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Lion[1] Fossil range: Early Pleistocene to recent
Male Female (Lioness)
Conservation status
Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1)[2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Felidae Genus: Panthera Species: P. leo
Binomial name
Panthera leo (Linnaeus, 1758)
Historic (red) and present (green) distribution of lions
Distribution of lions in India. The Gir Forest, in the State of Gujarat, is the last natural range of approximately 300 wild Asiatic Lions. There are plans to reintroduce some lions to Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in the neighboring State of Madhya Pradesh.
Synonyms
Felis leo Linnaeus, 1758[3]

The lion (Panthera leo) is one of four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg (550 lb) in weight,^[4] it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger. Wild lions currently exist in Sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia with a critically endangered remnant population in northwest India, having disappeared from North Africa, the Middle East, and Western Asia in historic times. Until the late Pleistocene, which was about 10,000 years ago, the lion was the most widespread large land mammal after humans. They were found in most of Africa, much of Eurasia from western Europe to India, and in the Americas from the Yukon to Peru.

Lions live for around 10–14 years in the wild, while in captivity they can live over 20 years. In the wild, males seldom live longer than ten years as fights with rivals occasionally cause injuries.^[5] They typically inhabit savanna and grassland, although they may take to bush and forest. Lions are unusually social compared to other cats. A pride of lions consists of related females and offspring and a small number of adult males. Groups of female lions typically hunt together, preying mostly on large ungulates. The lion is an apex and keystone predator, although they will scavenge if the opportunity arises. While lions do not typically hunt humans selectively, some have been known to become man-eaters and seek human prey.

The lion is a vulnerable species, having seen a possibly irreversible population decline of 30 to 50 percent over the past two decades in its African range.^[6] Lion populations are untenable outside of designated reserves and national parks. Although the cause of the decline is not fully understood, habitat loss and conflicts with humans are currently the greatest causes of concern. Lions have been kept in menageries since Roman times and have been a key species sought for exhibition in zoos the world over since the late eighteenth century. Zoos are cooperating worldwide in breeding programs for the endangered Asiatic subspecies.

Visually, the male lion is highly distinctive and is easily recognized by its mane. The lion, particularly the face of the male, is one of the most widely recognized animal symbols in human culture. Depictions have existed from the Upper Paleolithic period, with carvings and paintings from the Lascaux and Chauvet Caves, through virtually all ancient and medieval cultures where they historically occurred. It has been extensively depicted in literature, in sculptures, in paintings, on national flags, and in contemporary films and literature.

Etymology

The lion’s name, similar in many Romance languages, derives from the Latin leo;^[7] cf. the Ancient Greek λέων (leon).^[8] The Hebrew word לָבִיא (lavi) may also be related,^[9] as well as the Ancient Egyptian rw.^[10] It was one of the many species originally described, as Felis leo, by Linnaeus in his eighteenth century work, Systema Naturae.^[3] The generic component of its scientific designation, Panthera leo, often is presumed to derive from Greek pan- (“all”) and ther (“beast”), but this may be a folk etymology. Although it came into English through the classical languages, panthera is probably of East Asian origin, meaning “the yellowish animal,” or “whitish-yellow”.^[11]

Taxonomy and evolution

Skull of a modern lion at Kruger National Park

The oldest lion-like fossil is known from Laetoli in Tanzania and is perhaps 3.5 million years old; some scientists have identified the material as Panthera leo. These records are not well-substantiated, and all that can be said is that they pertain to a Panthera-like felid. The oldest confirmed records of Panthera leo in Africa are about 2 million years younger.^[12] The closest relatives of the lion are the other Panthera species: the tiger, the jaguar, and the leopard. Morphological and genetic studies reveal that the tiger was the first of these recent species to diverge. About 1.9 million years ago the jaguar branched off the remaining group, which contained ancestors of the leopard and lion. The lion and leopard subsequently separated about 1 to 1.25 million years ago from each other.^[13]

Panthera leo itself evolved in Africa between 1 million and 800,000 years ago, before spreading throughout the Holarctic region.^[14] It appeared in Europe for the first time 700,000 years ago with the subspecies Panthera leo fossilis at Isernia in Italy. From this lion derived the later Cave Lion (Panthera leo spelaea), which appeared about 300,000 years ago. During the upper Pleistocene the lion spread to North and South America, and developed into Panthera leo atrox, the American Lion.^[15] Lions died out in northern Eurasia and America at the end of the last glaciation, about 10,000 years ago;^[16] this may have been secondary to the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna.^[17]

Subspecies

Southwest African lions (Panthera leo bleyenberghi)

Traditionally, twelve recent subspecies of lion were recognized, the largest of which has been recognized as the Barbary Lion.^[18] The major differences separating these subspecies are location, mane appearance, size, and distribution. Because these characteristics are very insignificant and show a high individual variability, most of these forms were debatable and probably invalid; additionally, they often were based upon zoo material of unknown origin that may have had “striking, but abnormal” morphological characteristics.^[19] Today only eight subspecies usually are accepted,^[16][20] but one of these (the Cape Lion formerly described as Panthera leo melanochaita) probably is invalid.^[20] Even the remaining seven subspecies might be too many; mitochondrial variation in recent African lions is modest, which suggests that all sub-Saharan lions could be considered a single subspecies, possibly divided in two main clades: one to the west of the Great Rift Valley and the other to the east. Lions from Tsavo in Eastern Kenya are much closer genetically to lions in Transvaal (South Africa), than to those in the Aberdare Range in Western Kenya.^[21][22]

Recent

Eight recent subspecies are recognized today:

• P. l. persica, known as the Asiatic Lion or South Asian, Persian, or Indian Lion, once was widespread from Turkey, across the Middle East, to Pakistan, India, and even to Bangladesh. However, large prides and daylight activity made them easier to poach than tigers or leopards; now around 300 exist in and near the Gir Forest of India.^[23]
• P. l. leo, known as the Barbary Lion, is extinct in the wild due to excessive hunting, although captive individuals may still exist. This was one of the largest of the lion subspecies, with reported lengths of 3–3.3 metres (10–10.8 ft) and weights of more than 200 kilograms (440 lb) for males. They ranged from Morocco to Egypt. The last wild Barbary lion was killed in Morocco in 1922.^[24]
• P. l. senegalensis, known as the West African Lion, is found in western Africa, from Senegal to Nigeria.
• P. l. azandica, known as the Northeast Congo Lion, is found in the northeastern parts of the Congo.
• P. l. nubica, known as the East African or Massai Lion, is found in east Africa, from Ethiopia and Kenya to Tanzania and Mozambique.
• P. l. bleyenberghi, known as the Southwest African or Katanga Lion, is found in southwestern Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Angola, Katanga (Zaire), Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
• P. l. krugeri, known as the Southeast African Lion or Transvaal Lion, is found in the Transvaal region of southeastern Africa, including Kruger National Park.
• P. l. melanochaita, known as the Cape Lion, became extinct in the wild around 1860. Results of mitochondrial DNA research do not support the status as a distinct subspecies. It seems probable that the Cape lion was only the southernmost population of the extant P. l. krugeri.^[20]

Prehistoric

Several additional subspecies of lion existed in prehistoric times:

• P. l. atrox, known as the American Lion or American cave lion, was abundant in the Americas from Alaska to Peru in the Pleistocene Epoch until about 10,000 years ago. This form as well as the cave lion sometimes are considered to represent separate species, but recent phylogenetic studies suggest that they are in fact, subspecies of the lion (Panthera leo).^[16] One of the largest lion subspecies to have existed, its body length is estimated to have been 1.6–2.5 m (5–8 ft).^[25]
• P. l. fossilis, known as the Early Middle Pleistocene European cave lion, flourished about 500,000 years ago; fossils have been recovered from Germany and Italy. It was larger than today’s African lions, reaching the American cave lion in size^[16][26]

Cave Lions, Chamber of Felines, Lascaux caves

• P. l. spelaea, known as the European cave lion, Eurasian cave lion, or Upper Pleistocene European cave lion, occurred in Eurasia 300,000 to 10,000 years ago.^[16] This species is known from Paleolithic cave paintings (such as the one displayed to the right), ivory carvings, and clay busts, ^[27] indicating it had protruding ears, tufted tails, perhaps faint tiger-like stripes, and that at least some males had a ruff or primitive mane around their necks.^[28] With this example being a hunting scene it is likely that it depicts females hunting for the pride using the same strategy as their contemporary relatives and males may not be part of the subject.
• P. l. vereshchagini, known as the East Siberian- or Beringian cave lion, was found in Yakutia (Russia), Alaska (USA), and the Yukon Territory (Canada). Analysis of skulls and mandibles of this lion demonstrate that it is distinctly—larger than the European cave lion and smaller than the American cave lion with differing skull proportions.^[16][29]

Dubious

• P. l. sinhaleyus, known as the Sri Lanka Lion, appears to have become extinct approximately 39,000 years ago. It is only known from two teeth found in deposits at Kuruwita. Based on these teeth, P. Deraniyagala erected this subspecies in 1939.^[30]
• P. l. europaea, known as the European Lion, probably was identical with Panthera leo persica or Panthera leo spelea; its status as a subspecies is unconfirmed. It became extinct around 100 AD due to persecution and over-exploitation. It inhabited the Balkans, the Italian Peninsula, southern France, and the Iberian Peninsula. It was a very popular object of hunting among Romans, Greeks, and Macedonians.
• P. l. youngi or Panthera youngi, flourished 350,000 years ago.^[31] Its relationship to the extant lion subspecies is obscure, and it probably represents a distinct species.
• P. l. maculatus, known as the Marozi or Spotted lion, sometimes is believed to be a distinct subspecies, but may be an adult lion that has retained its juvenile spotted pattern. If it was a subspecies in its own right, rather than a small number of aberrantly colored individuals, it has been extinct since 1931. A less likely identity is a natural leopard-lion hybrid commonly known as a leopon.^[32]

Hybrids

Lions have been known to breed with tigers (most often the Siberian and Bengal subspecies) to create hybrids called ligers and tigons.^[33] They also have been crossed with leopards to produce leopons,^[34] and jaguars to produce jaglions. The marozi is reputedly a spotted lion or a naturally occurring leopon, while the Congolese Spotted Lion is a complex lion-jaguar-leopard hybrid called a lijagulep. Such hybrids once commonly were bred in zoos, but this is now discouraged due to the emphasis on conserving species and subspecies. Hybrids are still bred in private menageries and in zoos in China.

The liger is a cross between a male lion and a tigress.^[35] Because the growth-inhibiting gene from the female tiger is absent, a growth-promoting gene is passed on by the male lion, the resulting ligers grow far larger than either parent. They share physical and behavioural qualities of both parent species (spots and stripes on a sandy background). Male ligers are sterile, but female ligers are often fertile. Males have about a 50 percent chance of having a mane, but if they grow one, their manes will be modest: around 50 percent of a pure lion mane. Ligers are typically between 3.0 and 3.7 m (10 to 12 feet) in length, and can be between 360 and 450 kg (800 to 1,000 pounds) or more.^[35] The less common tigon is a cross between the lioness and the male tiger.^[36]

Physical characteristics

During confrontations with others, the mane makes the lion look larger

The lion is the tallest (at the shoulder) of the felines, and also is the second-heaviest feline after the tiger. With powerful legs, a strong jaw, and 8 cm (3.1 in) long canine teeth, the lion can bring down and kill large prey.^[37] The skull of the lion is very similar to that of the tiger, though the frontal region is usually more depressed and flattened, with a slightly shorter postorbital region. The lion’s skull has broader nasal openings than the tiger. However, due to the amount of skull variation in the two species, usually, only the structure of the lower jaw can be used as a reliable indicator of species.^[38] Lion coloration varies from light buff to yellowish, reddish, or dark ochraceous brown. The underparts are generally lighter and the tail tuft is black. Lion cubs are born with brown rosettes (spots) on their body, rather like those of a leopard. Although these fade as lions reach adulthood, faint spots often may still be seen on the legs and underparts, particularly on lionesses.

Lions are the only members of the cat family to display obvious sexual dimorphism—that is, males and females look distinctly different. They also have specialized roles that each gender plays in the pride. For instance, the lioness, the hunter, lacks the male’s thick cumbersome mane. It seems to impede the male’s ability to be camouflaged when stalking the prey and create overheating in chases. The color of the male’s mane varies from blond to black, generally becoming darker as the lion grows older.

Two lionesses in Masai Mara, Kenya

Weights for adult lions generally lie between 150–250 kg (330–550 lb) for males and 120–182 kg (264–400 lb) for females.^[4] Nowell and Jackson report average weights of 181 kg for males and 126 kg for females; one male shot near Mount Kenya was weighed at 272 kg (600 lb).^[24] Lions tend to vary in size depending on their environment and area, resulting in a wide spread in recorded weights. For instance, lions in southern Africa tend to be about 5 percent heavier than those in East Africa, in general.^[39]

Head and body length is 170–250 cm (5 ft 7 in – 8 ft 2 in) in males and 140–175 cm (4 ft 7 in – 5 ft 9 in) in females; shoulder height is about 123 cm (4 ft) in males and 107 cm (3 ft 6 in) in females. The tail length is 90-105 cm (2 ft 11 in – 3 ft 5 in) in males and 70–100 cm in females (2 ft 4 in – 3 ft 3 in).^[4] The longest known lion was a black-maned male shot near Mucsso, southern Angola in October 1973; the heaviest known lion was a man-eater shot in 1936 just outside Hectorspruit in eastern Transvaal, South Africa and weighed 313 kg (690 lb).^[40] Lions in captivity tend to be larger than lions in the wild—the heaviest lion on record is a male at Colchester Zoo in England named Simba in 1970, which weighed 375 kg (826 lb).^[41]

The most distinctive characteristic shared by both females and males is that the tail ends in a hairy tuft. In some lions, the tuft conceals a hard “spine” or “spur”, approximately 5 mm long, formed of the final sections of tail bone fused together. The lion is the only felid to have a tufted tail—the function of the tuft and spine are unknown. Absent at birth, the tuft develops around 5½ months of age and is readily identifiable at 7 months.^[42]

Mane

Thermographic image of a lion, showing the insulating mane

The mane of the adult male lion, unique among cats, is one of the most distinctive characteristics of the species. It makes the lion appear larger, providing an excellent intimidation display; this aids the lion during confrontations with other lions and with the species’ chief competitor in Africa, the spotted hyena.^[43] The presence, absence, color, and size of the mane is associated with genetic precondition, sexual maturity, climate, and testosterone production; the rule of thumb is the darker and fuller the mane, the healthier the lion. Sexual selection of mates by lionesses favors males with the densest, darkest mane. ^[44] Research in Tanzania also suggests mane length signals fighting success in male-male relationships. Darker-maned individuals may have longer reproductive lives and higher offspring survival, although they suffer in the hottest months of the year.^[45] In prides including a coalition of two or three males, it is possible that lionesses solicit mating more actively with the males who are more heavily maned.^[44]

A maneless male lion, who also has little body hair—from Tsavo East National Park, Kenya

Scientists once believed that the distinct status of some subspecies could be justified by morphology, including the size of the mane. Morphology was used to identify subspecies such as the Barbary Lion and Cape Lion. Research has suggested, however, that environmental factors influence the color and size of a lion’s mane, such as the ambient temperature.^[45] The cooler ambient temperature in European and North American zoos, for example, may result in a heavier mane. Thus the mane is not an appropriate marker for identifying subspecies.^[20][46] The males of the Asiatic subspecies, however, are characterized by sparser manes than average African lions.^[47]

Maneless male lions have been reported in Senegal and Tsavo East National Park in Kenya, and the original male white lion from Timbavati also was maneless. Castrated lions have minimal manes. The lack of a mane sometimes is found in inbred lion populations; inbreeding also results in poor fertility.^[48]

Lioness showing the ruff that sometimes leads to misidentification as a male

Many lionesses have a ruff that may be apparent in certain poses. Sometimes it is indicated in sculptures and drawings, especially ancient artwork, and is misinterpreted as a male mane. It differs from a mane, however, in being at the jaw line below the ears, of much less hair length, and frequently not noticeable, whereas a mane extends above the ears of males, often obscuring their outline entirely.

Cave paintings of extinct European Cave Lions exclusively show animals with no mane, or just the hint of a mane, suggesting to some that they were more or less maneless;^[28] however, females hunting for a pride are the likely subjects of the drawings—since they are shown in a group related to hunting—so these images do not enable a reliable judgment about whether the males had manes. The drawings do suggest that the extinct species used the same social organization and hunting strategies as contemporary lions.

White lions

White lions owe their coloring to a recessive gene; they are rare forms of the subspecies Panthera leo krugeri

The white lion is not a distinct subspecies, but a special morph with a genetic condition, leucism,^[19] that causes paler colouration akin to that of the white tiger; the condition is similar to melanism, which causes black panthers. They are not albinos, having normal pigmentation in the eyes and skin. White Transvaal lion (Panthera leo krugeri) individuals occasionally have been encountered in and around Kruger National Park and the adjacent Timbavati Private Game Reserve in eastern South Africa, but are more commonly found in captivity, where breeders deliberately select them. The unusual cream color of their coats is due to a recessive gene.^[49] Reportedly, they have been bred in camps in South Africa for use as trophies to be killed during canned hunts.^[50]

Confirmation of the existence of white lions only came in the late twentieth century. For hundreds of years prior, the white lion had been thought to be a figment of legend circulating in South Africa, the white pelage of the animal said to represent the goodness in all creatures. Sightings were first reported in the early 1900s, and continued, infrequently, for almost fifty years until, in 1975, a litter of white lion cubs was found at Timbavati Game Reserve.^[51]

Biology and behavior

Lions spend much of their time resting and are inactive for about 20 hours per day.^[52] Although lions can be active at any time, their activity generally peaks after dusk with a period of socializing, grooming, and defecating. Intermittent bursts of activity follow through the night hours until dawn, when hunting most often takes place. They spend an average of two hours a day walking and 50 minutes eating.^[53]

Group organization

Lions are predatory carnivores who manifest two types of social organization. Some are residents, living in groups, called prides.^[54] The pride usually consists of approximately five or six related females, their cubs of both sexes, and one or two males (known as a coalition if more than one) who mate with the adult females (although extremely large prides, consisting of up to 30 individuals, have been observed). The coalition of males associated with a pride usually amounts to two, but may increase to four and decrease again over time. Male cubs are excluded from their maternal pride when they reach maturity.

A pride on the move near Governors Camp, in the Massai Mara, Kenya

The second organizational behaviour is labeled nomads, who range widely and move about sporadically, either singularly or in pairs.^[54] Pairs are more frequent among related males who have been excluded from their birth pride. Note that a lion may switch lifestyles; nomads may become residents and vice versa. Males have to go through this lifestyle and some never are able to join another pride. A female who becomes a nomad has much greater difficulty joining a new pride, as the females in a pride are related, and they reject most attempts by an unrelated female to join their family group.

