Tiger

Tema	Anglų kalba
Tipas	Referatas
Aprašymas	Darbas anglų kalba. Tigras. Tiger. Physical traits. Hunting methods. Biology and ecology. Extinction risk. Subspecies. Extinct tiger subspecies. Traditional Asian medicine. Tigers in literature and popular culture.
Patalpinta	2007-06-02
Parsisiuntė	250
	Parsisiųsti285 KB

Išsamus aprašymas

Tiger
Tigers (Panthera tigris) are mammals of the Felidae family and one of four "big cats" in the Panthera genus. They are apex predators and the largest feline species in the world, comparable in size to the biggest fossil felids. The Bengal Tiger is the most common subspecies of tiger, constituting approximately 80% of the entire tiger population, and is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, and India. An endangered species, the majority of the world's tigers now live in captivity.

Physical traits
Tigers are the heaviest cats found in the wild. Although different subspecies of tiger have different characteristics, in general male tigers weigh between 200 and 320 kilograms (440 and 700 lb) and females between 120 and 181 kg (265 and 400 lb). On average, males are between 2.6 and 3.3 metres (8 ft 6 in to 10 ft 8 in) in length, and females are between 2.3 and 2.75 metres (7 ft 6 in and 9 ft) in length. Of the living subspecies, Sumatran tigers are the smallest, and Amur (or Siberian) tigers are the largest.
Most tigers have orange coats, a fair (whitish) medial and ventral area and stripes that vary from brown or hay to pure black. The form and density of stripes differs between subspecies, but most tigers have in excess of 100 stripes. The now-extinct Javan tiger may have had far more than this. The pattern of stripes is unique to each animal, and thus could potentially be used to identify individuals, much in the same way as fingerprints are used to identify people. This is not, however, a preferred method of identification, due to the difficulty of recording the stripe pattern of a wild tiger. It seems likely that the function of stripes is camouflage, serving to hide these animals from their prey. The stripe pattern is found on a tiger's skin and if shaved, its distinctive camouflage pattern would be preserved.
Like most cats, tigers are believed to have some degree of colour vision.
There is a well-known mutation that produces the white tiger, an animal which is rare in the wild, but widely bred in zoos due to its popularity. The white tiger is not a separate sub-species, but only a colour variation. There are also unconfirmed reports of a "blue" or slate-coloured tiger, and largely or totally black tigers, and these are assumed, if real, to be intermittent mutations rather than distinct species. Similar to the lion, the tiger has the ability to roar.

Tigers' extremely strong jaws and sharp teeth make them superb predators.
Most tigers live in forests or grasslands, for which their camouflage is ideally suited, and where it is easy to hunt prey that are faster or more agile. Among the big cats, only the tiger and jaguar are strong swimmers; tigers are often found bathing in ponds, lakes, and rivers and are known to kill while swimming. Tigers hunt alone and eat primarily medium to large sized herbivores such as sambar deer, but they also have the capability to eat much smaller prey such as birds, and other such things, wild pigs, young gaur, water buffalo and domestic cattle. They also kill such formidable predators as sloth bear, dogs, leopards, crocodiles and pythons as prey, and occasionally prey on creatures as small as langurs, peacocks and hares. Old and injured tigers have been known to attack humans or domestic cattle and are then termed as man-eaters or cattle-lifters which often leads to them being captured, shot or poisoned.
Adult elephants are too dangerous to tigers to serve as common prey, but conflicts between elephants and tigers do sometimes take place.
Tigers often ambush their prey as other cats do, overpowering their prey from any angle, using their body size and strength to knock prey off balance. Even with great masses, Tigers can reach speeds of about 60 km/h (37 mph). Once prone, the tiger bites the back of the neck, often breaking the prey's spinal cord, piercing the windpipe, or severing the jugular vein or carotid artery. Tigers prefer to bite the throats of large prey. After biting, the tiger then uses its muscled forelimbs to hold onto the prey, bringing it to the ground. The tiger remains latched onto the neck until its prey dies.
The Sundarbans mangrove swamps of Bengal have had a higher incidence of man-eaters, where some healthy tigers have been known to hunt humans as prey.
In the wild, tigers can leap as high as 5 m (16 ft) and as far as 9-10 m (30-33 ft), making them one of the highest-jumping mammals (just slightly behind cougars in jumping ability).
They have been reported to carry domestic livestock weighing 50 kg (110 lb) while easily jumping over fences 2 m (6 ft 6 in) high. Their heavily muscled forelimbs are used to hold tightly onto the prey and to avoid being dislodged, especially by large prey such as gaurs. Gaurs and water buffalo weighing over a ton have been killed by tigers weighing about a sixth as much. A single blow from a tiger's paw can kill a full-grown wolf or human, or can heavily injure a 150 kg (330 lb) Sambar deer.

Raktiniai žodžiai

• endangered species rasinys
• angliskas rasinys apie jaguara
• rasinys apie tigra angliskai