Tigers

Alex Re

Hello, welcome to on wildlife. I'm your host, Alex Re, on this podcast, we bring the wild to you, we take you on a journey into the life of a different animal every week. And I guarantee you, you're gonna come out of here knowing more about your favorite animal than you did before. This week's animal is probably very familiar to you. But I'm going to give you a whole lot of cool information that you probably didn't know about. It's crucial to talk about these animals because their numbers are dwindling in the wild, and a lot of ecosystems couldn't function without them. So join me as we talk about some of the most skilled predators on the planet, tigers.

There are currently six different Tiger species around today, with three other species being recently extinct. And Tigers have been around for at least 2 million years. When you think about ancient species of tigers, you might think about the saber toothed tiger. And if you don't know, these were animals around during the Ice Age, which was around 10,000 years ago with huge Fang like teeth. But despite their name, they're actually not closely related to modern day Tigers at all. Tigers have that extremely recognizable pattern of orange for with black stripes. And most species have this pattern. But there are a lot of differences between the six Tiger species. And some of their closest relatives are lions and leopards. Now I know what you're thinking are ligers real? Well, as I talked about in my episode on dogs, ligers are the offspring of lions and tigers, and they are real. And something really interesting about them is that the male ligers are not able to reproduce, but sometimes female ligers are able to reproduce. Now this would never actually happen in the wild because lions and tigers don't even live on the same continent. And they really shouldn't be mated together because it can cause some serious health issues for the offspring. Tigers can be found in different parts of Asia like India, Nepal, China, and even Russia where the Siberian tiger lives. They can live in a variety of different habitats to like in the rain forests and the grasslands. But the Siberian tiger lives in a cold snowy habitat like the tiger. Tigers are the biggest cat on Earth. With the largest species being the Siberian tiger, they can get to be up to 10 feet long, and weigh almost 700 pounds, which is about the weight of three washing machines combined. The smallest Tiger species on the other hand, is the Sumatran tiger, which only gets to be around 300 pounds and eight feet long. As you probably already know, all tigers are carnivores. And one of the ways that you can tell this is by looking at their huge sharp teeth. their teeth can get to be over three inches long, and they actually have pretty big spaces in between each tooth. This helps them grasp onto their prey more easily, which is important because tigers are known to hunt animals much larger than themselves. And they also have retractable claws, which means that their claws are covered by the skin in their paws until they need them. And this is to keep their claws nice and sharp, which is how tigers are able to grip onto their prey. If I were you I would be afraid to come near those claws because they can be around four inches long. And because Tigers live in a variety of different habitats. their prey varies between species. But usually if it's large and it moves, a tiger will eat it. Some of their favorite prey items include wild boar, deer, fish, and even baby elephants. They can also bite with the force of 1050 psi, which is just insane. First of all, humans only have a bite force of around 150 psi, and their bite force is stronger than that of a crocodile or a lion. Tigers employ a stalk and pounce technique in order to catch their prey. You can also see this technique used by domestic cats when they're playing with the toy. They slowly creep up on an unsuspecting victim and jump at them when the timing is right. And when they pounce on their prey, they oftentimes aim for the neck where they can sever the vertebrae of the animal with their sharp teeth. This is such an effective hunting method because Tigers have a few adaptations that really give them an advantage. First of all, they have padded paws which means that they can stay extremely quiet when walking slowly or pouncing. Also the color of their fur helps them blend in really well with their environment. And you may be thinking that their orange coloration makes them stand out, especially in their habitats where there are greens shrubs and trees everywhere you look. But it's important to note that many animals don't see color the way that we do. And many of the prey species of Tigers like deer and boar can't tell the difference between green and orange, so they blend in perfectly. Something else interesting about their coloration is that their stripes are not only on their fur, but also on their skin. Meaning that if you shave their fur, you'll still see stripes on their body, which is pretty cool. And not only that, but no two tigers have the same stripes. But Tigers also have amazing physical abilities that really allow them to pounce on their prey so effectively. Because of their huge muscular legs, they can leap at large distances. In a single leap, a tiger can travel a distance of over 25 feet, which is almost the length of two full sized cars. You're going to learn about some more amazing adaptations that Tigers have right after the break.

On this episode of notable figures in science, I want to recognize Dr. Har gobind Khurana. He was an American biochemist who did extremely important work on RNA and DNA. He uncovered some of the clues of the DNA code and the way that it helps us make proteins in the body. In fact, he actually won a Nobel Prize in Medicine for this research in 1968. Some of the research that he conducted is still being used today in labs, especially when it comes to cloning and genetic engineering. His research really helped us advance scientifically, which is why it's so important that we know who he is. If you want to learn more about Dr. Khurana or the series, you can visit on wildlife.org.