The area a pride occupies is called a pride area, whereas that by a nomad is a range.^[54] The males associated with a pride tend to stay on the fringes, patrolling their territory. Why sociality—the most pronounced in any cat species—has developed in lionesses is the subject of much debate. Increased hunting success appears an obvious reason, but this is less than sure upon examination: coordinated hunting does allow for more successful predation, but also ensures that non-hunting members reduce per capita caloric intake, however, some take a role raising cubs, who may be left alone for extended periods of time. Members of the pride regularly tend to play the same role in hunts. The health of the hunters is the primary need for the survival of the pride and they are the first to consume the prey at the site it is taken. Other benefits include possible kin selection (better to share food with a related lion than with a stranger), protection of the young, maintenance of territory, and individual insurance against injury and hunger.^[24]

Lioness in a burst of speed while hunting in the Serengeti

Lionesses do the majority of the hunting for their pride, being smaller, swifter and more agile than the males, and unencumbered by the heavy and conspicuous mane, which causes overheating during exertion. They act as a co-ordinated group in order to stalk and bring down the prey successfully. However, if nearby the hunt, males have a tendency to dominate the kill once the lionesses have succeeded and eaten. They are more likely to share with the cubs than with the lionesses, but rarely share food they have killed by themselves. Smaller prey is eaten at the location of the hunt, thereby being shared among the hunters; when the kill is larger it often is dragged to the pride area. There is more sharing of larger kills, ^[55] although pride members often behave aggressively toward each other as each tries to consume as much food as possible.

Both males and females defend the pride against intruders. Some individual lions consistently lead the defense against intruders, while others lag behind.^[56] Lions tend to assume specific roles in the pride. Those lagging behind may provide other valuable services to the group.^[57] An alternative hypothesis is that there is some reward associated with being a leader who fends off intruders and the rank of lionesses in the pride is reflected in these responses.^[58] The male or males associated with the pride must defend their relationship to the pride from outside males who attempt to take over their relationship with the pride. Females form the stable social unit in a pride and do not tolerate outside females; ^[59] membership only changes with the births and deaths of lionesses,^[60] although some females do leave and become nomadic.^[61] Subadult males on the other hand, must leave the pride when they reach maturity at around 2–3 years of age.^[61]

Hunting and diet

While a lioness such as this has very sharp teeth, prey is usually killed by strangulation

Lions are powerful animals that usually hunt in coordinated groups and stalk their chosen prey. However, they are not particularly known for their stamina – for instance, a lioness’ heart makes up only 0.57 percent of her body weight (a male’s is about 0.45 percent of his body weight), whereas a hyena’s heart is close to 1 percent of its body weight.^[60] Thus, although lionesses can reach speeds of 60 km/h (40 mph),^[62] they only can do so for short bursts^[63] so they have to be close to their prey before starting the attack. They take advantage of factors that reduce visibility; many kills take place near some form of cover or at night.^[64] They sneak up to the victim until they reach a distance of approximately 30 metres (98 ft) or less. Typically, several lionesses work together and encircle the herd from different points. Once they have closed with a herd, they usually target the closest prey. The attack is short and powerful; they attempt to catch the victim with a fast rush and final leap. The prey usually is killed by strangulation,^[65] which can cause cerebral ischemia or asphyxia (which results in hypoxemic, or “general,” hypoxia). The prey also may be killed by the lion enclosing the animal’s mouth and nostrils in its jaws^[4] (which would also result in asphyxia). Smaller prey, though, may simply be killed by a swipe of a lion’s paw.^[4]

The prey consists mainly of large mammals, with a preference for wildebeest, impalas, zebras, buffalo, and warthogs in Africa and nilgai, wild boar, and several deer species in India. Many other species are hunted, based on availability. Mainly this will include ungulates weighing between 50 and 300 kg (110–660 lb) such as kudu, hartebeest, gemsbok, and eland.^[4] Occasionally, they take relatively small species such as Thomson’s Gazelle or springbok. Lions living near the Namib coast feed extensively on seals.^[66] Lions hunting in groups are capable of taking down most animals, even healthy adults, but in most parts of their range they rarely attack very large prey such as fully grown male giraffes due to the danger of injury.

Seven lions along the road in the Masai Mara park reserve in Kenya

Extensive statistics collected over various studies show that lions normally feed on mammals in the range 190–550 kg (420–1210 lb). Wildebeest rank at the top of preferred prey (making nearly half of the lion prey in the Serengeti) followed by zebra.^[67] Most adult hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, elephants, and smaller gazelles, impala, and other agile antelopes are generally excluded. However giraffes and buffalos are often taken in certain regions. For instance, in Kruger National Park, giraffes are regularly hunted.^[68], and in Manyara Pack, Cape buffaloes constitute as much as 62% of the lion’s diet,^[69] due to the high number density of buffaloes. Occasionally hippopotamus is also taken, but adult rhinoceroses are generally avoided. Even though smaller than 190 kg (420 lb), warthogs are often taken depending on availability.^[70] In some areas, they specialise in hunting atypical prey species; this is the case at the Savuti river, where they prey on elephants.^[71] Park guides in the area reported that the lions, driven by extreme hunger, started taking down baby elephants, and then moved on to adolescents and, occasionally, fully grown adults during the night when elephants’ vision is poor.^[72] Lions also attack domestic livestock; in India cattle contribute significantly to their diet.^[47] They are capable of killing other predators such as leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, and wild dogs, though (unlike most felids) they seldom devour the competitors after killing them. They also scavenge animals either dead from natural causes or killed by other predators, and keep a constant lookout for circling vultures, being keenly aware that they indicate an animal dead or in distress.^[73] A lion may gorge itself and eat up to 30 kg (66 lb) in one sitting;^[74] if it is unable to consume all the kill it will rest for a few hours before consuming more. On a hot day, the pride may retreat to shade leaving a male or two to stand guard.^[75] An adult lioness requires an average of about 5 kg (11 lb) of meat per day, a male about 7 kg (15.4 lb).^[76]

The hunters of a pride sharing a zebra where the kill occurred

Because lionesses hunt in open spaces where they are easily seen by their prey, cooperative hunting increases the likelihood of a successful hunt; this is especially true with larger species. Teamwork also enables them to defend their kills more easily against other large predators such as hyenas, which may be attracted by vultures from kilometers away in open savannas. Lionesses do most of the hunting; males attached to prides do not usually participate in hunting, except in the case of larger quarry such as giraffe and buffalo. In typical hunts, each lioness has a favored position in the group, either stalking prey on the “wing” then attacking, or moving a smaller distance in the centre of the group and capturing prey in flight from other lionesses.^[77]

Young lions first display stalking behavior around three months of age, although they do not participate in hunting until they are almost a year old. They begin to hunt effectively when nearing the age of two.^[78]

Reproduction and life cycle

Most lionesses will have reproduced by the time they are four years of age.^[79] Lions do not mate at any specific time of year, and the females are polyestrous.^[80] As with other cats, the male lion’s penis has spines which point backwards. Upon withdrawal of the penis, the spines rake the walls of the female’s vagina, which may cause ovulation.^[81] A lioness may mate with more than one male when she is in heat;^[82] during a mating bout, which could last several days, the couple copulates twenty to forty times a day and are likely to forgo eating. Lions reproduce very well in captivity.

During a mating bout, a couple may copulate 20 to 40 times a day for several days

The average gestation period is around 110 days,^[80] the female giving birth to a litter of one to four cubs in a secluded den (which may be a thicket, a reed-bed, a cave or some other sheltered area) usually away from the rest of the pride. She will often hunt by herself whilst the cubs are still helpless, staying relatively close to the thicket or den where the cubs are kept. ^[83] The cubs themselves are born blind—their eyes do not open until roughly a week after birth. They weigh 1.2–2.1 kg (2.6–4.6 lb) at birth and are almost helpless, beginning to crawl a day or two after birth and walking around three weeks of age.^[84] The lioness moves her cubs to a new den site several times a month, carrying them one by one by the nape of the neck, to prevent scent from building up at a single den site and thus avoiding the attention of predators that may harm the cubs.^[83]

Usually, the mother does not integrate herself and her cubs back into the pride until the cubs are six to eight weeks old. ^[85] However, sometimes this introduction to pride life occurs earlier, particularly if other lionesses have given birth at about the same time. For instance, lionesses in a pride often synchronize their reproductive cycles so that they cooperate in the raising and suckling of the young (once the cubs are past the initial stage of isolation with their mother), who suckle indiscriminately from any or all of the nursing females in the pride. In addition to greater protection, the synchronization of births also has an advantage in that the cubs end up being roughly the same size, and thus have an equal chance of survival. If one lioness gives birth to a litter of cubs a couple of months after another lioness, for instance, then the younger cubs, being much smaller than their older brethren, are usually dominated by larger cubs at mealtimes—consequently, death by starvation is more common amongst the younger cubs.

A pregnant lioness (right)

In addition to starvation, cubs also face many other dangers, such as predation by jackals, hyenas, leopards, martial eagles and snakes. Even buffaloes, should they catch the scent of lion cubs, often stampede towards the thicket or den where they are being kept, doing their best to trample the cubs to death whilst warding off the lioness. Furthermore, when one or more new males oust the previous male(s) associated with a pride, the conqueror(s) often kill any existing young cubs, ^[86] perhaps because females do not become fertile and receptive until their cubs mature or die. All in all, as many as 80 percent of the cubs will die before the age of two.^[87]

When first introduced to the rest of the pride, the cubs initially lack confidence when confronted with adult lions other than their mother. However, they soon begin to immerse themselves in the pride life, playing amongst themselves or attempting to initiate play with the adults. Lionesses with cubs of their own are more likely to be tolerant of another lioness’s cubs than lionesses without cubs. The tolerance of the male lions towards the cubs varies—sometimes, a male will patiently let the cubs play with his tail or his mane, whereas another may snarl and bat the cubs away. ^[88]

The tolerance of male lions towards the cubs varies. They are, however, generally more likely to share food with the cubs than with the lionesses.

Weaning occurs after six to seven months. Male lions reach maturity at about 3 years of age and, at 4–5 years of age, are capable of challenging and displacing the adult male(s) associated with another pride. They begin to age and weaken between 10 and 15 years of age at the latest,^[89] if they have not already been critically injured whilst defending the pride (once ousted from a pride by rival males, male lions rarely manage a second take-over). This leaves a short window for their own offspring to be born and mature. If they are able to procreate as soon as they take over a pride, potentially, they may have more offspring reaching maturity before they also are displaced. A lioness often will attempt to defend her cubs fiercely from a usurping male, but such actions are rarely successful. He usually kills all of the existing cubs who are less than two years old. A lioness is weaker and much lighter than a male; success is more likely when a group of three or four mothers within a pride join forces against one male.^[86]

Contrary to popular belief, it is not only males that are ousted from their pride to become nomads, although the majority of females certainly do remain with their birth pride. However, when the pride becomes too large, the next generation of female cubs may be forced to leave to eke out their own territory. Furthermore, when a new male lion takes over the pride, subadult lions, both male and female, may be evicted. ^[90] Life is harsh for a female nomad. Nomadic lionesses rarely manage to raise their cubs to maturity, without the protection of other pride members.

One scientific study reports that both males and females may interact homosexually.^[91][92] Male lions pair-bond for a number of days and initiate homosexual activity with affectionate nuzzling and caressing, leading to mounting and thrusting. A study found that about 8 percent of mountings have been observed to occur with other males. Female pairings are held to be fairly common in captivity, but have not been observed in the wild.

Health

Though adult lions have no natural predators, evidence suggests that the majority die violently from humans or other lions.^[93] This is particularly true of male lions, who, as the main defenders of the pride, are more likely to come into aggressive contact with rival males. In fact, even though a male lion may reach an age of 15 or 16 years if he manages to avoid being ousted by other males, the majority of adult males do not live to be more than 10 years old. This is why the average lifespan of a male lion tends to be significantly less than that of a lioness in the wild. However, members of both sexes can be injured or even killed by other lions when two prides with overlapping territories come into conflict.

Various species of tick commonly infest the ears, neck and groin regions of most lions.^[94][95] Adult forms of several species of the tapeworm genus Taenia have been isolated from intestines, the lions having ingested larval forms from antelope meat.^[96] Lions in the Ngorongoro Crater were afflicted by an outbreak of stable fly (Stomoxys calcitrans) in 1962; this resulted in lions becoming covered in bloody bare patches and emaciated. Lions sought unsuccessfully to evade the biting flies by climbing trees or crawling into hyena burrows; many perished or emigrated as the population dropped from 70 to 15 individuals.^[97] A more recent outbreak in 2001 killed six lions.^[98] Lions, especially in captivity, are vulnerable to the Canine distemper virus (CDV), feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), and feline infectious peritonitis (FIP).^[19] CDV is spread through domestic dogs and other carnivores; a 1994 outbreak in Serengeti National Park resulted in many lions developing neurological symptoms such as seizures. During the outbreak, several lions died from pneumonia and encephalitis.^[99] FIV, which is similar to HIV while not known to adversely affect lions, is worrisome enough in its effect in domestic cats that the Species Survival Plan recommends systematic testing in captive lions. It occurs with high to endemic frequency in several wild lion populations, but is mostly absent from Asiatic and Namibian lions.^[19]

Communication

Head rubbing and licking are common social behaviors within a pride

When resting, lion socialization occurs through a number of behaviors, and the animal’s expressive movements are highly developed. The most common peaceful tactile gestures are head rubbing and social licking,^[100] which have been compared with grooming in primates.^[101] Head rubbing—nuzzling one’s forehead, face and neck against another lion—appears to be a form of greeting,^[102] as it is seen often after an animal has been apart from others, or after a fight or confrontation. Males tend to rub other males, while cubs and females rub females.^[103] Social licking often occurs in tandem with head rubbing; it is generally mutual and the recipient appears to express pleasure. The head and neck are the most common parts of the body licked, which may have arisen out of utility, as a lion cannot lick these areas individually.^[104]

Lions have an array of facial expressions and body postures that serve as visual gestures.^[105] Their repertoire of vocalizations is also large; variations in intensity and pitch, rather than discrete signals, appear central to communication. Lion sounds include snarling, purring, hissing, coughing, miaowing, woofing and roaring. Lions tend to roar in a very characteristic manner, starting with a few deep, long roars that trail off into a series of shorter ones. They most often roar at night; the sound, which can be heard from a distance of 8 kilometres (5.0 mi), is used to advertise the animal’s presence.^[106] Lions have the loudest roar of any big cat.

Interspecific predatory relationships

In areas where lions and spotted hyenas are sympatric, the two species occupy the same ecological niche, and are thus in direct competition with one another. In some cases, the extent of dietary overlap can be as high as 68.8%.^[107] Lions typically ignore spotted hyenas, unless they are on a kill or are being harassed by them. Spotted hyenas themselves tend to visibly react to the presence of lions, whether there is food or not. Lions will readily appropriate the kills of spotted hyenas: in the Ngorongoro crater, it is common for lions to subsist largely on kills stolen from hyenas, causing the hyenas to increase their kill rate. Lions are quick to follow the calls of hyenas feeding, a fact which was proven by Dr. Hans Kruuk, who found that lions repeatedly approached him whenever he played the tape-recorded calls of hyenas feeding.^[108] When confronted on a kill by lions, spotted hyenas will either leave or wait patiently at a distance of 30-100 metres until the lions have finished.^[109] In some cases, spotted hyenas are bold enough to feed alongside lions, and may occasionally force the lions off a kill. The two species may act agressively toward one another even when there is no food involved. Lions may charge at hyenas and maul them for no apparent reason: one male lion was filmed killing two matriarch hyenas on separate occasions without eating them,^[110] and lion predation can account for up to 71% of hyena deaths in Etosha. Spotted hyenas have adapted to this pressure by frequently mobbing lions which enter their territories.^[111] Experiments on captive spotted hyenas revealed that specimens with no prior experience with lions act indifferently to the sight of them, but will react fearfully to the scent.^[108]

Lions tend to dominate smaller felines such as cheetahs and leopards in areas where they are sympatric. They will steal their kills and will kill their cubs and even adults when given the chance. The cheetah has a 50 percent chance of losing its kill to lions or other predators.^[112] Lions are major killers of cheetah cubs, up to 90 percent of which are lost in their first weeks of life due to attacks by other predators. Cheetahs avoid competition by hunting at different times of the day and hide their cubs in thick brush. Leopards also use such tactics, but have the advantage of being able to subsist much better on small prey than either lions or cheetahs. Also, unlike cheetahs, leopards can climb trees and use them to keep their cubs and kills away from lions. However, lionesses will occasionally be successful in climbing to retrieve leopard kills.^[113] Similarly, lions dominate African wild dogs, not only taking their kills but also preying on both young and adult dogs (although the latter are rarely caught).^[114]

The Nile crocodile is the only sympatric predator (besides humans) that can singly threaten the lion. Depending on the size of the crocodile and the lion, either can lose kills or carrion to the other. Lions have been known to kill crocodiles venturing onto land,^[115] while the reverse is true for lions entering waterways containing crocodiles, as evidenced by the fact that lion claws have on occasion been found in crocodile stomachs.^[116]

Distribution and habitat

In Africa, lions can be found in savanna grasslands with scattered Acacia trees which serve as shade;^[117] their habitat in India is a mixture of dry savanna forest and very dry deciduous scrub forest.^[118] In relatively recent times the habitat of lions spanned the southern parts of Eurasia, ranging from Greece to India, and most of Africa except the central rainforest-zone and the Sahara desert. Herodotus reported that lions had been common in Greece around 480 BC; they attacked the baggage camels of the Persian king Xerxes on his march through the country. Aristotle considered them rare by 300 BC and by 100 AD extirpated.^[119] A population of the Asiatic Lion survived until the tenth century in the Caucasus, their last European outpost.^[120]

The species was eradicated from Palestine by the Middle Ages and from most of the rest of Asia after the arrival of readily available firearms in the eighteenth century. Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century they became extinct in North Africa and the Middle East. By the late nineteenth century the lion had disappeared from Turkey and most of northern India,^[19][121] while the last sighting of a live Asiatic lion in Iran was in 1941 (between Shiraz and Jahrom, Fars Province), though the corpse of a lioness was found on the banks of Karun river, Khūzestān Province in 1944. There are no subsequent reliable reports from Iran.^[74] The subspecies now survives only in and around the Gir Forest of northwestern India.^[23] About 300 lions live in a 1,412 km² (558 square miles) sanctuary in the state of Gujarat, which covers most of the forest. Their numbers are slowly increasing.^[122]

They were found in most of Africa, much of Eurasia from western Europe to India and the Bering land bridge, and in the Americas from Yukon to Peru.^[31] Parts of this range were occupied by subspecies that are extinct today.

