Bengal tiger

The Bengal tiger is a population of the Panthera tigris tigris subspecies. It ranks among the largest of wild cats. It is distributed from India, southern Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan to Southwestern China. Its historical range extended to the Indus Basin until the early 19th century, and it is thought to have been present in the Indian subcontinent since the Late Pleistocene about 12,000 to 16,500 years ago. It is threatened by poaching, habitat loss and habitat fragmentation. As of 2022, the Bengal tiger population was estimated at 3,167–3,682 individuals in India, 316–355 individuals in Nepal, 131 individuals in Bhutan and around 125 individuals in Bangladesh. It is the national animal of...

The Bengal tiger's historical range covered the Indus River valley until the early 19th century, almost all of India, eastern Pakistan, southern Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and southwestern China. The modern tiger inhabits India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and southwestern China. It is estimated to have been present in the Indian subcontinent since the Late Pleistocene, for about 12,000 to 16,500 years. In 1982, a sub-fossil right middle phalanx was found in a prehistoric midden near Kuruwita in Sri Lanka, which is dated to about 16,500 years ago and tentatively considered to be of a tiger. Tigers appear to have arrived in Sri Lanka during a pluvial period, during which sea levels were depressed, evidently prior to the last glacial maximum about 20,000 years ago. The tiger probably arrived too late in southern India to colonise Sri Lanka, which earlier had been connected to India by a land bridge. Results of a phylogeographic study using 134 samples from tigers across the global range suggest that the historical northeastern distribution limit of the Bengal tiger is the region in the Chittagong Hills and Brahmaputra River basin, bordering the historical range of the Indochinese tiger. In the Indian subcontinent, Bengal tigers inhabit tropical moist evergreen forests, tropical dry forests, tropical and subtropical moist deciduous forests, mangroves, subtropical and temperate upland forests, and alluvial grasslands. The latter habitat once covered a huge swath of grassland, riverine and moist semi-deciduous forests along the major river system of the Gangetic and Brahmaputra plains, but has now been largely converted to agricultural land or severely degraded. The best examples of this habitat type are limited to a few blocks at the base of the outer foothills of the Himalayas including the Tiger Conservation Units (TCUs) Rajaji-Corbett-Pilibhit, Bardia-Banke, and the transboundary TCUs Chitwan-Parsa-Valmiki, Dudhwa-Kailali and Shuklaphanta-Kishanpur. Tiger densities in these TCUs are high, in part because of the extraordinary biomass of ungulate prey. In Pakistan, Khairpur was the last stronghold of the tiger by the late 19th century; the last individuals were shot in 1906 in Bahawalpur in the Indus Riverine jungles.

Nepal

The Bengal tiger is a carnivore and prefers hunting large ungulates such as gaur, sambar, chital, barasingha, water buffalo, nilgai, serow and takin. Medium-sized prey includes wild boar, Indian hog deer, Indian muntjac and northern plains gray langur. Small prey such as porcupine, hare and peafowl form a small part of its diet. Because of the encroachment of humans into tiger habitat, it also preys on domestic livestock. Bengal tigers occasionally hunt and kill predators such as Indian leopard, mugger crocodile, Asian black bear, sloth bear, and dhole. They generally do not attack adult Indian elephant and Indian rhinoceros, but such extraordinarily rare events have been recorded. In Kaziranga National Park, tigers killed 20 rhinoceros in 2007. In 2011 and 2014, two instances of Bengal tigers killing adult elephants were recorded; in Jim Corbett National Park on a 20-year-old elephant cow, and another on a 28-year-old sick elephant in Kaziranga National Park; the latter was eaten by several tigers at once. A king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah), an Indian cobra (Naja naja), Asian water monitor, rhesus macaque, fish, crabs, and very rarely fishing cats and turtles were found in the stomachs and scat of tigers in the Sundarbans. One in Chitwan National Park has been reported to have hunted three gharials. Results of scat analyses indicate that the Bengal tigers in Nagarahole National Park preferred prey weighing more than 176 kg (388 lb) and that on average tiger prey weighed 91.5 kg (202 lb). The prey species included chital, sambar, wild pig and gaur. Gaur remains were found in 44.8% of all tiger scat samples, sambar remains in 28.6%, wild pig remains in 14.3% and chital remains in 10.4% of all scat samples. In Bandipur National Park, gaur and sambar together also constituted 73% of tiger diet. In most cases, Bengal tigers approach their victim from the side or behind from as close a distance as possible and grasp the prey's throat to kill it. Then they drag the carcass into cover, occasionally over several hundred metres, to consume it. The nature of the tiger's hunting method and prey availability results in a "feast or famine" feeding style: they often consume 18–40 kg (40–88 lb) of meat at one time. In one study, tigresses from Nepal made about 40–50 kills a year and ate a minimum of 5–6.3 kg (11–14 lb) of meat a day. Two males made about 40–50 kills in a year and ate 6.3–7.8 kg (14–17 lb) of meat a day at the least. If injured, old or weak, or when its regular prey species become scarce, Bengal tigers often attack humans and become man-eaters.

