The Animal Of The Year 2010!

Animal of the Year: The TIGER!!!


Ten Things You Should Know About TIGERS
1: Tigers are wild cats who live in Asia. There have been eight known types of tigers in the world: Bali, Bengal, Caspian, Indo-Chinese, Javan, Malayan, South China and Siberian. Bali, Caspian and Javan tigers have now become extinct.

2: The tiger is the largest of all wild cats. Tigers grow as large as four metres in length and 300 kilograms in weight.

3: Tigers are carnivores, which means they eat other animals' flesh. Their diet consists of deer, buffalo, wild pigs, fish, monkeys, birds, reptiles, elephants, leopards, bears and other tigers.

4: In the 20th century, there were around 100,000 tigers in the wild, and now there are only about 3,000. There are estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000 tigers held in captivity.

5: Most tigers have orangey-red fur with black stripes, which scientists believe camouflages them, protecting them from their predators. No two tigers have the same stripe pattern.

6: Some tigers are white: they are born through inbreeding (that is, when members of the same family – such as a brother and sister, father and daughter or mother and son – mate). The inbreeding of tigers is often done by humans.

7: Tigers are one of the few cats who enjoy water and frequently swim in rivers.

8: Tigers are endangered, which means their species is threatened by extinction. They are widely hunted for sport, for fur and for use in traditional Asian medicines. They are the most endangered species of all the big cats.

9: A tiger's roar can be heard as far away as 2 miles!

10: Tigers make a type of chuffing noise as a sign of affection by breathing air gently out through their nostrils.