Population and conservation status

Lion cub playing with a piece of bark.

Most lions now live in eastern and southern Africa, and their numbers there are rapidly decreasing, with an estimated 30–50 percent decline over the last two decades.^[6] Currently, estimates of the African lion population range between 16,500 and 47,000 living in the wild in 2002–2004,^[123][124] down from early 1990s estimates that ranged as high as 100,000 and perhaps 400,000 in 1950. The cause of the decline is not well-understood, and may not be reversible.^[6] Currently, habitat loss and conflicts with humans are considered the most significant threats to the species.^[125][126] The remaining populations are often geographically isolated from each other, which can lead to inbreeding, and consequently, a lack of genetic diversity. Therefore the lion is considered a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, while the Asiatic subspecies is critically endangered. The lion population in the region of West Africa is isolated from lion populations of Central Africa, with little or no exchange of breeding individuals. The number of mature individuals in West Africa is estimated by two separate recent surveys at 850–1,160 (2002/2004). There is disagreement over the size of the largest individual population in West Africa: the estimates range from 100 to 400 lions in Burkina Faso‘s Arly-Singou ecosystem.^[6]

An Asiatic Lioness Panthera leo persica, named Moti, born in captivity in Helsinki Zoo (Finland) in October 1994; she arrived at Bristol Zoo (England) in January 1996.

Conservation of both African and Asian lions has required the setup and maintenance of national parks and game reserves; among the best known are Etosha National Park in Namibia, Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, and Kruger National Park in eastern South Africa. Outside these areas, the issues arising from lions’ interaction with livestock and people usually results in the elimination of the former.^[127] In India, the last refuge of the Asiatic lion is the 1,412 km² (558 square miles) Gir Forest National Park in western India which had about 359 lions (as of April 2006). As in Africa, numerous human habitations are close by with the resultant problems between lions, livestock, locals and wildlife officials.^[128] The Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project plans to establish a second independent population of Asiatic Lions at the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.^[129] It is important to start a second population to serve as a gene pool for the last surviving Asiatic lions and to help develop and maintain genetic diversity enabling the species to survive.

The former popularity of the Barbary lion as a zoo animal has meant that scattered lions in captivity are likely to be descended from Barbary Lion stock. This includes twelve lions at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent, England that are descended from animals owned by the King of Morocco.^[130] Another eleven animals believed to be Barbary lions were found in Addis Ababa zoo, descendants of animals owned by Emperor Haile Selassie. WildLink International, in collaboration with Oxford University, launched their ambitious International Barbary Lion Project with the aim of identifying and breeding Barbary lions in captivity for eventual reintroduction into a national park in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.^[46]

Following the discovery of the decline of lion population in Africa, several coordinated efforts involving lion conservation have been organised in an attempt to stem this decline. Lions are one species included in the Species Survival Plan, a coordinated attempt by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to increase its chances of survival. The plan was originally started in 1982 for the Asiatic lion, but was suspended when it was found that most Asiatic lions in North American zoos were not genetically pure, having been hybridized with African lions. The African lion plan started in 1993, focusing especially on the South African subspecies, although there are difficulties in assessing the genetic diversity of captive lions, since most individuals are of unknown origin, making maintenance of genetic diversity a problem.^[19]

Man-eaters

While lions do not usually hunt people, some (usually males) seem to seek out human prey; well-publicized cases include the Tsavo maneaters, where 28 railway workers building the Kenya-Uganda Railway were taken by lions over nine months during the construction of a bridge over the Tsavo River in Kenya in 1898, and the 1991 Mfuwe man-eater, which killed six people in the Laungwa River Valley in Zambia.^[131] In both, the hunters who killed the lions wrote books detailing the animals’ predatory behavior. The Mfuwe and Tsavo incidents bear similarities: the lions in both incidents were larger than normal, lacked manes, and seemed to suffer from tooth decay. The infirmity theory, including tooth decay, is not favored by all researchers; an analysis of teeth and jaws of man-eating lions in museum collections suggests that, while tooth decay may explain some incidents, prey depletion in human-dominated areas is a more likely cause of lion predation on humans.^[132] In their analysis of Tsavo and man-eating generally, Kerbis Peterhans and Gnoske acknowledge that sick or injured animals may be more prone to man-eating, but that the behavior is “not unusual, nor necessarily ‘aberrant’” where the opportunity exists; if inducements such as access to livestock or human corpses are present, lions will regularly prey upon human beings. The authors note that the relationship is well-attested amongst other pantherines and primates in the paleontological record.^[133] The lion’s proclivity for man-eating has been systematically examined. American and Tanzanian scientists report that man-eating behavior in rural areas of Tanzania increased greatly from 1990 to 2005. At least 563 villagers were attacked and many eaten over this period—a number far exceeding the more famed “Tsavo” incidents of a century earlier. The incidents occurred near Selous National Park in Rufiji District and in Lindi Province near the Mozambican border. While the expansion of villagers into bush country is one concern, the authors argue that conservation policy must mitigate the danger because, in this case, conservation contributes directly to human deaths. Cases in Lindi have been documented where lions seize humans from the center of substantial villages.^[134]

Author Robert R. Frump wrote in The Man-eaters of Eden that Mozambican refugees regularly crossing Kruger National Park at night in South Africa are attacked and eaten by the lions; park officials have conceded that man-eating is a problem there. Frump believes thousands may have been killed in the decades after apartheid sealed the park and forced the refugees to cross the park at night. For nearly a century before the border was sealed, Mozambicans had regularly walked across the park in daytime with little harm.^[135]

Packer estimates more than 200 Tanzanians are killed each year by lions, crocodiles, elephants, hippos, and snakes, and that the numbers could be double that amount, with lions thought to kill at least 70 of those. Packer and Ikanda are among the few conservationists who believe western conservation efforts must take account of these matters not just because of ethical concerns about human life, but also for the long term success of conservation efforts and lion preservation.^[134]

A man-eating lion was killed by game scouts in Southern Tanzania in April 2004. It is believed to have killed and eaten at least 35 people in a series of incidents covering several villages in the Rufiji Delta coastal region.^[136][137] Dr Rolf D. Baldus, the GTZ wildlife programme coordinator, commented that it was likely that the lion preyed on humans because it had a large abscess underneath a molar which was cracked in several places. He further commented that “This lion probably experienced a lot of pain, particularly when it was chewing.”^[138] GTZ is the German development cooperation agency and has been working with the Tanzanian government on wildlife conservation for nearly two decades. As in other cases this lion was large, lacked a mane, and had a tooth problem.

The “All-Africa” record of man-eating generally is considered to be not Tsavo, but the lesser-known incidents in the late 1930s through the late 1940s in what was then Tanganyika (now Tanzania). George Rushby, game warden and professional hunter, eventually dispatched the pride, which over three generations is thought to have killed and eaten 1,500 to 2,000 in what is now Njombe district.^[139]

In captivity

Lion in captivity

Widely seen in captivity,^[140] lions are part of a group of exotic animals that are the core of zoo exhibits since the late eighteenth century; members of this group are invariably large vertebrates and include elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, large primates, and other big cats; zoos sought to gather as many of these species as possible.^[141] Though many modern zoos are more selective about their exhibits,^[142] there are over 1000 African and 100 Asiatic lions in zoos and wildlife parks around the world. They are considered an ambassador species and are kept for tourism, education and conservation purposes.^[143] Lions can reach an age of over 20 years in captivity; Apollo, a resident lion of Honolulu Zoo in Honolulu, Hawaii, died at age 22 in August 2007. His two sisters, born in 1986, are still living.^[144] A zoo-based lion breeding programme usually takes into account the separation of the various lion subspecies, while mitigating the inbreeding that is likely to occur when animals are divided by subspecies.^[145]

A lion at Paignton Zoo

Lions were kept and bred by Assyrian kings as early as 850 BC,^[119] and Alexander the Great was said to have been presented with tame lions by the Malhi of northern India.^[146] Later in Roman times, lions were kept by emperors to take part in the gladiator arenas. Roman notables, including Sulla, Pompey, and Julius Caesar, often ordered the mass slaughter of hundreds of lions at a time.^[147] In the East, lions were tamed by Indian princes, and Marco Polo reported that Kublai Khan kept lions inside.^[148] The first European “zoos” spread amongst noble and royal families in the thirteenth century, and until the seventeenth century were called seraglios; at that time, they came to be called menageries, an extension of the cabinet of curiosities. They spread from France and Italy during the Renaissance to the rest of Europe.^[149] In England, although the seraglio tradition was less developed, Lions were kept at the Tower of London in a seraglio established by King John in the thirteenth century,^[150][151] probably stocked with animals from an earlier menagerie started in 1125 by Henry I at his palace in Woodstock, near Oxford; where lions had been reported stocked by William of Malmesbury.^[152]

Seraglios served as expressions of the nobility’s power and wealth. Animals such as big cats and elephants, in particular, symbolized power, and would be pitted in fights against each other or domesticated animals. By extension, menageries and seraglios served as demonstrations of the dominance of humanity over nature. Consequently, the defeat of such natural “lords” by a cow in 1682 astonished the spectators, and the flight of an elephant before a rhinoceros drew jeers. Such fights would slowly fade out in the seventeenth century with the spread of the menagerie and their appropriation by the commoners. The tradition of keeping big cats as pets would last into the nineteenth century, at which time it was seen as highly eccentric.^[153]

Albrecht Dürer, Lions sketch. Circa 1520

The presence of lions at the Tower of London was intermittent, being restocked when a monarch or his consort, such as Margaret of Anjou the wife of Henry VI, either sought or were given animals. Records indicate they were kept in poor conditions there in the seventeenth century, in contrast to more open conditions in Florence at the time.^[154] The menagerie was open to the public by the eighteenth century; admission was a sum of three half-pence or the supply of a cat or dog for feeding to the lions.^[155] A rival menagerie at the Exeter Exchange also exhibited lions until the early nineteenth century.^[156] The Tower menagerie was closed down by William IV,^[155] and animals transferred to the London Zoo which opened its gates to the public on 27 April 1828.^[157]

The wild animals trade flourished alongside improved colonial trade of the nineteenth century. Lions were considered fairly common and inexpensive. Although they would barter higher than tigers, they were less costly than larger, or more difficult to transport animals such as the giraffe and hippopotamus, and much less than pandas.^[159] Like other animals, lions were seen as little more than a natural, boundless commodity that was mercilessly exploited with terrible losses in capture and transportation.^[160] The widely reproduced imagery of the heroic hunter chasing lions would dominate a large part of the century.^[161] Explorers and hunters exploited a popular Manichean division of animals into “good” and “evil” to add thrilling value to their adventures, casting themselves as heroic figures. This resulted in big cats, always suspected of being man-eaters, representing “both the fear of nature and the satisfaction of having overcome it.”^[162]

Lion at Melbourne Zoo enjoying an elevated grassy area with some tree shelter

Lions were kept in cramped and squalid conditions at London Zoo until a larger lion house with roomier cages was built in the 1870s.^[163] Further changes took place in the early twentieth century, when Carl Hagenbeck designed enclosures more closely resembling a natural habitat, with concrete ‘rocks’, more open space and a moat instead of bars. He designed lion enclosures for both Melbourne Zoo and Sydney’s Taronga Zoo, among others, in the early twentieth century. Though his designs were popular, the old bars and cage enclosures prevailed until the 1960s in many zoos.^[164] In the later decades of the twentieth century, larger, more natural enclosures and the use of wire mesh or laminated glass instead of lowered dens allowed visitors to come closer than ever to the animals, with some attractions even placing the den on ground higher than visitors, such as the Cat Forest/Lion Overlook of Oklahoma City Zoological Park.^[19] Lions are now housed in much larger naturalistic areas; modern recommended guidelines more closely approximate conditions in the wild with closer attention to the lions’ needs, highlighting the need for dens in separate areas, elevated positions in both sun and shade where lions can sit and adequate ground cover and drainage as well as sufficient space to roam.^[143]

There have also been instances where a lion was kept by a private individual, such as the lioness Elsa, who was raised by George Adamson and his wife Joy Adamson and came to develop a strong bonds with them, particularly the latter. The lioness later achieved fame, her life being documented in a series of books and films.

Baiting and taming

Nineteenth century etching of a lion tamer in a cage of lions

Lion-baiting is a blood sport involving the baiting of lions in combat with other animals, usually dogs. Records of it exist in ancient times through until the seventeenth century. It was finally banned in Vienna by 1800 and England in 1825.^[165][166]

Lion taming refers to the practice of taming lions for entertainment, either as part of an established circus or as an individual act, such as Siegfried & Roy. The term is also often used for the taming and display of other big cats such as tigers, leopards, and cougars. The practice was pioneered in the first half of the nineteenth century by Frenchman Henri Martin and American Isaac Van Amburgh who both toured widely, and whose techniques were copied by a number of followers.^[167] Van Amburgh performed before Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom in 1838 when he toured Great Britain. Martin composed a pantomime titled Les Lions de Mysore (“the lions of Mysore”), an idea that Amburgh quickly borrowed. These acts eclipsed equestrianism acts as the central display of circus shows, but truly entered public consciousness in the early twentieth century with cinema. In demonstrating the superiority of human over animal, lion taming served a purpose similar to animal fights of previous centuries.^[167] The now iconic lion tamer’s chair was possibly first used by American Clyde Beatty (1903–1965).^[168]

Cultural depictions

The Lion Capital of Asoka, originally erected around 250 BCE atop an Ashoka Pillar at Sarnath is the national emblem of India.

The lion has been an icon for humanity for thousands of years, appearing in cultures across Europe, Asia, and Africa. Despite incidents of attacks on humans, lions have enjoyed a positive depiction in culture as strong but noble. A common depiction is their representation as “king of the jungle” or “king of the beasts”; hence, the lion has been a popular symbol of royalty and stateliness,^[169] as well as a symbol of bravery; it is featured in several fables of the sixth century BC Greek storyteller Aesop.^[170]

Representations of lions date back 32,000 years; the lion-headed ivory carving from Vogelherd cave in the Swabian Alb in southwestern Germany has been determined to be about 32,000 years old from the Aurignacian culture.^[16] Two lions were depicted mating in the Chamber of Felines in 15,000-year-old Paleolithic cave paintings in the Lascaux caves. Cave lions are also depicted in the Chauvet Cave, discovered in 1994; this has been dated at 32,000 years of age,^[27] though it may be of similar or younger age to Lascaux.^[171]

Ancient Egypt venerated the lioness (the fierce hunter) as their war deities and among those in the Egyptian pantheon are, Bast, Mafdet, Menhit, Pakhet, Sekhmet, Tefnut, and the Sphinx; ^[169] Among the Egyptian pantheon also are sons of these goddesses such as, Maahes, and, as attested by Egyptians as a Nubian deity, Dedun.^[172][173]

The Lion Gate of Mycenae (detail)—two lionesses flank the central column, c. 1300 BC

Careful examination of the lion deities noted in many ancient cultures reveal that many are lioness also. Admiration for the co-operative hunting strategies of lionesses was evident in very ancient times. Most of the lion gates depict lionesses. The Nemean lion was symbolic in Ancient Greece and Rome, represented as the constellation and zodiac sign Leo, and described in mythology, where its skin was borne by the hero Heracles.^[174]

The emblem of Jerusalem is a lion standing in front of the Western Wall and flanked by olive branches.

The lion is the biblical emblem of the tribe of Judah and later the Kingdom of Judah. It is contained within Jacob’s blessing to his fourth son in the penultimate chapter of the Book of Genesis, “Judah is a lion’s whelp; On prey, my son have you grown. He crouches, lies down like a lion, like the king of beasts—who dare rouse him?” (Genesis 49:9^[175]). In the modern state of Israel, the lion remains the symbol of the capital city of Jerusalem, emblazoned on both the flag and coat of arms of the city.

Carter of Castle Martin coat of arms showing “rampant combatant” lions.

The lion was a prominent symbol in both the Old Babylonian and Neo-Babylonian Empire periods. The classic Babylonian lion motif, found as a statue, carved or painted on walls, is often referred to as the striding lion of Babylon. It is in Babylon that the biblical Daniel is said to have been delivered from the lion’s den.^[176] Such symbolism was appropriated by Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq for their Lion of Babylon tank, with the technology adapted from a Russian model.

In the Puranic texts of Hinduism, Narasimha (“man-lion”) a half-lion, half-man incarnation or (avatara) of Vishnu, is worshipped by his devotees and saved the child devotee Prahlada from his father, the evil demon king Hiranyakashipu;^[177] Vishnu takes the form of half-man/half-lion, in Narasimha, having a human torso and lower body, but with a lion-like face and claws.^[178] Narasimha is worshiped as “Lion God.”

Singh is an ancient Indian vedic name meaning “lion” (Asiatic lion), dating back over 2000 years to ancient India. It was originally only used by Rajputs a Hindu Kshatriya or military caste in India. After the birth of the Khalsa brotherhood in 1699, the Sikhs also adopted the name “Singh” due to the wishes of Guru Gobind Singh. Along with millions of Hindu Rajputs today, it is also used by over 20 million Sikhs worldwide.^[179][180]

Found famously on numerous flags and coats of arms all across Asia and Europe, the Asiatic lions also stand firm on the National Emblem of India.^[181].

“Bharat Mata” (“Mother India”), National personification of India, depicted with an Asiatic/Indian lion at her side

Farther south on the Indian subcontinent, the Asiatic lion is symbolic for the Sinhalese,^[182] Sri Lanka‘s ethnic majority; the term derived from the Indo-Aryan Sinhala, meaning the “lion people” or “people with lion blood”, while a sword wielding lion is the central figure on the national flag of Sri Lanka.^[183]

The Asiatic lion is a common motif in Chinese art. They were first used in art during the late Spring and Autumn Period (fifth or sixth century BC), and became much more popular during the Han Dynasty (206 BC – AD 220), when imperial guardian lions started to be placed in front of imperial palaces for protection. Because lions have never been native to China, early depictions were somewhat unrealistic; after the introduction of Buddhist art to China in the Tang Dynasty (after the sixth century AD), lions were usually depicted without wings, their bodies became thicker and shorter, and their manes became curly.^[184] The lion dance is a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture in which performers mimic a lion’s movements in a lion costume, often with musical accompaniment from cymbals, drums and gongs. They are performed at Chinese New Year, the August Moon Festival and other celebratory occasions for good luck.^[185]

The island nation of Singapore (Singapura) derives its name from the Malay words singa (lion) and pura (city), which in turn is from the Tamil-Sanskrit சிங்க singa सिंह siṃha and पुर புர pura, which is cognate to the Greek πόλις, pólis.^[186] According to the Malay Annals, this name was given by a fourteenth century Sumatran Malay prince named Sang Nila Utama, who, on alighting the island after a thunderstorm, spotted an auspicious beast on shore that his chief minister identified as a lion (Asiatic lion).^[187]

Flag of Sri Lanka

“Aslan” or “Arslan (Ottoman ارسلان arslān and اصلان aṣlān) is the Turkish and Mongolian word for “lion”. It was used as a title by a number of Seljuk and Ottoman rulers, including Alp Arslan and Ali Pasha, and is a Turkic/Iranian name.