The basic social unit of the tiger is composed of a female and her offspring. Adult animals congregate only temporarily when special conditions permit, such as plentiful supplies of food. Otherwise, they lead solitary lives, hunting individually for the forest and grassland animals upon which they prey. Resident adults of either sex maintain home ranges, confining their movements to definite habitats within which they satisfy their needs and those of their cubs, which include prey, water and shelter. In this site, they also maintain contact with other tigers, especially those of the opposite sex. Those sharing the same ground are well aware of each other's movements and activities. In Chitwan National Park, radio-collared subadult tigers started dispersing from their natal areas earliest at the age of 19 months. Of the 14 subadults studied, the four females stayed closer to their mother's home range than the 10 males. The latter dispersed between 9.5 and 65.7 km (5.9 and 40.8 mi). None of them crossed open cultivated areas that were more than 10 km (6.2 mi) wide, but moved through prime alluvial and forested habitat. In the Panna Tiger Reserve, an adult radio-collared male tiger moved 1.7 to 10.5 km (1.1 to 6.5 mi) between locations on successive days in winter, and 1 to 13.9 km (0.62 to 8.64 mi) in summer. His home range was about 200 km2 (77 sq mi) in summer and 110 km2 (42 sq mi) in winter. Included in his home range were the much smaller home ranges of two females, a tigress with cubs and a subadult tigress. They occupied home ranges of 16 to 31 km2 (6.2 to 12.0 sq mi). The home ranges occupied by adult male residents tend to be mutually exclusive, even though one of these residents may tolerate a transient or sub-adult male at least for a time. A male tiger keeps a large territory in order to include the home ranges of several females within its bounds, so that he may maintain mating rights with them. Spacing among females is less complete. Typically there is partial overlap with neighbouring female residents. They tend to have core areas, which are more exclusive, at least for most of the time. Home ranges of both males and females are not stable. The shift or alteration of a home range by one animal is correlated with a shift of another. Shifts from less suitable habitat to better ones are made by animals that are already resident. New animals become residents only as vacancies occur when a former resident moves out or dies. There are more places for resident females than for resident males. During seven years of camera trapping, tracking, and observational data in Chitwan National Park, six to nine breeding tigers, two to sixteen non-breeding tigers, and six to twenty young tigers of less than one year of age were detected in the study area of 100 km2 (39 sq mi). One of the resident females left her territory to one of her female offspring and took over an adjoining area by displacing another female; and a displaced female managed to re-establish herself in a neighbouring territory made vacant by the death of the resident. Of 11 resident females, 7 were still alive at the end of the study period, two disappeared after losing their territories to rivals, and two died. The initial loss of two resident males and subsequent take over of their home ranges by new males caused social instability for two years. Of four resident males, one was still alive and three were displaced by rivals. Five litters of cubs were killed by infanticide, two litters died because they were too young to fend for themselves when their mothers died. One juvenile tiger was presumed dead after being photographed with severe injuries from a deer snare. The remaining young lived long enough to reach dispersal age, two of them becoming residents in the study area.

