Bengal Tiger

Bengal Tiger

Royal Bengal Tiger 

Bengal tiger, which is also the Indian Tiger and Royal Bengal Tiger. The Bengal tiger belongs family Felidae and scientific name is Panthera tigris tigris. They are categorized in the Mammalia class.

Bengal tiger is a carnivore. They eat only the flesh of other animals. Bengal tiger can live 8 to 10 years but sometimes 15 years in the wild.

Habitat

Bengal tiger in dense forest

Bengal tigers are found in the dense forests of India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Myanmar. Their habitats are tropical rain forests, marshes, and tall grasses mangrove forests

Description of Bengal tiger

Bengal tiger is a nocturnal carnivorous animal. Their body coat is reddish-brown and has black stripes on it but their belly and interior parts of the limbs are white in color. Their coat helps them to camouflage. The pattern of stripes of each tiger is different and they are not matched to each other.

An interesting fact is that if a tiger loses all its fur, the same stripe marks are found on its skin as well.

The male tiger’s length is 270 cm to 310 cm from head tip to tail end and the female tiger’s length is 240 cm to 265 cm. The length of its tail is 2-3 feet. The height of a Bengal tiger is 5 to 6 feet.

The average weight of the Bengal tiger is 240 to 500 pounds. The average weight of a male Bengal tiger is 397 to 569 pounds and a female is 220 to 350 pounds.

The smallest female Bengal tiger is weigh up to 165 to 176 pounds and is found in Bangladesh Sundarban.

Bengal tiger’s sharp, strong canine teeth are 7 cm to 10 cm long.

Their skull length is 332 mm to 376 mm. The greatest recorded length of a Bengal tiger‘s skull was 413 mm which was shot in Nagina, Uttar Pradesh.

Bengal tiger’s behavior

Bengal tiger cools itself in water 

Bengal tiger is a carnivorous animal. They are good hunters. They kill large animals as well as small animals for their food such as chital, sambar, hog, deer, nilgai, water buffalo, jackal, etc. They also hunt porcupines, hares, peafowl, etc. They occasionally hunt leopard, wolf, fox, crocodiles, and also elephants, and rhinoceros. In 2007, twenty rhinoceros were killed by the tigers in Khaziranga National Park, and in 2011, a 28 years old elephant was killed by the tigers.

Venom snakes are also found in the Bengal tiger’s stomach in Sundarban.

Bengal tigers hide in the bush and crawl quietly toward their prey and when they come close enough to attack their prey, they just rush swiftly and jump on it. They grasp the prey’s throat and break it, which results in their prey’s loss of breath and it starts dying.

Bengal tigers like the water and sometimes they sat in the water to cool themselves. They like to swim and can swim 4 miles at a time. In 2011, a Bengal tiger was killed due to the attack of a crocodile when the tiger was swimming in the river. It is a very rare incident because normally, crocodiles are killed by the tigers.

Bengal tigers are good runners and can run 40 mph but not cover a long distances

Bengal tigers can jump up to a height of about 13 feet in the air.

When they are injured, their saliva, which contains natural antiseptic elements prevent their wounds from infections and encourage faster healing.

Tigers communicate by lots of sounds like growls, snarls, mews, roars, grunts, hisses, etc. They also use scent marking and visual signals for communication.

Bengal tigers urinate on the trees, rocks, etc. to mark and defend their territories from other tigers.

Normally a Bengal tiger eats 18 to 40 kg of meat at a time. Bengal tigers live in dense forest and avoid human contact but when they become old, weak, injured or there is a lack of food, the tiger attack humans and become “man-eater”.

Reproduction

Mother Bengal tiger with its cub

In India, there is no particular mating season or birth season for the Bengal tiger. The male Bengal tiger is matured at 4 to 5 years of age and a female tiger is at 3 to 4 years of age. Their sexual activity is found from November to February. The gestation period of a female tiger lasts for 105 days. After that, the female tiger gives birth to 1 to 4 cubs in the thick bush of tall grass or in the caves. The weight of the newborn cubs is 1.72 to 3.53 pounds. Their bodies are covered with thick woolly fur which is shed after 3 to 5 months. The cubs cannot see or hear for 1 to 2 weeks after birth.

The cubs feed their mother’s milk but when are 2 to 3 weeks of age, their milk teeth erupt. When the cubs are 8 to 9 weeks of age, their milk- teeth are replaced by permanent teeth. Then they slowly began to eat a small quantity of solid food.