“Lion” was the nickname of medieval warrior rulers with a reputation for bravery, such as Richard I of England, known as Richard the Lionheart,^[169], Henry the Lion (German: Heinrich der Löwe), Duke of Saxony and Robert III of Flanders nicknamed “The Lion of Flanders”—a major Flemish national icon up to the present. Lions are frequently depicted on coats of arms, either as a device on shields themselves, or as supporters. (The lioness^[188] is much more infrequent.) The formal language of heraldry, called blazon, employs French terms to describe the images precisely. Such descriptions specified whether lions or other creatures were “rampant” or “passant”, that is whether they were rearing or crouching.^[189] “Rampant” lions are common charges in heraldry. For example, the arms of the Carter of Castle Martin family, Ireland (see Carter-Campbell of Possil) include a pair of “rampant” combatant lions. The lion is used as a symbol of sporting teams, from national association football teams such as England, Scotland and Singapore to famous clubs such as the Detroit Lions^[190] of the NFL, Chelsea^[191] and Aston Villa of the English Premier League,^[192] (and the Premiership itself) to a host of smaller clubs around the world. Villa sport a Scottish Lion Rampant on their crest, as do Rangers and Dundee United of the Scottish Premier League.

The lion is a popular symbol and mascot of high schools, colleges and universities throughout the United States. This statue is on the campus of the University of North Alabama.

Lions continue to feature in modern literature, from the messianic Aslan in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and following books from the Narnia series written by C. S. Lewis,^[193] to the comedic Cowardly Lion in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.^[194] The advent of moving pictures saw the continued presence of lion symbolism; one of the most iconic and widely recognised lions is Leo the Lion, the mascot for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studios, which has been in use since the 1920s.^[195] The 1960s saw the appearance of what is possibly the most famous lioness, the Kenyan animal Elsa in the movie Born Free,^[196] based on the true-life international bestselling book of the same title.^[197] The lion’s role as King of the Beasts has been used in cartoons, from the 1950s manga which gave rise to the first Japanese colour TV animation series, Kimba the White Lion, Leonardo Lion of King Leonardo and his Short Subjects, both from the 1960s, up to the 1994 Disney animated feature film The Lion King,^[198][199] which also featured the popular song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” in its soundtrack. A lion appears on the South African 50-Rand banknotes (see South African rand).

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tiger
A Bengal Tiger (P. tigris tigris) in India’s Bandhavgarh National Park.
Conservation status
Endangered (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Felidae Genus: Panthera Species: P. tigris
Binomial name
Panthera tigris (Linnaeus, 1758)
Historical distribution of tigers (pale yellow) and 2006 (green).[2]
Subspecies
P. t. bengalensis P. t. corbetti Panthera tigris jacksoni P. t. sumatrae Panthera tigris altaica Panthera tigris amoyensis †P. t. balica †P. t. sondaica
Synonyms
Felis tigris Linnaeus, 1758[3] Tigris striatus Severtzov, 1858 Tigris regalis Gray, 1867

The tiger (Panthera tigris) is a member of the Felidae family; the largest of the four “big cats” in the genus Panthera.^[4] Native to much of eastern and southern Asia, the tiger is an apex predator and an obligate carnivore. Reaching up to 4 metres (13 ft) in total length and weighing up to 300 kilograms (660 pounds), the larger tiger subspecies are comparable in size to the biggest extinct felids.^[5][6] Aside from their great bulk and power, their most recognizable feature is the pattern of dark vertical stripes that overlays near-white to reddish-orange fur, with lighter underparts. The most numerous tiger subspecies is the Bengal tiger while the largest subspecies is the Siberian tiger.

Highly adaptable, tigers range from the Siberian taiga, to open grasslands, to tropical mangrove swamps. They are territorial and generally solitary animals, often requiring large contiguous areas of habitat that support their prey demands. This, coupled with the fact that they are endemic to some of the more densely populated places on earth, has caused significant conflicts with humans. Of the nine subspecies of modern tiger, three are extinct and the remaining six are classified as endangered, some critically so. The primary direct causes are habitat destruction and fragmentation, and hunting. Their historical range, which once reached from Mesopotamia and the Caucasus through most of South and East Asia, has been radically reduced. While all surviving species are under formal protection, poaching, habitat destruction and inbreeding depression continue to be threats.

Nonetheless, tigers are among the most recognizable and popular of the world’s charismatic megafauna. They have featured prominently in ancient mythology and folklore, and continue to be depicted in modern films and literature. Tigers appear on many flags and coats of arms, as mascots for sporting teams, and as the national animal of several Asian nations.

Naming and etymology

The word “tiger” is taken from the Greek word “tigris“, which is possibly derived from a Persian source meaning “arrow”, a reference to the animal’s speed and also the origin for the name of the River Tigris.^[7][8] In American English, “Tigress” was first recorded in 1611. It was one of the many species originally described, as Felis tigris, by Linnaeus in his 18th century work, Systema Naturae.^[3][9] The generic component of its scientific designation, Panthera tigris, is often presumed to derive from Greek pan- (“all”) and theron (“beast”), but this may be a folk etymology. Although it came into English through the classical languages, panthera is probably of East Asian origin, meaning “the yellowish animal,” or “whitish-yellow.”^[10]

A group of tigers^[11] is rare (see below), but when seen together is termed a ‘streak’ or an ‘ambush’.

Range of the tiger including the western part 1900 and 1990

Range

In the historical past, tigers were widespread in Asia, from the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea, to Siberia and Indonesia. During the 19th century the striped cats completely vanished from western Asia, and became restricted to isolated pockets in the remaining parts of their range. Today, this fragmented relic range extends from India in the west to China and Southeast Asia in the east. The northern limit is close to the Amur River in south eastern Siberia. The only large island inhabited by tigers today is Sumatra. Tigers vanished from Java and Bali during the 20th century, and in Borneo are known only from fossil remains.

Physical characteristics, taxonomy and evolution

The oldest remains of a tiger-like cat, called Panthera palaeosinensis, have been found in China and Java. This species lived about 2 million years ago, at the beginning of the Pleistocene, and was smaller than a modern tiger. The earliest fossils of true tigers are known from Java, and are between 1.6 and 1.8 million years old. Distinct fossils from the early and middle Pleistocene were also discovered in deposits from China, and Sumatra. A subspecies called the Trinil tiger (Panthera tigris trinilensis) lived about 1.2 million years ago and is known fossils found at Trinil in Java.^[12]

Tigers first reached India and northern Asia in the late Pleistocene, reaching eastern Beringia (but not the American Continent), Japan, and Sakhalin. Fossils found in Japan indicate that the local tigers were, like the surviving island subspecies, smaller than the mainland forms. This may be due to the phenomenon in which body size is related to environmental space (see insular dwarfism), or perhaps the availability of prey. Until the Holocene, tigers also lived in Borneo, as well as on the island of Palawan in the Philippines.^[13]

Physical characteristics

Siberian tiger

Tigers are perhaps the most recognisable of all the cats (with the possible exception of the lion). They typically have rusty-reddish to brown-rusty coats, a whitish medial and ventral area, a white “fringe” that surrounds the face, and stripes that vary from brown or gray to pure black. The form and density of stripes differs between subspecies (as well as the ground coloration of the fur; for instance, Siberian tigers are usually paler than other tiger subspecies), but most tigers have over 100 stripes. The pattern of stripes is unique to each animal, and thus could potentially be used to identify individuals, much in the same way that fingerprints are used to identify people. This is not, however, a preferred method of identification, due to the difficulty of recording the stripe pattern of a wild tiger. It seems likely that the function of stripes is camouflage, serving to help tigers conceal themselves amongst the dappled shadows and long grass of their environment as they stalk their prey. The stripe pattern is found on a tiger’s skin and if shaved, its distinctive camouflage pattern would be preserved. Like other big cats, tigers have a white spot on the backs of their ears.

Skeleton

Tigers have the additional distinction of being the heaviest cats found in the wild.^[14] They also have powerfully built legs and shoulders, with the result that they, like lions, have the ability to pull down prey substantially heavier than themselves. However, the subspecies differ markedly in size, tending to increase proportionally with latitude, as predicted by Bergmann’s Rule. Thus, large male Siberian Tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) can reach a total length of 3.5 m “over curves” (3.3 m. “between pegs”) and a weight of 306 kilograms,^[15] which is considerably larger than the sizes reached by island-dwelling tigers such as the Sumatran, the smallest living subspecies with a body weight of only 75-140 kg.^[15] Tigresses are smaller than the males in each subspecies, although the size difference between male and female tigers tends to be more pronounced in the larger subspecies of tiger, with males weighing up to 1.7 times as much as the females.^[16] In addition, male tigers have wider forepaw pads than females. This difference is often used by biologists in determining the gender of tigers when observing their tracks.^[17] The skull of the tiger is very similar to that of the lion, though the frontal region is usually not as depressed or flattened, with a slightly longer postorbital region. The lion’s skull has broader nasal openings. However, due to the amount of skull variation in the two species, usually, only the structure of the lower jaw can be used as a reliable indicator of species.^[18]

Subspecies

Bengal tiger

There are eight recent subspecies of tiger, two of which are extinct. Their historical range (severely diminished today) ran through Bangladesh, Siberia, Iran, Afghanistan, India, China, and southeast Asia, including some Indonesian islands. The surviving subspecies, in descending order of wild population, are:

• The Bengal tiger or the Royal Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is the most common subspecies of tiger and is found primarily in India and Bangladesh.^[19] It lives in varied habitats: grasslands, subtropical and tropical rainforests, scrub forests, wet and dry deciduous forests, and mangroves. Males in the wild usually weigh 205 to 227 kg (450–500 lb), while the average female will weigh about 141 kg.^[20] However, the northern Indian and the Nepalese Bengal tigers are somewhat bulkier than those found in the south of the Indian Subcontinent, with males averaging around 235 kilograms (520 lb).^[20] While conservationists already believed the population to be below 2,000,^[21] the most recent audit by the Indian Government’s National Tiger Conservation Authority has estimated the number at just 1,411 wild tigers (1165–1657 allowing for statistical error), a drop of 60% in the past decade.^[22] Since 1972, there has been a massive wildlife conservation project, known as Project Tiger, to protect the Bengal tiger. Despite increased efforts by Indian officials, poaching remains rampant and at least one Tiger Reserve (Sariska Tiger Reserve) has lost its entire tiger population to poaching.^[23]

Indochinese tiger

• The Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti), also called Corbett’s tiger, is found in Cambodia, China, Laos, Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam. These tigers are smaller and darker than Bengal tigers: Males weigh from 150–190 kg (330–420 lb) while females are smaller at 110–140 kg (242–308 lb). Their preferred habitat is forests in mountainous or hilly regions. Estimates of the Indochinese tiger population vary between 1,200 to 1,800, with only several hundred left in the wild. All existing populations are at extreme risk from poaching, prey depletion as a result of poaching of primary prey species such as deer and wild pigs, habitat fragmentation and inbreeding. In Vietnam, almost three-quarters of the tigers killed provide stock for Chinese pharmacies.

Malayan tiger

• The Malayan tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni), exclusively found in the southern part of the Malay Peninsula, was not considered a subspecies in its own right until 2004. The new classification came about after a study by Luo et al. from the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity Study,^[24] part of the National Cancer Institute of the United States. Recent counts showed there are 600–800 tigers in the wild, making it the third largest tiger population, behind the Bengal tiger and the Indochinese tiger. The Malayan tiger is the smallest of the mainland tiger subspecies, and the second smallest living subspecies, with males averaging about 120 kg and females about 100 kg in weight. The Malayan tiger is a national icon in Malaysia, appearing on its coat of arms and in logos of Malaysian institutions, such as Maybank.

Sumatran tiger

• The Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) is found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and is critically endangered.^[25] It is the smallest of all living tiger subspecies, with adult males weighing between 100–140 kg (220–308 lb) and females 75–110 kg (154–242 lb).^[26] Their small size is an adaptation to the thick, dense forests of the island of Sumatra where they reside, as well as the smaller-sized prey. The wild population is estimated at between 400 and 500, seen chiefly in the island’s national parks. Recent genetic testing has revealed the presence of unique genetic markers, indicating that it may develop into a separate species,^[specify] if it does not go extinct.^[27] This has led to suggestions that Sumatran tigers should have greater priority for conservation than any other subspecies. While habitat destruction is the main threat to existing tiger population (logging continues even in the supposedly protected national parks), 66 tigers were recorded as being shot and killed between 1998 and 2000, or nearly 20% of the total population.

Siberian tiger

• The Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), also known as the Amur, Manchurian, Altaic, Korean or North China tiger, is confined to the Amur-Ussuri region of Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk Krai in far eastern Siberia, where it is now protected. Considered the largest subspecies, with a head and body length of 190–230 cm (the tail of a tiger is 60–110 cm long) and an average weight of around 227 kilograms (500 lb) for males,^[20] the Amur tiger is also noted for its thick coat, distinguished by a paler golden hue and fewer stripes. The heaviest wild Siberian tiger on record weighed in at 384 kg,^[28] but according to Mazak these giants are not confirmed via reliable references.^[15] Even so, a six-month old Siberian tiger can be as big as a fully grown leopard. The last two censuses (1996 and 2005) found 450–500 Amur tigers within their single, and more or less continuous, range making it one of the largest undivided tiger populations in the world. Genetic research in 2009 demonstrated that the Siberian tiger, and the western “Caspian tiger” (once thought to have been a separate subspecies that became extinct in the wild in the late 1950s^[29][30]) are actually the same subspecies, since the separation of the two populations may have occurred as recently as the past century due to human intervention.^[31]

South China tiger

• The South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis), also known as the Amoy or Xiamen tiger, is the most critically endangered subspecies of tiger and is listed as one of the 10 most endangered animals in the world.^{[32][clarification needed]} One of the smaller tiger subspecies, the length of the South China tiger ranges from 2.2–2.6 m (87–100 in) for both males and females. Males weigh between 127 and 177 kg (280–390 lb) while females weigh between 100 and 118 kg (220–260 lb). From 1983 to 2007, no South China tigers were sighted.^[33] In 2007 a farmer spotted a tiger and handed in photographs to the authorities as proof.^[33][34] The photographs in question, however, were later exposed as fake, copied from a Chinese calendar and photoshopped, and the “sighting” turned into a massive scandal.^[35][36][37]

In 1977, the Chinese government passed a law banning the killing of wild tigers, but this may have been too late to save the subspecies, since it is possibly already extinct in the wild. There are currently 59 known captive South China tigers, all within China, but these are known to be descended from only six animals. Thus, the genetic diversity required to maintain the subspecies may no longer exist. Currently, there are breeding efforts to reintroduce these tigers to the wild.

Extinct subspecies

A hunted down Balinese tiger

• The Balinese tiger (Panthera tigris balica) was limited to the island of Bali. They were the smallest of all tiger subspecies, with a weight of 90–100 kg in males and 65–80 kg in females.^[15] These tigers were hunted to extinction—the last Balinese tiger is thought to have been killed at Sumbar Kima, West Bali on 27 September 1937; this was an adult female. No Balinese tiger was ever held in captivity. The tiger still plays an important role in Balinese Hinduism.

A photograph of a Javan tiger.

• The Javan tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) was limited to the Indonesian island of Java. It now seems likely that this subspecies became extinct in the 1980s, as a result of hunting and habitat destruction, but the extinction of this subspecies was extremely probable from the 1950s onwards (when it is thought that fewer than 25 tigers remained in the wild). The last confirmed specimen was sighted in 1979, but there were a few reported sightings during the 1990s.^[38][39] With a weight of 100-141 kg for males and 75-115 kg for females, the Javan tiger was one of the smaller subspecies, approximately the same size as the Sumatran tiger^{[citation needed]}

A captive Caspian Tiger, Berlin Zoo 1899

Caspian tiger (formerly Panthera Tigris Virgata), also known as the Persian tiger or Turanian tiger was the westernmost population of Siberian tiger, found in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Caucasus, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan until it apparently became extinct in the late 1950s, though there have been several alleged sightings of the tiger.^[30] Though originally thought to have been a distinct subspecies, genetic research in 2009 suggest that the animal was largely identical to the Siberian tiger.^[31]

Hybrids

Hybridization among the big cats, including the tiger, was first conceptualized in the 19th century, when zoos were particularly interested in the pursuit of finding oddities to display for financial gain.^[40] Lions have been known to breed with tigers (most often the Amur and Bengal subspecies) to create hybrids called ligers and tigons.^[41] Such hybrids were once commonly bred in zoos, but this is now discouraged due to the emphasis on conserving species and subspecies. Hybrids are still bred in private menageries and in zoos in China.

The liger is a cross between a male lion and a tigress.^[42] Because the lion sire passes on a growth-promoting gene, but the corresponding growth-inhibiting gene from the female tiger is absent, ligers grow far larger than either parent. They share physical and behavioural qualities of both parent species (spots and stripes on a sandy background). Male ligers are sterile, but female ligers are often fertile. Males have about a 50% chance of having a mane, but, even if they do, their manes will be only around half the size of that of a pure lion. Ligers are typically between 10 to 12 feet in length, and can be between 800 and 1,000 pounds or more.^[42]

The less common tigon is a cross between the lioness and the male tiger.^[43]

Colour variations

White tigers

A pair of white Bengal tigers at the Singapore Zoo.

There is a well-known mutation that produces the white tiger, technically known as chinchilla albinistic,^[44] an animal which is rare in the wild, but widely bred in zoos due to its popularity. Breeding of white tigers will often lead to inbreeding (as the trait is recessive). Many initiatives have taken place in white and orange tiger mating in an attempt to remedy the issue, often mixing subspecies in the process. Such inbreeding has led to white tigers having a greater likelihood of being born with physical defects, such as cleft palates and scoliosis (curvature of the spine).^[45][46] Furthermore, white tigers are prone to having crossed eyes (a condition known as strabismus). Even apparently healthy white tigers generally do not live as long as their orange counterparts. Recordings of white tigers were first made in the early 19th century.^[47] They can only occur when both parents carry the rare gene found in white tigers; this gene has been calculated to occur in only one in every 10,000 births. The white tiger is not a separate sub-species, but only a colour variation; since the only white tigers that have been observed in the wild have been Bengal tigers^[48] (and all white tigers in captivity are at least part Bengal), it is commonly thought that the recessive gene that causes the white colouring is probably carried only by Bengal tigers, although the reasons for this are not known.^[45][49] Nor are they in any way more endangered than tigers are generally, this being a common misconception. Another misconception is that white tigers are albinos, despite the fact that pigment is evident in the white tiger’s stripes. They are distinct not only because of their white hue; they also have blue eyes and pink noses.