The tiger in India has no definite mating and birth seasons. Most young are born in December and April. Young have also been observed in March, May, October and November. In the 1960s, certain aspects of tiger behaviour at Kanha National Park indicated that the peak of sexual activity was from November to about February, with some mating probably occurring throughout the year. Males reach maturity at 4–5 years of age, and females at 3–4 years. The female comes into estrus at intervals of about 3–9 weeks, and is receptive for 3–6 days. After a gestation period of 104–106 days, 1–4 cubs are born in a shelter situated in tall grass, thick bush or in caves. Newborn cubs weigh 780 to 1,600 g (28 to 56 oz) and they have a thick woolly fur that is shed after 3.5–5 months. Their eyes and ears are closed. Their milk teeth start to erupt at about 2–3 weeks after birth, and are slowly replaced by permanent dentition from 8.5 to 9.5 weeks of age onwards. They suckle for 3–6 months, and begin to eat small amounts of solid food at about 2 months of age. At this time, they follow their mother on her hunting expeditions and begin to take part in hunting at 5–6 months of age. At the age of 2–3 years, they slowly start to separate from the family group and become transient, looking out for an area where they can establish their own home range. Young males move farther away from their native home range than young females. Once the family group has split, the mother comes into heat again.

Felis tigris was the scientific name used by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 for the tiger. It was subordinated to the genus Panthera by Reginald Innes Pocock in 1929. Bengal is the traditional type locality of the species and the nominate subspecies Panthera tigris tigris. The validity of several tiger subspecies in continental Asia was questioned in 1999. Morphologically, tigers from different regions vary little, and gene flow between populations in those regions is considered to have been possible during the Pleistocene. Therefore, it was proposed to recognise only two subspecies as valid, namely P. t. tigris in mainland Asia, and P. t. sondaica in the Greater Sunda Islands and possibly in Sundaland. The nominate subspecies P. t. tigris constitutes two clades: the northern clade comprises the Siberian and Caspian tiger populations, and the southern clade all remaining continental tiger populations. The extinct and living tiger populations in continental Asia have been subsumed to P. t. tigris since the revision of felid taxonomy in 2017.

None of the Tiger Conservation Landscapes within the Bengal tiger range is large enough to support an effective population size of 250 individuals. Habitat losses and the extremely large-scale incidences of poaching are serious threats to the species' survival. The Forest Rights Act passed by the Indian government in 2006 grants some of India's most impoverished communities the right to own and live in the forests, which likely brings them into conflict with wildlife and under-resourced, under-trained, ill-equipped forest department staff. In the past, evidence showed that humans and tigers cannot co-exist.

An area of special interest lies in the "Terai Arc Landscape" in the Himalayan foothills of northern India and southern Nepal, where 11 protected areas composed of dry forest foothills and tall-grass savannas harbour tigers in a 49,000 square kilometres (19,000 mi2) landscape. The goals are to manage tigers as a single metapopulation, the dispersal of which between core refuges can help maintain genetic, demographic, and ecological integrity, and to ensure that species and habitat conservation becomes mainstreamed into the rural development agenda. In Nepal a community-based tourism model has been developed with a strong emphasis on sharing benefits with local people and on the regeneration of degraded forests. The approach has been successful in reducing poaching, restoring habitats, and creating a local constituency for conservation. The WWF partnered with Leonardo DiCaprio to form a global campaign, "Save Tigers Now", with the ambitious goal of building political, financial and public support to double the wild tiger population by 2022. Save Tigers Now started its campaign in 12 different WWF Tiger priority landscapes, since May 2010. This population of tigers has been assessed at the local level in several countries. It is listed as Endangered in Nepal, India, and Bhutan, While Bangladesh and China list it as Critically Endangered. In April 2023, India signed a memorandum of understanding with Cambodia to assist the country with the tiger's reintroduction. At least 90 acres (36 ha) of the Cardamom Mountains of Tatai Wildlife Sanctuary could be used to host tigers that are imported from India. The last tiger in Cambodia was photographed in 2007 by a camera trap. In 2016, the Cambodian government declared that the Indochinese tiger population was "functionally extinct".

The tiger is one of the animals displayed on the Pashupati seal of the Indus Valley Civilisation. The tiger crest is the emblem on Chola coins. The presence on many coins of a tiger, a fish, and a bow suggests they are Chola issues. The latter two emblems are of the Pandya and Chera dynasties respectively, and Chola copper plate inscriptions showing the three together indicate that the Cholas had achieved political supremacy over them. The tiger is the national animal of Bangladesh and India. Bangladeshi banknotes feature a tiger. The political party Muslim League of Pakistan uses the tiger as its election symbol. Tipu Sultan, who ruled Mysore in late 18th-century India, was also a great admirer of the animal. The famed 18th-century automaton, Tipu's Tiger was also created for him. The tiger was the dynastic symbol of this dynasty. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Punch ran a political cartoon showing the Indian rebels as a tiger attacking a victim.