Tigers communicate through many means. They have vocal communication, body language, and scent communication. Their vocalizations, such as roaring, growling, or purring, are used to tell other tigers how they feel, usually in a negative way.

Body language is used to communicate fear, aggression, happiness, or a willingness to mate. When fighting, the aggressor will have his or her ears erect, teeth bared and the tail straight out, in a defensive posture. The one being attacked will have his or her ears flattened against the head the tail will be either tucked out towards the side of the body, and the teeth are bared. Readiness to mate is signified by the female laying on her stomach with their hindquarters in the air.

Scent is used to tell other tigers that this is their territory. Urine and feces are deposited at key locations on the borders of a tigers' territory, letting other tigers know that this area of land is occupied by another tiger, and that they should leave. Scent also communicates the age, sexual readiness, gender, and health of the animal. Females and males alike leave urine signals for others to smell to let other tigers in the area know that they are ready to mate. Also, by knowing the age and health of tigers in the area, outside tigers can tell if they should chance a fight with one of them to take over their territory. An old or unhealthy tiger is really easy to fight and win his or her territory. tours. tours.tours tours

The future of the tiger looks very bleak. Many wildlife biologists seriously doubt that tigers will survive into the 21st century. Tigers are losing ground primarily due to poaching and habitat loss. Tigers are killed by the hundreds for their skins and body parts, which are used in Chinese traditional medicine. tours. tours.tours tours tours tours tours tours tours

There are over 5000 royal bengal tigers all over the world and 3000 of them are in India. Three subspecies have already become extinct. It is believed that the South Chinese tiger, with its weakening population of 40-50 cats, will be the next extinct subspecies. Currently, it is believed that there are more tigers in captivity than there are wild tigers.

Also vital to the tiger's survival is prime habitat. Habitat loss has affected the tiger tremendously, as it breaks up the large territory a single tiger needs to ensure a wide prey base. With the loss of habitat to human settlements comes the loss or movement of their prey. It was habitat loss, primarily, in addition to hunting pressures, that caused the extinction of the Bali and Java tigers. Because they were on islands, they could not simply move away from the people, and perished from loss of prey. Sine the majority of today's wild tigers live in small, isolated preserves, like islands amidst human settlements, biologists worry the same fate will apply to the rest of the tiger population, since like the islands tigers, they have no where to expand.tours. tours.tours tours

With loss of habitat comes loss of prey base. Throughout Russia and southeast Asia, with prey densities in many areas hovering around 2-5 ungulates per km², tigers are unable to obtain enough food to survive. In efforts to try to find a suitable prey base, tigers try to increase their home range, but find it hard to impossible to do so due to human habitations. In severe winters, Siberian tigers will starve to death; one tiger found emaciated had stomach contents solely consisting of lichens.ours. tours.tours tours tours tours tours tours tours


Not only are they killed for their body parts, but tigers are shot for preying on livestock, or the potential to prey on livestock. Additionally, with the introduction of firearms in the Indian subcontinent, hunting tigers for sport became very populat, especially with the upper-class British and Indian royalty. In the early 20th century, the tiger was considered a pest animal in China and Russia, and treated likewise. Like the grey wolf, bounties were placed upon the tigers, and they were killed in extraordinary numbers in a very short amount of time.

One of the few positive things that came from the Soviet Union was the creation of anti-poaching laws which protected the tiger as well as other wildlife. With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, those laws ceased to operate, and wide-scale poaching of tigers resumed. The former Soviets sold tiger parts to China for money. Siberian forests were clear-cut and logged to supply money to the severly compromised government, further endangering the tigers.

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