Golden tabby tigers

A rare golden tabby/strawberry tiger at the Buffalo Zoo.

In addition, another recessive gene may create a very unusual “golden tabby” colour variation, sometimes known as “strawberry.” Golden tabby tigers have light gold fur, pale legs and faint orange stripes. Their fur tends to be much thicker than normal.^[50] There are extremely few golden tabby tigers in captivity, around 30 in all. Like white tigers, strawberry tigers are invariably at least part Bengal. Some golden tabby tigers, called heterozygous tigers, carry the white tiger gene, and when two such tigers are mated, can produce some stripeless white offspring. Both white and golden tabby tigers tend to be larger than average Bengal tigers.

Other colour variations

There are also unconfirmed reports of a “blue” or slate-coloured tiger, the Maltese Tiger, and largely or totally black tigers, and these are assumed, if real, to be intermittent mutations rather than distinct species.^[44]

Biology and behaviour

Territorial behavior

Tigers are essentially solitary and territorial animals. The size of a tiger’s home range mainly depends on prey abundance, and, in the case of male tigers, on access to females. A tigress may have a territory of 20 square kilometres while the territories of males are much larger, covering 60–100 km². The ranges of males tend to overlap those of several females.

Tigers for the most part are solitary animals.

The relationships between individuals can be quite complex, and it appears that there is no set “rule” that tigers follow with regards to territorial rights and infringing territories. For instance, although for the most part tigers avoid each other, both male and female tigers have been documented sharing kills. For instance, George Schaller observed a male tiger share a kill with two females and four cubs. Females are often reluctant to let males near their cubs, but Schaller saw that these females made no effort to protect or keep their cubs from the male, suggesting that the male might have been the father of the cubs. In contrast to male lions, male tigers will allow the females and cubs to feed on the kill first. Furthermore, tigers seem to behave relatively amicably when sharing kills, in contrast to lions, which tend to squabble and fight. Unrelated tigers have also been observed feeding on prey together. The following quotation is from Stephen Mills’ book Tiger, as he describes an event witnessed by Valmik Thapar and Fateh Singh Rathore in Ranthambhore:^[51]

A dominant tigress they called Padmini killed a 250 kg (550-lb) male nilgai – a very large antelope. They found her at the kill just after dawn with her three 14-month-old cubs and they watched uninterrupted for the next ten hours. During this period the family was joined by two adult females and one adult male – all offspring from Padmini’s previous litters and by two unrelated tigers, one female the other unidentified. By three o’clock there were no fewer than nine tigers round the kill.

When young female tigers first establish a territory, they tend to do so fairly close to their mother’s area. The overlap between the female and her mother’s territory tends to wane with increasing time. Males, however, wander further than their female counterparts, and set out at a younger age to mark out their own area. A young male will acquire territory either by seeking out a range devoid of other male tigers, or by living as a transient in another male’s territory, until he is old and strong enough to challenge the resident male. The highest mortality rate (30-35% per year) amongst adult tigers occurs for young male tigers who have just left their natal area, seeking out territories of their own.^[52]

Two male Bengal tiger siblings play with each other in the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, India.

Male tigers are generally more intolerant of other males within their territory than females are of other females. For the most part, however, territorial disputes are usually solved by displays of intimidation, rather than outright aggression. Several such incidents have been observed, in which the subordinate tiger yielded defeat by rolling onto its back, showing its belly in a submissive posture.^[53] Once dominance has been established, a male may actually tolerate a subordinate within his range, as long as they do not live in too close quarters.^[52] The most violent disputes tend to occur between two males when a female is in oestrus, and may result in the death of one of the males, although this is actually a relatively rare occurrence.^[52][54]

To identify his territory, the male marks trees by spraying of urine and anal gland secretions, as well as marking trails with scat. Males show a grimacing face, called the Flehmen response, when identifying a female’s reproductive condition by sniffing their urine markings.

Tigers have been studied in the wild using a variety of techniques. The populations of tigers were estimated in the past using plaster casts of their pugmarks. This method was found faulty^[55] and attempts were made to use camera trapping instead. Newer techniques based on DNA from their scat are also being evaluated. Radio collaring has also been a popular approach to tracking them for study in the wild.

Hunting and diet

Tiger dentition. The large canines are used to make the killing bite, but they tear meat when feeding using the carnassial teeth.

In the wild, tigers mostly feed on larger and medium sized animals. Sambar, gaur, chital, wild boar, nilgai and both water buffalo and domestic buffalo are the tiger’s favored prey in India. Sometimes, they also prey on leopards, pythons, sloth bears and crocodiles. In Siberia the main prey species are manchurian wapiti, wild boar, sika deer, moose, roe deer, and musk deer. In Sumatra Sambar, muntjac, wild boar, and malayan tapir are preyed on. In the former Caspian tiger’s range, prey included saiga antelope, camels, caucasian wisent, yak, and wild horses. Like many predators, they are opportunistic and will eat much smaller prey, such as monkeys, peafowls, hares, and fish.

Adult elephants are too large to serve as common prey, but conflicts between tigers and elephants do sometimes take place. A case where a tiger killed an adult Indian Rhinoceros has been observed.^[56] Young elephant and rhino calves are occasionally taken. Tigers also sometimes prey on domestic animals such as dogs, cows, horses, and donkeys. These individuals are termed cattle-lifters or cattle-killers in contrast to typical game-killers.^[57]

A South China tiger of the Save China’s Tigers project with his blesbuck kill.

Old tigers, or those wounded and rendered incapable of catching their natural prey, have turned into man-eaters; this pattern has recurred frequently across India. An exceptional case is that of the Sundarbans, where healthy tigers prey upon fishermen and villagers in search of forest produce, humans thereby forming a minor part of the tiger’s diet.^[58] Tigers will occasionally eat vegetation for dietary fiber, the fruit of the Slow Match Tree being favoured.^[57]

Tigers’ extremely strong jaws and sharp teeth make them superb predators.

Tigers usually hunt at night.^[59] They generally hunt alone and ambush their prey as most other cats do, overpowering them from any angle, using their body size and strength to knock large prey off balance. Even with their great masses, tigers can reach speeds of about 49-65 kilometres per hour (35-40 miles per hour), although they can only do so in short bursts, since they have relatively little stamina; consequently, tigers must be relatively close to their prey before they break their cover. Tigers have great leaping ability; horizontal leaps of up to 10 metres have been reported, although leaps of around half this amount are more typical. However, only one in twenty hunts ends in a successful kill.^[59]

When hunting large prey, tigers prefer to bite the throat and use their forelimbs to hold onto the prey, bringing it to the ground. The tiger remains latched onto the neck until its prey dies of strangulation.^[60] By this method, gaurs and water buffalos weighing over a ton have been killed by tigers weighing about a sixth as much.^[61] With small prey, the tiger bites the nape, often breaking the spinal cord, piercing the windpipe, or severing the jugular vein or common carotid artery.^[62] Though rarely observed, some tigers have been recorded to kill prey by swiping with their paws, which are powerful enough to smash the skulls of domestic cattle,^[57] and break the backs of sloth bears.^[63]

During the 1980s, a tiger named “Genghis” in Ranthambhore National Park was observed frequently hunting prey through deep lake water,^[64] a pattern of behaviour that had not been previously witnessed in over 200 years of observations. Moreover, he appeared to be extraordinarily successful for a tiger, with as many as 20% of hunts ending in a kill.

Reproduction

A Siberian tigress with a cub at Buffalo Zoo.

Mating can occur all year round, but is generally more common between November and April.^[65] A female is only receptive for a few days and mating is frequent during that time period. A pair will copulate frequently and noisily, like other cats. The gestation period is 16 weeks. The litter size usually consists of around 3–4 cubs of about 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) each, which are born blind and helpless. The females rear them alone, sheltering them in dens such as thickets and rocky crevices. The father of the cubs generally takes no part in rearing them. Unrelated wandering male tigers may even kill cubs to make the female receptive, since the tigress may give birth to another litter within 5 months if the cubs of the previous litter are lost.^[65] The mortality rate of tiger cubs is fairly high – approximately half do not survive to be more than two years old.^[65]

There is generally a dominant cub in each litter, which tends to be male but may be of either sex.^[64] This cub generally dominates its siblings during play and tends to be more active, leaving its mother earlier than usual. At 8 weeks, the cubs are ready to follow their mother out of the den, although they don’t travel with her as she roams her territory until they are older. The cubs become independent around 18 months of age, but it is not until they are around 2–2½ years old that they leave their mother. Females reach sexual maturity at 3–4 years, whereas males reach sexual maturity at 4–5 years.^[65]

Over the course of her life, a female tiger will give birth to an approximately equal number of male and female cubs. Tigers breed well in captivity, and the captive population in the United States may rival the wild population of the world.^[66]

Interspecific predatory relationships

Tiger hunted by wild dogs as illustrated in Samuel Howett & Edward Orme, Hand Coloured, Aquatint Engravings, Published London 1807.

Tigers may kill such formidable predators as leopards, pythons and even crocodiles on occasion,^[67][68][69] although predators typically avoid one another. When seized by a crocodile, a tiger will strike at the reptile’s eyes with its paws.^[57] Leopards dodge competition from tigers by hunting in different times of the day and hunting different prey.^[56] With relatively abundant prey, tigers and leopards were seen to successfully coexist without competitive exclusion or inter-species dominance hierarchies that may be more common to the savanna.^[70] Tigers have been known to suppress wolf populations in areas where the two species coexist.^[71][72] Dhole packs have been observed to attack and kill tigers in disputes over food, though not usually without heavy losses.^[63] Siberian tigers and brown bears can be competitors and usually avoid confrontation; however, tigers will kill bear cubs and even some adults on occasion. Bears (Asiatic black bears and brown bears) make up 5-8% of the tiger’s diet in the Russian Far East.^[15] There are also records of brown bears killing tigers, either in self defense or in disputes over kills.^[18] Some bears emerging from hibernation will try to steal tigers’ kills, although the tiger will sometimes defend its kill. Sloth bears are quite aggressive and will sometimes drive younger aged tigers away from their kills, although in most of cases Bengal tigers prey on sloth bears.^[15]

A tiger swimming at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey.

Habitat

Typical tiger country has three main features: It will always have good cover, it will always be close to water and plenty of prey. Bengal Tigers live in all types of forests, including Wet, Evergreen, semi-evergreen of Assam and eastern Bengal; the mangrove forest of Ganges Delta; The deciduous forest of Nepal and thorn forests of the Western Ghats. Compared to the lion, the tiger prefers denser vegetation, for which its camouflage is ideally suited, and where a single predator is not at a disadvantage compared to a pride. Among the big cats, only the tiger and jaguar are strong swimmers; tigers are often found bathing in ponds, lakes, and rivers. Unlike other cats, which tend to avoid water, tigers actively seek it out. During the extreme heat of the day, they are often to be found cooling off in pools. Tigers are excellent swimmers and can swim up to 4 miles. Tigers are often to be found carrying their dead prey across lakes.

Conservation efforts

Poaching for fur and destruction of habitat have greatly reduced tiger populations in the wild. At the start of the 20th century, it is estimated there were over 100,000 tigers in the world but the population has dwindled to about 2,000 in the wild.^[73] Some estimates suggest the population is even lower, with some at less than 2,500 mature breeding individuals, with no subpopulation containing more than 250 mature breeding individuals.^[74]

India

A tigress with her cubs in the Kanha Tiger Reserve, India.

India is home to the world’s largest population of tigers in the wild.^[75] According to the World Wildlife Fund, of the 3,500 tigers around the world, 1,400 are found in India.^[76] A major concerted conservation effort, known as Project Tiger, has been underway since 1973, which was initially spearheaded by Indira Gandhi. The fundamental accomplishment has been the establishment of over 25 well-monitored tiger reserves in reclaimed land where human development is categorically forbidden. The program has been credited with tripling the number of wild Bengal tigers from roughly 1,200 in 1973 to over 3,500 in the 1990s. However, a tiger census carried out in 2007, whose report was published on February 12, 2008, stated that the wild tiger population in India declined by 60% to approximately 1,411.^[77] It is noted in the report that the decrease of tiger population can be attributed directly to poaching.^[78]

Following the release of the report, the Indian government pledged $153 million to further fund the Project Tiger initiative, set-up a Tiger Protection Force to combat poachers, and fund the relocation of up to 200,000 villagers to minimize human-tiger interaction.^[79] Additionally, eight new tiger reserves in India are being set up.^[80] Indian officials successfully started a project to reintroduce the tigers into the Sariska Tiger Reserve.^[81] The Ranthambore National Park is often cited as a major success by Indian officials against poaching.^[82]

Russia

Tiger headcount in 1990

The Siberian tiger was on the brink of extinction with only about 40 animals in the wild in the 1940s. Under the Soviet Union, anti-poaching controls were strict and a network of protected zones (zapovedniks) were instituted, leading to a rise in the population to several hundred. Poaching again became a problem in the 1990s, when the economy of Russia collapsed, local hunters had access to a formerly sealed off lucrative Chinese market, and logging in the region increased. While an improvement in the local economy has led to greater resources being invested in conservation efforts, an increase of economic activity has led to an increased rate of development and deforestation. The major obstacle in preserving the species is the enormous territory individual tigers require (up to 450 km² needed by a single female).^[14] Current conservation efforts are led by local governments and NGO‘s in consort with international organizations, such as the World Wide Fund and the Wildlife Conservation Society.^[14] The competitive exclusion of wolves by tigers has been used by Russian conservationists to convince hunters in the Far East to tolerate the big cats, as they limit ungulate populations less than wolves, and are effective in controlling the latter’s numbers.^[83] Currently, there are about 400-550 animals in the wild.

Tibet

In Tibet, tiger and leopard pelts have traditionally been used in various ceremonies and costumes. In January 2006 the Dalai Lama preached a ruling against using, selling, or buying wild animals, their products, or derivatives. It has yet to be seen whether this will result in a long-term slump in the demand for poached tiger and leopard skins.^[84][85][86]

Rewilding

A Bengal tiger in a national park in southern India. Indian officials successfully reintroduced two Bengal tigers in the Sariska Tiger Reserve in July 2008.^[87]

The first attempt at rewilding was by Indian conservationist Billy Arjan Singh, who reared a zoo-born tigress named Tara, and released her in the wilds of Dudhwa National Park in 1978. This was soon followed by a large number of people being eaten by a tigress who was later shot. Government officials claim that this tigress was Tara, an assertion hotly contested by Singh and conservationists. Later on, this rewilding gained further disrepute when it was found that the local gene pool had been sullied by Tara’s introduction as she was partly Siberian tiger, a fact not known at the time of release, ostensibly due to poor record-keeping at Twycross Zoo, where she had been raised.^{[88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97]}

Save China’s Tigers

The organisation Save China’s Tigers, working with the Wildlife Research Centre of the State Forestry Administration of China and the Chinese Tigers South Africa Trust, secured an agreement on the reintroduction of Chinese tigers into the wild. The agreement, which was signed in Beijing on 26 November 2002, calls for the establishment of a Chinese tiger conservation model through the creation of a pilot reserve in China where indigenous wildlife, including the South China Tiger, will be reintroduced. Save China’s Tigers aims to rewild the critically endangered South China Tiger by bringing a few captive-bred individuals to South Africa for rehabilitation training for them to regain their hunting instincts. At the same time, a pilot reserve in China is being set-up and the Tigers will be relocated and release back in China when the reserve in China is ready.^[98] The offspring of the trained tigers will be released into the pilot reserves in China, while the original animals will stay in South Africa to continue breeding.^[99]

The reason South Africa was chosen is because it is able to provide expertise and resources, land and game for the South China tigers. The South China Tigers of the project has since been successfully rewilded and are fully capable of hunting and surviving on their own.^[98] This project is also very successful in the breeding of these rewilded South China Tigers and 5 cubs have been born in the project, these cubs of the 2nd generation would be able to learn their survival skills from their successfully rewilded mothers directly.^[100]

Relation with humans

Tiger as prey

Tiger hunting on elephant-back, India, early 19th century.

The tiger has been one of the Big Five game animals of Asia. Tiger hunting took place on a large scale in the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries, being a recognised and admired sport by the British in colonial India as well as the maharajas and aristocratic class of the erstwhile princely states of pre-independence India. Tiger hunting was done by some hunters on foot; others sat up on machans with a goat or buffalo tied out as bait; yet others on elephant-back.^[101] In some cases, villagers beating drums were organised to drive the animals into the killing zone. Elaborate instructions were available for the skinning of tigers and there were taxidermists who specialised in the preparation of tiger skins.

Man-eating tigers

Stereographic photograph (1903) of a captured man-eating tiger in the Calcutta zoo; the tiger had claimed 200 human victims.

Although humans are not regular prey for tigers, they have killed more people than any other cat, particularly in areas where population growth, logging, and farming have put pressure on tiger habitats. Most man-eating tigers are old and missing teeth, acquiring a taste for humans because of their inability to capture preferred prey.^[102] Almost all tigers that are identified as man-eaters are quickly captured, shot, or poisoned. Unlike man-eating leopards, even established man-eating tigers will seldom enter human settlements, usually remaining at village outskirts.^[103] Nevertheless, attacks in human villages do occur.^[104] Man-eaters have been a particular problem in India and Bangladesh, especially in Kumaon, Garhwal and the Sundarbans mangrove swamps of Bengal, where some healthy tigers have been known to hunt humans. Because of rapid habitat loss due to climate change, tiger attacks have increased in the Sundarbans.^[105]The tiger Tatiana at the San Francisco zoo escaped by jumping over a wall,and killed one zoo visitor before being shot down by the authorities.This could have been stopped most people say by the zoo keepers and owners paying more attention to tiger keeping standards,for instance the wall that separated her and the public was small enough for her to jump over,and because of this one critical mistake a life was lost.

Traditional Asian medicine

Instructions for tiger skinning

Many people in China have a belief that various tiger parts have medicinal properties, including as pain killers and aphrodisiacs.^[106] There is no scientific evidence to support these beliefs. The use of tiger parts in pharmaceutical drugs in China is already banned, and the government has made some offenses in connection with tiger poaching punishable by death. Furthermore, all trade in tiger parts is illegal under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and a domestic trade ban has been in place in China since 1993. Still, there are a number of tiger farms in the country specializing in breeding the cats for profit. It is estimated that between 4,000 and 5,000 captive-bred, semi-tame animals live in these farms today.^[107][108]

As pets

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums estimates that up to 12,000 tigers are being kept as private pets in the USA, significantly more than the world’s entire wild population.^[109] 4,000 are believed to be in captivity in Texas alone.^[109]

Part of the reason for America’s enormous tiger population relates to legislation. Only nineteen states have banned private ownership of tigers, fifteen require only a license, and sixteen states have no regulations at all.^[109]

The success of breeding programmes at American zoos and circuses led to an overabundance of cubs in the 1980s and 1990s, which drove down prices for the animals.^[109] The SPCA estimate there are now 500 lions, tigers and other big cats in private ownership just in the Houston area.^[109]

In the 1983 film Scarface, the protagonist, Tony Montana, aspires to obtaining all the exterior trappings of the American Dream, which in the character’s opinion included keeping a pet tiger on his property.