 Their mother teaches them to hunt and tear the flesh of prey when the cubs are 5 to 6 months of age. Their mother also teaches them to swim, climb, etc.

When the cubs are well trained, they separate from their family and move away from their mother’s territory to establish their own territory. Male young tiger moves far away than a female young tiger.

Endangered Species

Tigers are endangered species. There were nine tiger sub- species but, out of these nine tiger sub- species, three subspecies have vanished.

The Bali tiger, the Javan tiger, and the Caspian tiger all vanished due to poaching, hunting, and deforestation.

The tiger was killed only for fun

Poaching

Poaching or hunting is one of the major causes of threat to the Bengal tiger.

The poachers kill the Bengal tigers for their skin and body parts and sell them to make money. When they kill a mother tiger, her cubs become alone or orphaned. They do not survive in the wild alone. The cubs do not hunt to get the food or they are killed by other wild animals. The poachers kill not only one tiger but also its cubs.

A huge demand of bones nails and other body parts to make Traditional Chinese medicines, the Bengal tigers are killed by the poachers. The jewelry made from tiger’s bones, nails, or teeth is sold at a high price (millions) in the international markets.

In 2004, the poachers killed all the tigers in Sariska Tiger Reserve in India.

Last 20^th century, India has lost about 96% of the Bengal tigers due to hunting, poaching, and illegal wildlife trade.

Between 1900 and 1972, the population of Bengal tiger dropped from forty thousand to two thousand.

Deforestation

With the growth of population, the people clean the forest by cutting the trees and build their houses and roads. They convert the forest areas into agricultural lands. Deforestation destroys the habitat of the Bengal tigers. Due to habitat loss and also climate change, Bengal tigers are endangered.

Subspecies of Tigers

There are nine sub-species of tigers. They are:-

·      Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris)

·       Amur Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica)

·       Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae)

·       South China Tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis)

·       Indo-Chinese Tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti)

·       Malayan Tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni)

The extinct subspecies of tiger are:-

·       Bali Tiger (Panthera tigris balica)

·       Javan Tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica)

·       Caspian Tiger (Panthera tigris virgate)

Conservation

In India, the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 and the Tiger Project stabilize the number of tigers. The government tries to save the Bengal tigers from getting extinct.

 In 1973, Project Tiger was launched to protect the Bengal tiger from poachers and getting extinct. This project is helping to get their natural habitats back.

Now there are 50 Project Tiger Wildlife reserves in India that cover more than 70,000 sq km areas set up by the Indian Government.

In 2019, there are 2967 Bengal tigers in India, 440 in Bangladesh, 235 in Nepal, and 100 in Bhutan. 75% of Bengal tigers are in India.

Tiger Reserve in India

Bengal tiger in Sundarban National Park, West Bengal 

Here are 15 Tiger Reserve in India:-

1.   Sundarban National Park, West Bengal

2.   Bandhavgarh National Park, Madhya Pradesh

3.   Ranthambore National Park, Rajasthan

4.   Kanha National Park, Madhya Pradesh

5.   Tadoba National Park, Maharashtra

6.   Jim Corbett National Park, Uttarakhand

7.   Panna National Park, Panna

8.   Satpura National Park, Karnataka

9. Sariska Wildlife Sanctuary, Alwar

10. Manas National Park, Assam

11.    Dudhwa National Park, Uttarakhand

12.    Nagzira Wildlife Sanctuary, Nagpur

13.    Pench National Park, Madhya Pradesh

14.    Nagarhole National Park, Karnataka

15.  Bandipur National Park, Karnataka

October to March is the perfect time to visit the National Park. April to June are the hottest months when the tigers cool themselves in the rivers or any water bodies, so it is the best time to see them.

Tiger is the symbol of grace, power, strength, and beauty. The Bengal tiger is considered the biggest wild cat alive today. The Bengal tiger or Royal Bengal tiger is the National Animal of India and Bangladesh also. Bengal tiger has been used in sports logos, arts, election symbols, and ancient dynastic symbols. Many films were featured on the tigers like Bagh Bahadur, Man-eater, Tiger of Bengal, roar, etc.

 In Sundarban, West Bengal, The Royal Bengal Tigers are worshipped by the people as “Dakshin Ray”. They also build the temples and worship Dakshin Ray as they believe that, he saves them from other tigers and wild animals.