Unknown Facts About Tigers

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While I was in the Peace Corps and took a vacation break, I visited East Africa and the various game reserves including Amboseli and Serengeti and saw a lot of wild animals including lions, leopards, and cheetahs but no tigers. Recently, I found some very interesting facts about tigers on my smartphone that I want to share with you.  These facts are from a website called “Weird Facts.”

  1. According to the “Weird Facts” website, tigers are solitary hunters that usually hunt alone at night, as compared to lions that work together and live in prides.
  2. To mark their territory, tigers scratch trees and spread their urine to mark their territory.  It may be surprising to people that their urine smells like buttered popcorn.
  3. Tiger cubs that become orphans stand virtually no chance of survival due to outside predators or tigers.
  4. Another surprise is that tigers cannot purr.  Actually, purring and roaring are mutually exclusive.  That means that lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars are all incapable of purring.  Every other cat can purr but cannot roar.
  5. Tigers enjoy bathing and often play in the water and can swim long distances if they desire.
  6. Tigers have stripped skin—not just stripped fur.  Their stripes are unique for every tiger.  In other words, no two tigers have the same stripes.  The stripes are the result of their skin pigmentation.  This means that conservationists can track tigers through visual observation or inspection.
  7. A tiger’s roar can be as loud as 114 decibels.  That is twenty times the loudness of a lawn mower.  Consequently, their roar has the effect of paralyzing their prey.  It even affects human trainers who are around tigers a lot.
  8. Female tigers are considered super moms.  Their gestation period lasts three months after which the female can have two to three cubs on average.  The mothers are the sole provider for their cubs up to the age of two.
  9. Most tigers will only attack humans if they are no longer physically able to hunt and satisfy their own needs.  So, that means that typically those that attack humans are old, infirmed, or have a missing tooth.
  10. When several male tigers are together at a kill, the males will usually wait and allow the females and cubs to eat first.  This is opposite to the practice of lions where the males eat first.  Tigers seldom fight over a kill and normally simply wait their turn.

The contrast with lions is very interesting to me. It also intrigued me that tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

Anyway, I hope this may be of interest to people. If you have any comment, I would be happy to hear from you. You are welcome to offer your comments to my email garylindberg85@gmail.com or to use my website contact page at garyrlindberg.com. If you want me to respond, I will be happy to answer your question, comment, or suggestion.

Published by garylindberg85

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the author’s parents moved just before his seventh birthday to Santa Maria, California. There he grew up and attended grade schools up through high school. The author is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in U. S. History. Then he volunteered to join the Peace Corps for two and a half years during which he taught primary school students and teachers various techniques in a trial school gardens program in the Ivory Coast which is located in West Africa between Liberia and Ghana. He became fluent in French during that time. After his Peace Corps service, he toured Europe and primarily visited Italy, Germany (including East Berlin then under Communist control), France, England, and the Netherlands. Since he was drafted, he volunteered for the Navy in which he served for four years. Next, he went to San Francisco State University where he earned his Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree with a concentration in Management and Personnel. After that he began his 43-year career as a Human Resources professional for a number of major companies including National Gypsum, Celotex, McCormick (spices), Del Monte, Quebecor Printing, and Micro Lithography, Inc. He retired in November, 2019 to pursue personal endeavors.

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