Cultural depictions

19th century painting of a tiger by Kuniyoshi Utagawa.

The tiger replaces the lion as King of the Beasts in cultures of eastern Asia,^[110] representing royalty, fearlessness and wrath.^[111] Its forehead has a marking which resembles the Chinese character 王, which means “king”; consequently, many cartoon depictions of tigers in China and Korea are drawn with 王 on their forehead.^{[citation needed]}

Of great importance in Chinese myth and culture, the tiger is one of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals. Also in various Chinese art and martial art, the tiger is depicted as an earth symbol and equal rival of the Chinese dragon- the two representing matter and spirit respectively. In fact, the Southern Chinese martial art Hung Ga is based on the movements of the Tiger and the Crane. In Imperial China, a tiger was the personification of war and often represented the highest army general (or present day defense secretary),^[111] while the emperor and empress were represented by a dragon and phoenix, respectively. The White Tiger (Chinese: 白虎; pinyin: Bái Hǔ) is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. It is sometimes called the White Tiger of the West (西方白虎), and it represents the west and the autumn season.^[111]

In Buddhism, it is also one of the Three Senseless Creatures, symbolizing anger, with the monkey representing greed and the deer lovesickness.^[111]

Sala fighting the tiger, the symbol of Hoysala Empire at Belur, Karnataka, India.

The Tungusic people considered the Siberian tiger a near-deity and often referred to it as “Grandfather” or “Old man”. The Udege and Nanai called it “Amba”. The Manchu considered the Siberian tiger as Hu Lin, the king.^[17]

The widely worshiped Hindu goddess Durga, an aspect of Devi-Parvati, is a ten-armed warrior who rides the tigress (or lioness) Damon into battle. In southern India the god Aiyappa was associated with a tiger.^[112]

The weretiger replaces the werewolf in shapeshifting folklore in Asia;^[113] in India they were evil sorcerers while in Indonesia and Malaysia they were somewhat more benign.^[114]

The tiger continues to be a subject in literature; both Rudyard Kipling, in The Jungle Book, and William Blake, in Songs of Experience, depict the tiger as a menacing and fearful animal. In The Jungle Book, the tiger, Shere Khan, is the wicked mortal enemy of the protagonist, Mowgli. However, other depictions are more benign: Tigger, the tiger from A. A. Milne‘s Winnie-the-Pooh stories, is cuddly and likable. In the Man Booker Prize winning novel “Life of Pi,” the protagonist, Pi Patel, sole human survivor of a ship wreck in the Pacific Ocean, befriends another survivor: a large Bengal Tiger. The famous comic strip Calvin and Hobbes features Calvin and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes. A tiger is also featured on the cover of the popular cereal Frosted Flakes (also marketed as “Frosties”) bearing the name “Tony the Tiger“.

The Tiger is the national animal of Bangladesh, Nepal, India^[115] (Bengal Tiger)^[116] Malaysia (Malayan Tiger), North Korea and South Korea (Siberian Tiger).

World’s favourite animal

In a poll conducted by Animal Planet, the tiger was voted the world’s favourite animal, narrowly beating the dog. More than 50,000 viewers from 73 countries voted in the poll. Tigers received 21% of the vote, dogs 20%, dolphins 13%, horses 10%, lions 9%, snakes 8%, followed by elephants, chimpanzees, orangutans and whales.^{[117][118][119][120]}

Animal behaviourist Candy d’Sa, who worked with Animal Planet on the list, said: “We can relate to the tiger, as it is fierce and commanding on the outside, but noble and discerning on the inside”.^[117]

Callum Rankine, international species officer at the World Wildlife Federation conservation charity, said the result gave him hope. “If people are voting tigers as their favourite animal, it means they recognise their importance, and hopefully the need to ensure their survival,” he said.^[117]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tiger
A Bengal Tiger (P. tigris tigris) in India’s Bandhavgarh National Park.
Conservation status
Endangered (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Felidae Genus: Panthera Species: P. tigris
Binomial name
Panthera tigris (Linnaeus, 1758)
Historical distribution of tigers (pale yellow) and 2006 (green).[2]
Subspecies
P. t. bengalensis P. t. corbetti Panthera tigris jacksoni P. t. sumatrae Panthera tigris altaica Panthera tigris amoyensis †P. t. balica †P. t. sondaica
Synonyms
Felis tigris Linnaeus, 1758[3] Tigris striatus Severtzov, 1858 Tigris regalis Gray, 1867

The tiger (Panthera tigris) is a member of the Felidae family; the largest of the four “big cats” in the genus Panthera.^[4] Native to much of eastern and southern Asia, the tiger is an apex predator and an obligate carnivore. Reaching up to 4 metres (13 ft) in total length and weighing up to 300 kilograms (660 pounds), the larger tiger subspecies are comparable in size to the biggest extinct felids.^[5][6] Aside from their great bulk and power, their most recognizable feature is the pattern of dark vertical stripes that overlays near-white to reddish-orange fur, with lighter underparts. The most numerous tiger subspecies is the Bengal tiger while the largest subspecies is the Siberian tiger.

Highly adaptable, tigers range from the Siberian taiga, to open grasslands, to tropical mangrove swamps. They are territorial and generally solitary animals, often requiring large contiguous areas of habitat that support their prey demands. This, coupled with the fact that they are endemic to some of the more densely populated places on earth, has caused significant conflicts with humans. Of the nine subspecies of modern tiger, three are extinct and the remaining six are classified as endangered, some critically so. The primary direct causes are habitat destruction and fragmentation, and hunting. Their historical range, which once reached from Mesopotamia and the Caucasus through most of South and East Asia, has been radically reduced. While all surviving species are under formal protection, poaching, habitat destruction and inbreeding depression continue to be threats.

Nonetheless, tigers are among the most recognizable and popular of the world’s charismatic megafauna. They have featured prominently in ancient mythology and folklore, and continue to be depicted in modern films and literature. Tigers appear on many flags and coats of arms, as mascots for sporting teams, and as the national animal of several Asian nations.

Naming and etymology

The word “tiger” is taken from the Greek word “tigris“, which is possibly derived from a Persian source meaning “arrow”, a reference to the animal’s speed and also the origin for the name of the River Tigris.^[7][8] In American English, “Tigress” was first recorded in 1611. It was one of the many species originally described, as Felis tigris, by Linnaeus in his 18th century work, Systema Naturae.^[3][9] The generic component of its scientific designation, Panthera tigris, is often presumed to derive from Greek pan- (“all”) and theron (“beast”), but this may be a folk etymology. Although it came into English through the classical languages, panthera is probably of East Asian origin, meaning “the yellowish animal,” or “whitish-yellow.”^[10]

A group of tigers^[11] is rare (see below), but when seen together is termed a ‘streak’ or an ‘ambush’.

Range of the tiger including the western part 1900 and 1990

Range

In the historical past, tigers were widespread in Asia, from the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea, to Siberia and Indonesia. During the 19th century the striped cats completely vanished from western Asia, and became restricted to isolated pockets in the remaining parts of their range. Today, this fragmented relic range extends from India in the west to China and Southeast Asia in the east. The northern limit is close to the Amur River in south eastern Siberia. The only large island inhabited by tigers today is Sumatra. Tigers vanished from Java and Bali during the 20th century, and in Borneo are known only from fossil remains.

Physical characteristics, taxonomy and evolution

The oldest remains of a tiger-like cat, called Panthera palaeosinensis, have been found in China and Java. This species lived about 2 million years ago, at the beginning of the Pleistocene, and was smaller than a modern tiger. The earliest fossils of true tigers are known from Java, and are between 1.6 and 1.8 million years old. Distinct fossils from the early and middle Pleistocene were also discovered in deposits from China, and Sumatra. A subspecies called the Trinil tiger (Panthera tigris trinilensis) lived about 1.2 million years ago and is known fossils found at Trinil in Java.^[12]

Tigers first reached India and northern Asia in the late Pleistocene, reaching eastern Beringia (but not the American Continent), Japan, and Sakhalin. Fossils found in Japan indicate that the local tigers were, like the surviving island subspecies, smaller than the mainland forms. This may be due to the phenomenon in which body size is related to environmental space (see insular dwarfism), or perhaps the availability of prey. Until the Holocene, tigers also lived in Borneo, as well as on the island of Palawan in the Philippines.^[13]

Physical characteristics

Siberian tiger

Tigers are perhaps the most recognisable of all the cats (with the possible exception of the lion). They typically have rusty-reddish to brown-rusty coats, a whitish medial and ventral area, a white “fringe” that surrounds the face, and stripes that vary from brown or gray to pure black. The form and density of stripes differs between subspecies (as well as the ground coloration of the fur; for instance, Siberian tigers are usually paler than other tiger subspecies), but most tigers have over 100 stripes. The pattern of stripes is unique to each animal, and thus could potentially be used to identify individuals, much in the same way that fingerprints are used to identify people. This is not, however, a preferred method of identification, due to the difficulty of recording the stripe pattern of a wild tiger. It seems likely that the function of stripes is camouflage, serving to help tigers conceal themselves amongst the dappled shadows and long grass of their environment as they stalk their prey. The stripe pattern is found on a tiger’s skin and if shaved, its distinctive camouflage pattern would be preserved. Like other big cats, tigers have a white spot on the backs of their ears.

Skeleton

Tigers have the additional distinction of being the heaviest cats found in the wild.^[14] They also have powerfully built legs and shoulders, with the result that they, like lions, have the ability to pull down prey substantially heavier than themselves. However, the subspecies differ markedly in size, tending to increase proportionally with latitude, as predicted by Bergmann’s Rule. Thus, large male Siberian Tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) can reach a total length of 3.5 m “over curves” (3.3 m. “between pegs”) and a weight of 306 kilograms,^[15] which is considerably larger than the sizes reached by island-dwelling tigers such as the Sumatran, the smallest living subspecies with a body weight of only 75-140 kg.^[15] Tigresses are smaller than the males in each subspecies, although the size difference between male and female tigers tends to be more pronounced in the larger subspecies of tiger, with males weighing up to 1.7 times as much as the females.^[16] In addition, male tigers have wider forepaw pads than females. This difference is often used by biologists in determining the gender of tigers when observing their tracks.^[17] The skull of the tiger is very similar to that of the lion, though the frontal region is usually not as depressed or flattened, with a slightly longer postorbital region. The lion’s skull has broader nasal openings. However, due to the amount of skull variation in the two species, usually, only the structure of the lower jaw can be used as a reliable indicator of species.^[18]

Subspecies

Bengal tiger

There are eight recent subspecies of tiger, two of which are extinct. Their historical range (severely diminished today) ran through Bangladesh, Siberia, Iran, Afghanistan, India, China, and southeast Asia, including some Indonesian islands. The surviving subspecies, in descending order of wild population, are:

• The Bengal tiger or the Royal Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is the most common subspecies of tiger and is found primarily in India and Bangladesh.^[19] It lives in varied habitats: grasslands, subtropical and tropical rainforests, scrub forests, wet and dry deciduous forests, and mangroves. Males in the wild usually weigh 205 to 227 kg (450–500 lb), while the average female will weigh about 141 kg.^[20] However, the northern Indian and the Nepalese Bengal tigers are somewhat bulkier than those found in the south of the Indian Subcontinent, with males averaging around 235 kilograms (520 lb).^[20] While conservationists already believed the population to be below 2,000,^[21] the most recent audit by the Indian Government’s National Tiger Conservation Authority has estimated the number at just 1,411 wild tigers (1165–1657 allowing for statistical error), a drop of 60% in the past decade.^[22] Since 1972, there has been a massive wildlife conservation project, known as Project Tiger, to protect the Bengal tiger. Despite increased efforts by Indian officials, poaching remains rampant and at least one Tiger Reserve (Sariska Tiger Reserve) has lost its entire tiger population to poaching.^[23]

Indochinese tiger

• The Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti), also called Corbett’s tiger, is found in Cambodia, China, Laos, Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam. These tigers are smaller and darker than Bengal tigers: Males weigh from 150–190 kg (330–420 lb) while females are smaller at 110–140 kg (242–308 lb). Their preferred habitat is forests in mountainous or hilly regions. Estimates of the Indochinese tiger population vary between 1,200 to 1,800, with only several hundred left in the wild. All existing populations are at extreme risk from poaching, prey depletion as a result of poaching of primary prey species such as deer and wild pigs, habitat fragmentation and inbreeding. In Vietnam, almost three-quarters of the tigers killed provide stock for Chinese pharmacies.

Malayan tiger

• The Malayan tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni), exclusively found in the southern part of the Malay Peninsula, was not considered a subspecies in its own right until 2004. The new classification came about after a study by Luo et al. from the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity Study,^[24] part of the National Cancer Institute of the United States. Recent counts showed there are 600–800 tigers in the wild, making it the third largest tiger population, behind the Bengal tiger and the Indochinese tiger. The Malayan tiger is the smallest of the mainland tiger subspecies, and the second smallest living subspecies, with males averaging about 120 kg and females about 100 kg in weight. The Malayan tiger is a national icon in Malaysia, appearing on its coat of arms and in logos of Malaysian institutions, such as Maybank.

Sumatran tiger

• The Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) is found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and is critically endangered.^[25] It is the smallest of all living tiger subspecies, with adult males weighing between 100–140 kg (220–308 lb) and females 75–110 kg (154–242 lb).^[26] Their small size is an adaptation to the thick, dense forests of the island of Sumatra where they reside, as well as the smaller-sized prey. The wild population is estimated at between 400 and 500, seen chiefly in the island’s national parks. Recent genetic testing has revealed the presence of unique genetic markers, indicating that it may develop into a separate species,^[specify] if it does not go extinct.^[27] This has led to suggestions that Sumatran tigers should have greater priority for conservation than any other subspecies. While habitat destruction is the main threat to existing tiger population (logging continues even in the supposedly protected national parks), 66 tigers were recorded as being shot and killed between 1998 and 2000, or nearly 20% of the total population.

Siberian tiger

• The Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), also known as the Amur, Manchurian, Altaic, Korean or North China tiger, is confined to the Amur-Ussuri region of Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk Krai in far eastern Siberia, where it is now protected. Considered the largest subspecies, with a head and body length of 190–230 cm (the tail of a tiger is 60–110 cm long) and an average weight of around 227 kilograms (500 lb) for males,^[20] the Amur tiger is also noted for its thick coat, distinguished by a paler golden hue and fewer stripes. The heaviest wild Siberian tiger on record weighed in at 384 kg,^[28] but according to Mazak these giants are not confirmed via reliable references.^[15] Even so, a six-month old Siberian tiger can be as big as a fully grown leopard. The last two censuses (1996 and 2005) found 450–500 Amur tigers within their single, and more or less continuous, range making it one of the largest undivided tiger populations in the world. Genetic research in 2009 demonstrated that the Siberian tiger, and the western “Caspian tiger” (once thought to have been a separate subspecies that became extinct in the wild in the late 1950s^[29][30]) are actually the same subspecies, since the separation of the two populations may have occurred as recently as the past century due to human intervention.^[31]

South China tiger

• The South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis), also known as the Amoy or Xiamen tiger, is the most critically endangered subspecies of tiger and is listed as one of the 10 most endangered animals in the world.^{[32][clarification needed]} One of the smaller tiger subspecies, the length of the South China tiger ranges from 2.2–2.6 m (87–100 in) for both males and females. Males weigh between 127 and 177 kg (280–390 lb) while females weigh between 100 and 118 kg (220–260 lb). From 1983 to 2007, no South China tigers were sighted.^[33] In 2007 a farmer spotted a tiger and handed in photographs to the authorities as proof.^[33][34] The photographs in question, however, were later exposed as fake, copied from a Chinese calendar and photoshopped, and the “sighting” turned into a massive scandal.^[35][36][37]

In 1977, the Chinese government passed a law banning the killing of wild tigers, but this may have been too late to save the subspecies, since it is possibly already extinct in the wild. There are currently 59 known captive South China tigers, all within China, but these are known to be descended from only six animals. Thus, the genetic diversity required to maintain the subspecies may no longer exist. Currently, there are breeding efforts to reintroduce these tigers to the wild.

Extinct subspecies

A hunted down Balinese tiger

• The Balinese tiger (Panthera tigris balica) was limited to the island of Bali. They were the smallest of all tiger subspecies, with a weight of 90–100 kg in males and 65–80 kg in females.^[15] These tigers were hunted to extinction—the last Balinese tiger is thought to have been killed at Sumbar Kima, West Bali on 27 September 1937; this was an adult female. No Balinese tiger was ever held in captivity. The tiger still plays an important role in Balinese Hinduism.

A photograph of a Javan tiger.

• The Javan tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) was limited to the Indonesian island of Java. It now seems likely that this subspecies became extinct in the 1980s, as a result of hunting and habitat destruction, but the extinction of this subspecies was extremely probable from the 1950s onwards (when it is thought that fewer than 25 tigers remained in the wild). The last confirmed specimen was sighted in 1979, but there were a few reported sightings during the 1990s.^[38][39] With a weight of 100-141 kg for males and 75-115 kg for females, the Javan tiger was one of the smaller subspecies, approximately the same size as the Sumatran tiger^{[citation needed]}

A captive Caspian Tiger, Berlin Zoo 1899

Caspian tiger (formerly Panthera Tigris Virgata), also known as the Persian tiger or Turanian tiger was the westernmost population of Siberian tiger, found in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Caucasus, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan until it apparently became extinct in the late 1950s, though there have been several alleged sightings of the tiger.^[30] Though originally thought to have been a distinct subspecies, genetic research in 2009 suggest that the animal was largely identical to the Siberian tiger.^[31]

Hybrids

Hybridization among the big cats, including the tiger, was first conceptualized in the 19th century, when zoos were particularly interested in the pursuit of finding oddities to display for financial gain.^[40] Lions have been known to breed with tigers (most often the Amur and Bengal subspecies) to create hybrids called ligers and tigons.^[41] Such hybrids were once commonly bred in zoos, but this is now discouraged due to the emphasis on conserving species and subspecies. Hybrids are still bred in private menageries and in zoos in China.

