1. Bengal Tigers are endangered due to massive poaching, fueling the illegal trade of many tiger parts.
- hide is used for wall hangings, rugs, and fashion items
- bones and organs are used in traditional medicine in Asia
- claws, teeth and whiskers are used for jewelry, and amulet
There are 2500 to 3000 Bengal Tigers in the world with the vast majority in India, and less than 500 tigers spread out in Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Southeast China.
- The Deadliest Tiger:
Bengal tigers are responsible for the most fatal attacks on humans of any tiger species.
In the 1920s, a pair of Bengal tigers in India gained notoriety for their attacks on humans. These tigers, led by a particularly aggressive male, killed over 400 people. Legendary hunter Jim Corbett tracked and killed the tigers in 1926 and 1929, then wrote about his famous experiences in his book “Man-Eaters of Kumaon”.
- Bengal tigers are the second largest tiger subspecies, after the Siberian tiger and can perform some amazing physical feats.
- lift and drag prey twice their weight
- crush bones with jaws
- leap forward up to 30 feet and vertically 12 feet
- run 35-40 miles per hour
- swim across rivers and lakes over 4 miles wide
- see in the dark 6X better than humans
- stalk silently
4. Each Bengal tiger has a unique stripe pattern, like a fingerprint.
5. The most common color is orange with black stripes, but there are also rare color variants like black (pseudo-melanism), white and golden colors, due to gene mutations.
- There are not very many tigers in the world.
Bengal tigers are one of 9 tiger subspecies. Three subspecies are already extinct, with the Javan tiger being the latest to go extinct, in the 1980’s. .
Of the living 6 tiger subspecies, half are endangered and half are critically endangered. There is estimated to be only 3000- 4000 tigers in the world.
- Bengal Tigers: Approximately 2,500 to 3,000
- Indochinese Tigers: Around 200 to 300
- Malayan Tigers: About 100 to 150
- Siberian (Amur) Tigers: Around 500
- South China Tigers: Approximately 20 to 30 (possibly extinct in the wild)
- Sumatran Tigers: About 400 to 500
It is estimated that several hundred tigers are killed per year due to poaching and interactions with people and livestock.
