Tigers are considered the most recognizable of large cats. Brown, gray, or black vertical stripes always complement a coat that ranges from all white to reddish-brown. Some rare tigers have a golden “strawberry” coat, but most have a tinge of orange with a lighter undercoat. White fringe often surrounds the facial area. A tiger’s stripes help them to blend in to the shadows of stalks of grasses and other vegetation. The striping goes all the way down to the skin. A shaved tiger will still show its stripes. Although subspecies of tigers vary in size, generally, tigers are the heaviest and most powerful of the large cats.

The oldest evidence of tiger-like cats comes from China. The fossils are estimated to be 2 million years old, from the Pleistocene era. Remains of tigers, as we know them today, have been found in Java and are somewhere between 1.6 and 1.8 million years old. Tigers migrated from Java and China west into India and Central Asia and northeast into Japan and Siberia.

At their height, tigers could be found as far west as the Caspian Sea, north through Siberia, east through Korea, and south through Indonesia. During the 19th and 20th centuries, tigers disappeared from most of these areas and are now found only in small, isolated pockets in India and East Asia with some scattered populations in southeast Siberia. The last tigers in Java, their country of origin, disappeared sometime in the 20th century.

Tigers are highly adaptable and can survive in many different climates and conditions. They prefer areas with high vegetation that are close to fresh water. Tigers, however, can often be found in evergreen forest, mangrove swamp, open grassland, and other locations. Tigers are great swimmers and enjoy cooling off and bathing in lakes or rivers. They can swim for up to 4 miles carrying dead prey across large lakes.

There are six living subspecies of tigers and three extinct subspecies. Tigers, today, are members of one of these subspecies:

• Bengal tigers are the most common subspecies. They are found in India and Bangladesh. Males weigh from 450 to 600 pounds, and females weigh about 310 pounds. While they are the most populated subspecies, estimates there are only 1165 to 1657 left in the wild today.
• Indochinese tigers can be found in East Asia. They are smaller and darker colored than Bengals.
• Malayan tigers are found only in the south of the Malay Peninsula. They were not considered a separate species until 2004.
• Sumatran tigers live only in Sumatra. They are the smallest tiger subspecies and listed as critically endangered. Only 400 to 500 exist in the wild.
• Siberian tigers are the largest subspecies of tiger. They are found only in eastern Siberia.
• South China tigers are listed as one of the 10 most endangered animals in the world. They have not been seen in the wild since 1983, but 59 are known to be living in captivity.

There are also three known extinct subspecies of tiger:

• The Bali tiger lived only on the island of Bali.
• The Javan tiger originated in Java and was thought to be one of the first tiger subspecies.
• Caspian tigers once populated Central Asia.

Tigers are mostly solitary animals. They set up a territory for themselves and defend it against other tigers. Female tigers tend to have smaller territories than males. Young female tigers establish their territories adjacent to their mother’s. As they grow older, the overlap between them diminishes. Male tigers set out further than the females.

Tigers prefer to hunt at night. The feed on medium to large-sized animals. In India, most tigers’ favorite food is the water buffalo. Tigers rarely eat people. They only turn to eating people should they be too old or injured to otherwise hunt their natural prey.