The liger is a cross between a male lion and a tigress.^[42] Because the lion sire passes on a growth-promoting gene, but the corresponding growth-inhibiting gene from the female tiger is absent, ligers grow far larger than either parent. They share physical and behavioural qualities of both parent species (spots and stripes on a sandy background). Male ligers are sterile, but female ligers are often fertile. Males have about a 50% chance of having a mane, but, even if they do, their manes will be only around half the size of that of a pure lion. Ligers are typically between 10 to 12 feet in length, and can be between 800 and 1,000 pounds or more.^[42]

The less common tigon is a cross between the lioness and the male tiger.^[43]

Colour variations

White tigers

A pair of white Bengal tigers at the Singapore Zoo.

There is a well-known mutation that produces the white tiger, technically known as chinchilla albinistic,^[44] an animal which is rare in the wild, but widely bred in zoos due to its popularity. Breeding of white tigers will often lead to inbreeding (as the trait is recessive). Many initiatives have taken place in white and orange tiger mating in an attempt to remedy the issue, often mixing subspecies in the process. Such inbreeding has led to white tigers having a greater likelihood of being born with physical defects, such as cleft palates and scoliosis (curvature of the spine).^[45][46] Furthermore, white tigers are prone to having crossed eyes (a condition known as strabismus). Even apparently healthy white tigers generally do not live as long as their orange counterparts. Recordings of white tigers were first made in the early 19th century.^[47] They can only occur when both parents carry the rare gene found in white tigers; this gene has been calculated to occur in only one in every 10,000 births. The white tiger is not a separate sub-species, but only a colour variation; since the only white tigers that have been observed in the wild have been Bengal tigers^[48] (and all white tigers in captivity are at least part Bengal), it is commonly thought that the recessive gene that causes the white colouring is probably carried only by Bengal tigers, although the reasons for this are not known.^[45][49] Nor are they in any way more endangered than tigers are generally, this being a common misconception. Another misconception is that white tigers are albinos, despite the fact that pigment is evident in the white tiger’s stripes. They are distinct not only because of their white hue; they also have blue eyes and pink noses.

Golden tabby tigers

A rare golden tabby/strawberry tiger at the Buffalo Zoo.

In addition, another recessive gene may create a very unusual “golden tabby” colour variation, sometimes known as “strawberry.” Golden tabby tigers have light gold fur, pale legs and faint orange stripes. Their fur tends to be much thicker than normal.^[50] There are extremely few golden tabby tigers in captivity, around 30 in all. Like white tigers, strawberry tigers are invariably at least part Bengal. Some golden tabby tigers, called heterozygous tigers, carry the white tiger gene, and when two such tigers are mated, can produce some stripeless white offspring. Both white and golden tabby tigers tend to be larger than average Bengal tigers.

Other colour variations

There are also unconfirmed reports of a “blue” or slate-coloured tiger, the Maltese Tiger, and largely or totally black tigers, and these are assumed, if real, to be intermittent mutations rather than distinct species.^[44]

Biology and behaviour

Territorial behavior

Tigers are essentially solitary and territorial animals. The size of a tiger’s home range mainly depends on prey abundance, and, in the case of male tigers, on access to females. A tigress may have a territory of 20 square kilometres while the territories of males are much larger, covering 60–100 km². The ranges of males tend to overlap those of several females.

Tigers for the most part are solitary animals.

The relationships between individuals can be quite complex, and it appears that there is no set “rule” that tigers follow with regards to territorial rights and infringing territories. For instance, although for the most part tigers avoid each other, both male and female tigers have been documented sharing kills. For instance, George Schaller observed a male tiger share a kill with two females and four cubs. Females are often reluctant to let males near their cubs, but Schaller saw that these females made no effort to protect or keep their cubs from the male, suggesting that the male might have been the father of the cubs. In contrast to male lions, male tigers will allow the females and cubs to feed on the kill first. Furthermore, tigers seem to behave relatively amicably when sharing kills, in contrast to lions, which tend to squabble and fight. Unrelated tigers have also been observed feeding on prey together. The following quotation is from Stephen Mills’ book Tiger, as he describes an event witnessed by Valmik Thapar and Fateh Singh Rathore in Ranthambhore:^[51]

A dominant tigress they called Padmini killed a 250 kg (550-lb) male nilgai – a very large antelope. They found her at the kill just after dawn with her three 14-month-old cubs and they watched uninterrupted for the next ten hours. During this period the family was joined by two adult females and one adult male – all offspring from Padmini’s previous litters and by two unrelated tigers, one female the other unidentified. By three o’clock there were no fewer than nine tigers round the kill.

When young female tigers first establish a territory, they tend to do so fairly close to their mother’s area. The overlap between the female and her mother’s territory tends to wane with increasing time. Males, however, wander further than their female counterparts, and set out at a younger age to mark out their own area. A young male will acquire territory either by seeking out a range devoid of other male tigers, or by living as a transient in another male’s territory, until he is old and strong enough to challenge the resident male. The highest mortality rate (30-35% per year) amongst adult tigers occurs for young male tigers who have just left their natal area, seeking out territories of their own.^[52]

Two male Bengal tiger siblings play with each other in the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, India.

Male tigers are generally more intolerant of other males within their territory than females are of other females. For the most part, however, territorial disputes are usually solved by displays of intimidation, rather than outright aggression. Several such incidents have been observed, in which the subordinate tiger yielded defeat by rolling onto its back, showing its belly in a submissive posture.^[53] Once dominance has been established, a male may actually tolerate a subordinate within his range, as long as they do not live in too close quarters.^[52] The most violent disputes tend to occur between two males when a female is in oestrus, and may result in the death of one of the males, although this is actually a relatively rare occurrence.^[52][54]

To identify his territory, the male marks trees by spraying of urine and anal gland secretions, as well as marking trails with scat. Males show a grimacing face, called the Flehmen response, when identifying a female’s reproductive condition by sniffing their urine markings.

Tigers have been studied in the wild using a variety of techniques. The populations of tigers were estimated in the past using plaster casts of their pugmarks. This method was found faulty^[55] and attempts were made to use camera trapping instead. Newer techniques based on DNA from their scat are also being evaluated. Radio collaring has also been a popular approach to tracking them for study in the wild.

Hunting and diet

Tiger dentition. The large canines are used to make the killing bite, but they tear meat when feeding using the carnassial teeth.

In the wild, tigers mostly feed on larger and medium sized animals. Sambar, gaur, chital, wild boar, nilgai and both water buffalo and domestic buffalo are the tiger’s favored prey in India. Sometimes, they also prey on leopards, pythons, sloth bears and crocodiles. In Siberia the main prey species are manchurian wapiti, wild boar, sika deer, moose, roe deer, and musk deer. In Sumatra Sambar, muntjac, wild boar, and malayan tapir are preyed on. In the former Caspian tiger’s range, prey included saiga antelope, camels, caucasian wisent, yak, and wild horses. Like many predators, they are opportunistic and will eat much smaller prey, such as monkeys, peafowls, hares, and fish.

Adult elephants are too large to serve as common prey, but conflicts between tigers and elephants do sometimes take place. A case where a tiger killed an adult Indian Rhinoceros has been observed.^[56] Young elephant and rhino calves are occasionally taken. Tigers also sometimes prey on domestic animals such as dogs, cows, horses, and donkeys. These individuals are termed cattle-lifters or cattle-killers in contrast to typical game-killers.^[57]

A South China tiger of the Save China’s Tigers project with his blesbuck kill.

Old tigers, or those wounded and rendered incapable of catching their natural prey, have turned into man-eaters; this pattern has recurred frequently across India. An exceptional case is that of the Sundarbans, where healthy tigers prey upon fishermen and villagers in search of forest produce, humans thereby forming a minor part of the tiger’s diet.^[58] Tigers will occasionally eat vegetation for dietary fiber, the fruit of the Slow Match Tree being favoured.^[57]

Tigers’ extremely strong jaws and sharp teeth make them superb predators.

Tigers usually hunt at night.^[59] They generally hunt alone and ambush their prey as most other cats do, overpowering them from any angle, using their body size and strength to knock large prey off balance. Even with their great masses, tigers can reach speeds of about 49-65 kilometres per hour (35-40 miles per hour), although they can only do so in short bursts, since they have relatively little stamina; consequently, tigers must be relatively close to their prey before they break their cover. Tigers have great leaping ability; horizontal leaps of up to 10 metres have been reported, although leaps of around half this amount are more typical. However, only one in twenty hunts ends in a successful kill.^[59]

When hunting large prey, tigers prefer to bite the throat and use their forelimbs to hold onto the prey, bringing it to the ground. The tiger remains latched onto the neck until its prey dies of strangulation.^[60] By this method, gaurs and water buffalos weighing over a ton have been killed by tigers weighing about a sixth as much.^[61] With small prey, the tiger bites the nape, often breaking the spinal cord, piercing the windpipe, or severing the jugular vein or common carotid artery.^[62] Though rarely observed, some tigers have been recorded to kill prey by swiping with their paws, which are powerful enough to smash the skulls of domestic cattle,^[57] and break the backs of sloth bears.^[63]

During the 1980s, a tiger named “Genghis” in Ranthambhore National Park was observed frequently hunting prey through deep lake water,^[64] a pattern of behaviour that had not been previously witnessed in over 200 years of observations. Moreover, he appeared to be extraordinarily successful for a tiger, with as many as 20% of hunts ending in a kill.

Reproduction

A Siberian tigress with a cub at Buffalo Zoo.

Mating can occur all year round, but is generally more common between November and April.^[65] A female is only receptive for a few days and mating is frequent during that time period. A pair will copulate frequently and noisily, like other cats. The gestation period is 16 weeks. The litter size usually consists of around 3–4 cubs of about 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) each, which are born blind and helpless. The females rear them alone, sheltering them in dens such as thickets and rocky crevices. The father of the cubs generally takes no part in rearing them. Unrelated wandering male tigers may even kill cubs to make the female receptive, since the tigress may give birth to another litter within 5 months if the cubs of the previous litter are lost.^[65] The mortality rate of tiger cubs is fairly high – approximately half do not survive to be more than two years old.^[65]

There is generally a dominant cub in each litter, which tends to be male but may be of either sex.^[64] This cub generally dominates its siblings during play and tends to be more active, leaving its mother earlier than usual. At 8 weeks, the cubs are ready to follow their mother out of the den, although they don’t travel with her as she roams her territory until they are older. The cubs become independent around 18 months of age, but it is not until they are around 2–2½ years old that they leave their mother. Females reach sexual maturity at 3–4 years, whereas males reach sexual maturity at 4–5 years.^[65]

Over the course of her life, a female tiger will give birth to an approximately equal number of male and female cubs. Tigers breed well in captivity, and the captive population in the United States may rival the wild population of the world.^[66]

Interspecific predatory relationships

Tiger hunted by wild dogs as illustrated in Samuel Howett & Edward Orme, Hand Coloured, Aquatint Engravings, Published London 1807.

Tigers may kill such formidable predators as leopards, pythons and even crocodiles on occasion,^[67][68][69] although predators typically avoid one another. When seized by a crocodile, a tiger will strike at the reptile’s eyes with its paws.^[57] Leopards dodge competition from tigers by hunting in different times of the day and hunting different prey.^[56] With relatively abundant prey, tigers and leopards were seen to successfully coexist without competitive exclusion or inter-species dominance hierarchies that may be more common to the savanna.^[70] Tigers have been known to suppress wolf populations in areas where the two species coexist.^[71][72] Dhole packs have been observed to attack and kill tigers in disputes over food, though not usually without heavy losses.^[63] Siberian tigers and brown bears can be competitors and usually avoid confrontation; however, tigers will kill bear cubs and even some adults on occasion. Bears (Asiatic black bears and brown bears) make up 5-8% of the tiger’s diet in the Russian Far East.^[15] There are also records of brown bears killing tigers, either in self defense or in disputes over kills.^[18] Some bears emerging from hibernation will try to steal tigers’ kills, although the tiger will sometimes defend its kill. Sloth bears are quite aggressive and will sometimes drive younger aged tigers away from their kills, although in most of cases Bengal tigers prey on sloth bears.^[15]

A tiger swimming at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey.

Habitat

Typical tiger country has three main features: It will always have good cover, it will always be close to water and plenty of prey. Bengal Tigers live in all types of forests, including Wet, Evergreen, semi-evergreen of Assam and eastern Bengal; the mangrove forest of Ganges Delta; The deciduous forest of Nepal and thorn forests of the Western Ghats. Compared to the lion, the tiger prefers denser vegetation, for which its camouflage is ideally suited, and where a single predator is not at a disadvantage compared to a pride. Among the big cats, only the tiger and jaguar are strong swimmers; tigers are often found bathing in ponds, lakes, and rivers. Unlike other cats, which tend to avoid water, tigers actively seek it out. During the extreme heat of the day, they are often to be found cooling off in pools. Tigers are excellent swimmers and can swim up to 4 miles. Tigers are often to be found carrying their dead prey across lakes.

Conservation efforts

Poaching for fur and destruction of habitat have greatly reduced tiger populations in the wild. At the start of the 20th century, it is estimated there were over 100,000 tigers in the world but the population has dwindled to about 2,000 in the wild.^[73] Some estimates suggest the population is even lower, with some at less than 2,500 mature breeding individuals, with no subpopulation containing more than 250 mature breeding individuals.^[74]

India

A tigress with her cubs in the Kanha Tiger Reserve, India.

India is home to the world’s largest population of tigers in the wild.^[75] According to the World Wildlife Fund, of the 3,500 tigers around the world, 1,400 are found in India.^[76] A major concerted conservation effort, known as Project Tiger, has been underway since 1973, which was initially spearheaded by Indira Gandhi. The fundamental accomplishment has been the establishment of over 25 well-monitored tiger reserves in reclaimed land where human development is categorically forbidden. The program has been credited with tripling the number of wild Bengal tigers from roughly 1,200 in 1973 to over 3,500 in the 1990s. However, a tiger census carried out in 2007, whose report was published on February 12, 2008, stated that the wild tiger population in India declined by 60% to approximately 1,411.^[77] It is noted in the report that the decrease of tiger population can be attributed directly to poaching.^[78]

Following the release of the report, the Indian government pledged $153 million to further fund the Project Tiger initiative, set-up a Tiger Protection Force to combat poachers, and fund the relocation of up to 200,000 villagers to minimize human-tiger interaction.^[79] Additionally, eight new tiger reserves in India are being set up.^[80] Indian officials successfully started a project to reintroduce the tigers into the Sariska Tiger Reserve.^[81] The Ranthambore National Park is often cited as a major success by Indian officials against poaching.^[82]

Russia

Tiger headcount in 1990

The Siberian tiger was on the brink of extinction with only about 40 animals in the wild in the 1940s. Under the Soviet Union, anti-poaching controls were strict and a network of protected zones (zapovedniks) were instituted, leading to a rise in the population to several hundred. Poaching again became a problem in the 1990s, when the economy of Russia collapsed, local hunters had access to a formerly sealed off lucrative Chinese market, and logging in the region increased. While an improvement in the local economy has led to greater resources being invested in conservation efforts, an increase of economic activity has led to an increased rate of development and deforestation. The major obstacle in preserving the species is the enormous territory individual tigers require (up to 450 km² needed by a single female).^[14] Current conservation efforts are led by local governments and NGO‘s in consort with international organizations, such as the World Wide Fund and the Wildlife Conservation Society.^[14] The competitive exclusion of wolves by tigers has been used by Russian conservationists to convince hunters in the Far East to tolerate the big cats, as they limit ungulate populations less than wolves, and are effective in controlling the latter’s numbers.^[83] Currently, there are about 400-550 animals in the wild.

Tibet

In Tibet, tiger and leopard pelts have traditionally been used in various ceremonies and costumes. In January 2006 the Dalai Lama preached a ruling against using, selling, or buying wild animals, their products, or derivatives. It has yet to be seen whether this will result in a long-term slump in the demand for poached tiger and leopard skins.^[84][85][86]

Rewilding

A Bengal tiger in a national park in southern India. Indian officials successfully reintroduced two Bengal tigers in the Sariska Tiger Reserve in July 2008.^[87]

The first attempt at rewilding was by Indian conservationist Billy Arjan Singh, who reared a zoo-born tigress named Tara, and released her in the wilds of Dudhwa National Park in 1978. This was soon followed by a large number of people being eaten by a tigress who was later shot. Government officials claim that this tigress was Tara, an assertion hotly contested by Singh and conservationists. Later on, this rewilding gained further disrepute when it was found that the local gene pool had been sullied by Tara’s introduction as she was partly Siberian tiger, a fact not known at the time of release, ostensibly due to poor record-keeping at Twycross Zoo, where she had been raised.^{[88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97]}

Save China’s Tigers

The organisation Save China’s Tigers, working with the Wildlife Research Centre of the State Forestry Administration of China and the Chinese Tigers South Africa Trust, secured an agreement on the reintroduction of Chinese tigers into the wild. The agreement, which was signed in Beijing on 26 November 2002, calls for the establishment of a Chinese tiger conservation model through the creation of a pilot reserve in China where indigenous wildlife, including the South China Tiger, will be reintroduced. Save China’s Tigers aims to rewild the critically endangered South China Tiger by bringing a few captive-bred individuals to South Africa for rehabilitation training for them to regain their hunting instincts. At the same time, a pilot reserve in China is being set-up and the Tigers will be relocated and release back in China when the reserve in China is ready.^[98] The offspring of the trained tigers will be released into the pilot reserves in China, while the original animals will stay in South Africa to continue breeding.^[99]

The reason South Africa was chosen is because it is able to provide expertise and resources, land and game for the South China tigers. The South China Tigers of the project has since been successfully rewilded and are fully capable of hunting and surviving on their own.^[98] This project is also very successful in the breeding of these rewilded South China Tigers and 5 cubs have been born in the project, these cubs of the 2nd generation would be able to learn their survival skills from their successfully rewilded mothers directly.^[100]

Relation with humans

Tiger as prey

Tiger hunting on elephant-back, India, early 19th century.

The tiger has been one of the Big Five game animals of Asia. Tiger hunting took place on a large scale in the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries, being a recognised and admired sport by the British in colonial India as well as the maharajas and aristocratic class of the erstwhile princely states of pre-independence India. Tiger hunting was done by some hunters on foot; others sat up on machans with a goat or buffalo tied out as bait; yet others on elephant-back.^[101] In some cases, villagers beating drums were organised to drive the animals into the killing zone. Elaborate instructions were available for the skinning of tigers and there were taxidermists who specialised in the preparation of tiger skins.

Man-eating tigers

Stereographic photograph (1903) of a captured man-eating tiger in the Calcutta zoo; the tiger had claimed 200 human victims.

