpful in catching their prey.
- The stripes on the tiger's body help them to become invisible in the tall grass and trees.
- They use their claws and tail in ways to communicate
- Each tiger marks its territory with urine and claw marks on trees.
Reasons For Endangerment
- The white tigers are just normal Bengal tigers with leucistic.
- it results in reduced pigmentation (not albinism)
therefore many are killed by predators whilst young.
- Humans hunt for their skins and body parts (medicine)
- Humans destroy their natural habitats
and deplete their prey species.
- The more endangered the species becomes,
the less chance there is of the leucistic
individuals occurring and surviving.
(yahoo answers; author:leolupus)
Critical Information
What is currently being done:
- Project Tiger was initiated in 1972
to bring some tiger conservation plans
into action. The main aim was to protect
the Bengal Tigers living in certain areas of India.
-The reserves have the responsibility of
maintaining natural environments where the tigers lived.
- satellite data will be used to keep and
eye on the tiger population and habitats
- show awareness and spread the knowledge
to everyone, that way the tigers will be saved
- donate to some productive causes
(wiki answers)