Tigers

One of my most fa­vorite things to do when go­ing to the zoo is to see the big cats, most es­pe­cial­ly the tigers. The tiger is the largest of all big cats, and as of right now they are on the verge of ex­tinc­tion. The tiger is the top of the food chain in its nat­u­ral habi­tat. They are a revered an­i­mal among many cul­tures and are con­sid­ered to be one of the most beau­ti­ful an­i­mals on the plan­et. Due to poach­ing, il­le­gal trade and the en­croach­ment of their habi­tats, the tiger is now one of the most threat­ened species on earth and on the verge of ex­tinc­tion.
There are six sub­species of tiger to­day and all are on the en­dan­gered species list: the Amur bet­ter known as the Siberi­an, the fa­mil­iar Ben­gal, the In­dochi­nese, Malayan, South Chi­na, and Suma­tran. Sad­ly, the Bali, Ja­van, and Caspi­an sub­species have all gone ex­tinct in the last 70 years (WWF). Wild tigers to­day can on­ly be found in the coun­tries of: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cam­bo­dia, Chi­na, In­dia, In­done­sia, Laos, Malaysia, Myan­mar, Nepal, and Far East in Rus­sia, Thai­land, and Viet­nam (WWF). Un­for­tu­nate­ly not all of these sub­species can be found in the wild any­more, to put it blunt­ly there are about 47 South Chi­na tigers and they are all liv­ing in zoos in Chi­na (WWF).
Tigers aside from be­ing the largest and one of the most of beau­ti­ful of all big cats are al­so quite fas­ci­nat­ing. They can grow up to 118 inch­es in length in­clud­ing the tail and weigh any­where from 310 to 660 pounds de­pend­ing on the species (WWF). The tiger is a most­ly soli­tary an­i­mal and lone hunter and will stalk its prey for a long time be­fore at­tack­ing (WWF). They can con­sume up to 88 pounds of meat at one time. They will dis­play so­cia­ble be­hav­ior and adults may even share a kill which is rare for a preda­tor an­i­mal es­pe­cial­ly since they are such soli­tary an­i­mals (WWF). Sad­ly, one of the points that they are soli­tary and that they need such large parts