Although humans are not regular prey for tigers, they have killed more people than any other cat, particularly in areas where population growth, logging, and farming have put pressure on tiger habitats. Most man-eating tigers are old and missing teeth, acquiring a taste for humans because of their inability to capture preferred prey.^[102] Almost all tigers that are identified as man-eaters are quickly captured, shot, or poisoned. Unlike man-eating leopards, even established man-eating tigers will seldom enter human settlements, usually remaining at village outskirts.^[103] Nevertheless, attacks in human villages do occur.^[104] Man-eaters have been a particular problem in India and Bangladesh, especially in Kumaon, Garhwal and the Sundarbans mangrove swamps of Bengal, where some healthy tigers have been known to hunt humans. Because of rapid habitat loss due to climate change, tiger attacks have increased in the Sundarbans.^[105]The tiger Tatiana at the San Francisco zoo escaped by jumping over a wall,and killed one zoo visitor before being shot down by the authorities.This could have been stopped most people say by the zoo keepers and owners paying more attention to tiger keeping standards,for instance the wall that separated her and the public was small enough for her to jump over,and because of this one critical mistake a life was lost.

Traditional Asian medicine

Instructions for tiger skinning

Many people in China have a belief that various tiger parts have medicinal properties, including as pain killers and aphrodisiacs.^[106] There is no scientific evidence to support these beliefs. The use of tiger parts in pharmaceutical drugs in China is already banned, and the government has made some offenses in connection with tiger poaching punishable by death. Furthermore, all trade in tiger parts is illegal under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and a domestic trade ban has been in place in China since 1993. Still, there are a number of tiger farms in the country specializing in breeding the cats for profit. It is estimated that between 4,000 and 5,000 captive-bred, semi-tame animals live in these farms today.^[107][108]

As pets

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums estimates that up to 12,000 tigers are being kept as private pets in the USA, significantly more than the world’s entire wild population.^[109] 4,000 are believed to be in captivity in Texas alone.^[109]

Part of the reason for America’s enormous tiger population relates to legislation. Only nineteen states have banned private ownership of tigers, fifteen require only a license, and sixteen states have no regulations at all.^[109]

The success of breeding programmes at American zoos and circuses led to an overabundance of cubs in the 1980s and 1990s, which drove down prices for the animals.^[109] The SPCA estimate there are now 500 lions, tigers and other big cats in private ownership just in the Houston area.^[109]

In the 1983 film Scarface, the protagonist, Tony Montana, aspires to obtaining all the exterior trappings of the American Dream, which in the character’s opinion included keeping a pet tiger on his property.

Cultural depictions

19th century painting of a tiger by Kuniyoshi Utagawa.

The tiger replaces the lion as King of the Beasts in cultures of eastern Asia,^[110] representing royalty, fearlessness and wrath.^[111] Its forehead has a marking which resembles the Chinese character 王, which means “king”; consequently, many cartoon depictions of tigers in China and Korea are drawn with 王 on their forehead.^{[citation needed]}

Of great importance in Chinese myth and culture, the tiger is one of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals. Also in various Chinese art and martial art, the tiger is depicted as an earth symbol and equal rival of the Chinese dragon- the two representing matter and spirit respectively. In fact, the Southern Chinese martial art Hung Ga is based on the movements of the Tiger and the Crane. In Imperial China, a tiger was the personification of war and often represented the highest army general (or present day defense secretary),^[111] while the emperor and empress were represented by a dragon and phoenix, respectively. The White Tiger (Chinese: 白虎; pinyin: Bái Hǔ) is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. It is sometimes called the White Tiger of the West (西方白虎), and it represents the west and the autumn season.^[111]

In Buddhism, it is also one of the Three Senseless Creatures, symbolizing anger, with the monkey representing greed and the deer lovesickness.^[111]

Sala fighting the tiger, the symbol of Hoysala Empire at Belur, Karnataka, India.

The Tungusic people considered the Siberian tiger a near-deity and often referred to it as “Grandfather” or “Old man”. The Udege and Nanai called it “Amba”. The Manchu considered the Siberian tiger as Hu Lin, the king.^[17]

The widely worshiped Hindu goddess Durga, an aspect of Devi-Parvati, is a ten-armed warrior who rides the tigress (or lioness) Damon into battle. In southern India the god Aiyappa was associated with a tiger.^[112]

The weretiger replaces the werewolf in shapeshifting folklore in Asia;^[113] in India they were evil sorcerers while in Indonesia and Malaysia they were somewhat more benign.^[114]

The tiger continues to be a subject in literature; both Rudyard Kipling, in The Jungle Book, and William Blake, in Songs of Experience, depict the tiger as a menacing and fearful animal. In The Jungle Book, the tiger, Shere Khan, is the wicked mortal enemy of the protagonist, Mowgli. However, other depictions are more benign: Tigger, the tiger from A. A. Milne‘s Winnie-the-Pooh stories, is cuddly and likable. In the Man Booker Prize winning novel “Life of Pi,” the protagonist, Pi Patel, sole human survivor of a ship wreck in the Pacific Ocean, befriends another survivor: a large Bengal Tiger. The famous comic strip Calvin and Hobbes features Calvin and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes. A tiger is also featured on the cover of the popular cereal Frosted Flakes (also marketed as “Frosties”) bearing the name “Tony the Tiger“.

The Tiger is the national animal of Bangladesh, Nepal, India^[115] (Bengal Tiger)^[116] Malaysia (Malayan Tiger), North Korea and South Korea (Siberian Tiger).

World’s favourite animal

In a poll conducted by Animal Planet, the tiger was voted the world’s favourite animal, narrowly beating the dog. More than 50,000 viewers from 73 countries voted in the poll. Tigers received 21% of the vote, dogs 20%, dolphins 13%, horses 10%, lions 9%, snakes 8%, followed by elephants, chimpanzees, orangutans and whales.^{[117][118][119][120]}

Animal behaviourist Candy d’Sa, who worked with Animal Planet on the list, said: “We can relate to the tiger, as it is fierce and commanding on the outside, but noble and discerning on the inside”.^[117]

Callum Rankine, international species officer at the World Wildlife Federation conservation charity, said the result gave him hope. “If people are voting tigers as their favourite animal, it means they recognise their importance, and hopefully the need to ensure their survival,” he said.^[117]

Tidak ada satu pun spesies terancam dalam perlindungan CITES yang menjadi punah sejak CITES diberlakukan tahun 1975.  Pemerintah Indonesia meratifikasi CITES dengan Keputusan Pemerintah No. 43 Tahun 1978.

LATAR BELAKANG

CITES merupakan satu-satunya perjanjian global dengan fokus perlindungan spesies tumbuhan dan satwa liar. Keikutsertaan bersifat sukarela, dan negara-negara yang terikat dengan konvensi disebut para pihak (parties). Walaupun CITES mengikat para pihak secara hukum, CITES bukan pengganti hukum di masing-masing negara. CITES hanya merupakan rangka kerja yang harus dijunjung para pihak yang membuat undang-undang untuk implementasi CITES di tingkat nasional. Seringkali, undang-undang perlindungan tumbuhan dan satwa liar di tingkat nasional masih belum ada (khususnya para pihak yang belum meratifikasi CITES), hukuman yang tidak seimbang dengan tingkat kejahatan, dan kurangnya penegakan hukum terhadap perdagangan satwa liar. Di tahun 2002 hanya terdapat 50% para pihak yang bisa memenuhi satu atau lebih persyaratan dari 4 persyaratan utama yang harus dipenuhi: (1) keberadaan otoritas pengelola nasional dan otoritas keilmuan, (2) hukum yang melarang perdagangan tumbuhan dan satwa liar yang dilindungi CITES, (3) sanksi hukum bagi pelaku perdagangan, dan (4) hukum untuk penyitaan barang bukti.

Naskah konvensi disepakati 3 Maret 1973 pada pertemuan para wakil 80 negara di Washington, D.C.. Negara peserta diberi waktu hingga 31 Desember 1974 untuk menandatangani kesepakatan, dan CITES mulai berlaku tanggal 1 Juli 1975. Setelah melakukan ratifikasi, menerima, atau menyetujui konvensi, negara-negara yang menandatangani konvensi disebut para pihak (parties). Di tahun 2003, semua negara penanda tangan CITES telah menjadi para pihak. Negara yang belum menandatangani dapat ikut serta menjadi para pihak dengan menyetujui CITES. Di bulan Agustus 2006 tercatat sejumlah 169 negara telah menjadi para pihak dalam CITES.

Sekretariat CITES berkantor di Geneva, Swiss dan menyediakan dokumen-dokumen asli dalam bahasa Inggris, Perancis, dan Spanyol. Pendanaan kegiatan sekretariat dan Konferensi Para Pihak (COP) berasal dari dana perwalian yang merupakan sumbangan para pihak. Dana perwalian tidak bisa digunakan para pihak untuk meningkatkan taraf implementasi atau pelaksanaan CITES. Dana perwalian hanya untuk kegiatan sekretariat, sedangkan para pihak dalam melaksanakan kegiatan yang berkaitan dengan CITES harus mencari pendanaan eksternal (dilakukan NGO dan dana bilateral).

Apendiks CITES

CITES merupakan kerjasama antar negara anggota untuk menjamin perdagangan tumbuhan dan satwa liar dilaksanakan sejalan dengan perjanjian CITES. Ekspor, impor, reekspor, dan introduksi spesies yang terdaftar dalam apendiks CITES harus mendapat izin otoritas pengelola dan rekomendasi otoritas keilmuan CITES di negara tersebut.

Para pihak anggota konvensi harus menunjuk satu atau lebih otoritas pengelola yang memberi perizinan, dan satu atau lebih otoritas ilmiah yang menilai dampak perdagangan terhadap kelestarian spesies tersebut. Departemen Kehutanan berdasarkan pasal 65 Peraturan Pemerintah Nomor 8 tahun 1999 ditunjuk sebagai otoritas pengelola konservasi tumbuhan dan satwa liar di Indonesia. Selanjutnya, Direktur Jenderal Perlindungan Hutan dan Konservasi Alam ditunjuk sebagai otoritas pengelola CITES di Indonesia melalui Keputusan Menteri Kehutanan Nomor 104/Kpts-II/2003 (sebagai pengganti Keputusan Menteri Kehutanan No.36/Kpts-II/1996).Selain itu, Peraturan Pemerintah No. 7 dan 8 Tahun 1999 juga menunjuk Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia (LIPI) sebagai otoritas keilmuan CITES.

Spesies yang diusulkan masuk dalam apendiks CITES dibahas dalam Konferensi Para Pihak (COP), yang konferensi berikutnya diadakan bulan Juni 2007. Para pihak bisa mengusulkan suatu spesies walaupun habitat spesies tersebut tidak berada dalam wilayah negara pengusul. Usulan bisa disetujui masuk dalam apendiks CITES asalkan didukung suara mayoritas 2/3 dari para pihak, walaupun ada para pihak yang berkeberatan.

Apendiks CITES berisi sekitar 5.000 spesies satwa dan 28.000 spesies tumbuhan yang dilindungi dari eksploitasi berlebihan melalui perdagangan internasional. Spesies terancam dikelompokkan ke dalam apendiks CITES berdasarkan tingkat ancaman dari perdagangan internasional, dan tindakan yang perlu diambil terhadap perdagangan tersebut. Dalam apendiks CITES, satu spesies bisa saja terdaftar di lebih dari satu kategori. Semua populasi Gajah Afrika (Loxodonta africana) misalnya, dimasukkan ke dalam Apendiks I, kecuali populasi di Botswana, Namibia, Afrika Selatan, dan Zimbabwe yang terdaftar dalam Apendiks II.

CITES terdiri dari tiga apendiks:

• Apendiks I: daftar seluruh spesies tumbuhan dan satwa liar yang dilarang dalam segala bentuk perdagangan internasional
• Apendiks II: daftar spesies yang tidak terancam kepunahan, tapi mungkin terancam punah bila perdagangan terus berlanjut tanpa adanya pengaturan
• Apendiks III: daftar spesies tumbuhan dan satwa liar yang dilindungi di negara tertentu dalam batas-batas kawasan habitatnya, dan suatu saat peringkatnya bisa dinaikkan ke dalam Apendiks II atau Apendiks I.

Apendiks I – sekitar 800 spesies

Spesies yang dimasukkan ke dalam kategori ini adalah spesies yang terancam punah bila perdagangan tidak dihentikan. Perdagangan spesimen dari spesies yang ditangkap di alam bebas adalah ilegal (diizinkan hanya dalam keadaan luar biasa).

Satwa dan tumbuhan yang termasuk dalam daftar Apendiks I, namun merupakan hasil penangkaran atau budidaya dianggap sebagai spesimen dari Apendiks II dengan beberapa persyaratan. Otoritas pengelola dari negara pengekspor harus melaporkan non-detriment finding berupa bukti bahwa ekspor spesimen dari spesies tersebut tidak merugikan populasi di alam bebas. Setiap perdagangan spesies dalam Apendiks I memerlukan izin ekspor impor. Otoritas pengelola dari negara pengekspor diharuskan memeriksa izin impor yang dimiliki pedagang, dan memastikan negara pengimpor dapat memelihara spesimen tersebut dengan layak.

Satwa yang dimasukkan ke dalam Apendiks I, misalnya gorila, simpanse, harimau dan subspesiesnya, singa Asia, macan tutul, jaguar cheetah, gajah Asia, beberapa populasi gajah Afrika, dan semua spesies Badak (kecuali beberapa subspesies di Afrika Selatan).

Apendiks II – sekitar 32.500 spesies

Spesies dalam Apendiks II tidak segera terancam kepunahan, tapi mungkin terancam punah bila tidak dimasukkan ke dalam daftar dan perdagangan terus berlanjut. Selain itu, Apendiks II juga berisi spesies yang terlihat mirip dan mudah keliru dengan spesies yang didaftar dalam Apendiks I. Otoritas pengelola dari negara pengekspor harus melaporkan bukti bahwa ekspor spesimen dari spesies tersebut tidak merugikan populasi di alam bebas.

Apendiks III – sekitar 300 spesies

Spesies yang dimasukkan ke dalam Apendiks III adalah spesies yang dimasukkan ke dalam daftar setelah salah satu negara anggota meminta bantuan para pihak CITES dalam mengatur perdagangan suatu spesies. Spesies tidak terancam punah dan semua negara anggota CITES hanya boleh melakukan perdagangan dengan izin ekspor yang sesuai dan Surat Keterangan Asal (SKA) atau Certificate of Origin (COO).

Souce: id.wikipedia.org

Source: Nike Ad quote

Every second of everyday you’re faced with a decision that can change your life

Penelitian itu mengungkapkan, kurang tidur berlebihan secara signifikan akan meningkatkan risiko kematian.
Penurunan durasi tidur atau tidur selama enam, tujuh, dan delapan jam akan berisiko 110 persen mengalami penyakit kardiovaskular yang mematikan.

Gaya hidup tidak sehat kembali dinyatakan sebagai biang keladi meningkatnya risiko kematian.
Setelah pola makan dan kurang olahraga, kini penelitian terbaru mengungkap bahwa pola tidur yang tidak sehat juga dicap sebagai masalah utama.

Penelitian itu mengungkapkan, kurang tidur berlebihan secara signifikan akan meningkatkan risiko kematian.
Penurunan durasi tidur atau tidur selama enam, tujuh, dan delapan jam akan berisiko 110 persen mengalami penyakit kardiovaskular yang mematikan.

“Sementara peningkatan durasi tidur selama tujuh atau delapan jam sering dihubungkan dengan risiko 110 persen yang menyebabkan kematian selain kardiovaskular,” ujar Ketua Peneliti dari University College London Medical School Jane Ferrie.

Penelitian yang dilakukan memfokuskan kepada 10.308 berusia antara 35 sampai 55 tahun.
Sebagai langkah pencegahan, penelitian itu menyarankan untuk secara konsisten tidur selama tujuh atau delapan jam tiap malam.
“Hal ini dimaksudkan agar kesehatan terjaga optimal,” ujar Ferrie.

Dia pun mengungkapkan, angka kematian akan semakin rendah pada partisipan yang tidur selama lima sampai enam jam atau kurang.
Namun, kondisi angka kematian akan tinggi jika partisipan tidur secara berlebihan selama lebih dari delapan jam sehari. “Sebaiknya lakukan pembatasan jam tidur,” tandasnya.

Sumber: http://anto84.blogdetik.com

Hall utama

Icehotel

Hotel yang dibangun dari es balok dan salju.. Semua es balok di dapat dari Sungai Torne yang beku, trus dipotong jadi bentuk2 balok dan disimpan di freezer sampai musim dingin taun depan e.. Nah waktu pembuatan hotel itu cuma 2 bulan.. Setiap tahun dibangun dengan rancangan yang berbeda2..

Pekerja didapat dari berbagai negara, dan khusus untuk suite room, dipanggil orang2 khusus untuk mendekor sesuai kreativitas masing2.. Di bar, tidak ada es dalam minuman tetapi terdapat minuman dalam es, semua gelas terbuat dari es..

Pembangunan ice hotel sangat bergantung pada suhu.. jika suhu diatas 0 derajat sulit untuk membangun. Bangunan dibuat dengan menggunakan cetakan2 yang nantinya diberi salju.. Setelah padat, cetakan akan dikeluarkan, jika pengukuran tidak dilakukan dengan benar, saat cetakan dikeluarkan bisa terjadi longsor..

Untuk mencapai Icehotel dari bandara tidak menggunakan kendaraan tetapi menggunakan angkutan umum kereta salju yang ditarik oleh anjing2.

Ni dokumenter patut untuk dilihat “The Ice Hotel” by Discovery Travel and Living

In Swedish Lapland, 200 km north of the Artic Circle lays the vilage of Jukkasjarvi on the river Torne. Jukkasjarvi in Saami means ‘meeting place’, which is what the former Saami village has been for half a millenium. Imagine a hotel built from thousandsof tons of snow and ice, and re-biult every winter, and you’ll imagine Icehotel in the little village of Jukkasjarvi in nothern Lapland, Sweden

In Icehotel there are double rooms and suites for overnight guests, a lobby, a pillar hall, film auditorium, and of course the famous Icebar – where folk from all over the world socialize until the wee hours. There is also a chapel where people wed and a new ice theatre where plays, opera and rock concerts are performed.

In November, building starts on the unique icehotel and in December the doors are opened to the winter season’s visitors. By the time the spring sunshine has done its work and the icehotel has slowly but surely made way for summer and has run back into the river Torne, may has arrived. Depending on the weather, normally at the end of April or the beginning of May, the icehotel closes for the season, and the architects and artist must start to plan for rebuilding the whole hotel for the next season.

This is a film about a few people who had a cold dream, and who work to make it come true every year. It is a film about people from around the world who come to frozen hotel to experience the cold bed, nothern lights above and a warm feeling. This is a place where craziness and beauty meet the artistic and the adventurous and people come away with a feeling seldom experienced in any other place in the world.

room

Icebar