Tigers need acute senses in order to find their next meal. And one of the reasons for this is that they're mostly nocturnal hunters, meaning that they're actively hunting at night. This means that they need pretty good night vision to navigate through their environment effectively, their night vision is about six times better than ours. And the reason for this is because of the structure in their eyes. Tigers have a lot more rods in their eyes than cones and rods are better for seeing in the dark, while cones are better for seeing in color. But during the day, their eyesight is pretty much as good as ours. Their best sense is probably hearing though, they can hear even the faintest of sounds in the forest. Even the slightest rustle in the leaves can be enough for a tiger to identify exactly where something is. And they can hear at a much wider range of frequencies, then we can as well, they can hear up to around 65,000 hertz, whereas humans can only hear up to around 20,000 hertz. And they actually use extremely low frequencies to communicate with each other. But I'll talk about that later on in the episode. One sense that you may not have thought that Tigers would rely on is their sense of touch. But this is an extremely important one for them. Their whiskers are actually very sensitive to touch. And this helps them feel their way around their habitat, especially in the dark. And on males, whiskers can get to be around six inches long. Not only do they have whiskers on their face, but they also have them around their body and even on their front legs. And this helps them sense the vegetation that they brush against and even sometimes their prey. These senses can help Tigers when it comes to finding their prey and for navigation. But they're also extremely important to their social behavior. Unlike lions, tigers are mostly solitary. And scientists have a few ideas for why this is. As I talked about earlier, lions and tigers live in completely different habitats. On the savanna where lions live, there are usually large groups of their prey all in one space, and they need to work together in order to take down that prey. On the other hand in the jungle where many Tigers live, food is a lot more spread out, meaning that they can hunt an animal by themselves, but there usually isn't enough food to go around for more than one individual. Even though they're mostly solitary, they do interact at times. For example, males will hang out with females during mating season. And females will also stay with their cubs for around two years before they go off on their own. In order to build relationships and communicate with each other. They use many of the senses that I talked about earlier. For example, you'll oftentimes see cubs rubbing against their mother using their sense of touch to form a bond. by rubbing their faces together. They're also rubbing their scent on each other. And this can also be seen between a male and a female if they're courting. Tigers really like to use their sense of smell to communicate because they're very territorial, and they'll pee on trees to mark their territory. They've already should be known to scratch the ground as a sign for other Tigers to stay away from that particular area. The cool part about this is that they have scent glands in between their toes. So not only is it a visual warning, but also an olfactory warning. Speaking of their eyesight, tigers use body language to communicate as well. They use their eyes, ears, mouth and tail to communicate with each other through body language, kind of like dogs. Their tail is also really important to help keep Tigers balanced, especially when they have to make sharp movements when hunting their prey. And when another Tiger goes into their territory, they can use a really low frequency sound that we can't even hear in order to tell them to get away. So tigers are really cool, but they're facing a lot of issues right now. And I'm going to talk about that after the break. Time for today's trivia question. Which animal has the largest eyes in the animal kingdom? A giant squids, B elephants see ostriches or D whales? The answer is a giant squids have eyes that can reach over 10 inches in diameter, which is larger than a regulation NBA basketball.

Okay, welcome back. Tigers are known as a keystone species, which means that they're an integral part of the ecosystems that they live in, and losing them could cause a huge amount of damage. The main reason why they're so important is because they're the apex predator of their habitat. That means that they're at the top of the food chain. They control the population of so many different herbivores, so they don't grow in huge numbers and eat too many plants. But aside from being one of the most important species in their habitat, they're also one of the most threatened species in the world. Every single Tiger species is either endangered or critically endangered. In the wild, there are under 4000 Tigers left. That's not per species, that's total tigers. And there are only about 150 million Tigers left in the wild. Why is this? Well, of course, it's mostly because of us. poaching is a large issue that has contributed to the deaths of 1000s of Tigers for centuries, people have hunted Tigers because they're exotic animals and they can be made into fur coats or rugs. And they've also been hunted because in many cultures, parts of a tiger are thought to be an ingredient in medicines. Even though it's illegal to kill Tigers anywhere in the world, it's still being done. habitat loss is also a major issue as it is for so many different animal species. We're losing so much of our jungles and rain forests every day, which is putting a strain on the Tigers, making it harder for them to find food and shelter away from people. Not only is this putting tigers in danger, but it's also putting people in danger. If people keep expanding into Tiger habitats, it's likely that Tigers will start to pop up in their own backyards, and neither the tiger nor the people living there want that. And tigers in captivity are a whole other problem. These are smart animals that need huge open spaces in order to live a healthy life. And most of the places keeping tigers in captivity are not giving them what they need. And we can see abnormal behaviors showing up in Tigers when they're stressed. One of the most common signs of a stressed Tiger is pacing back and forth. Some places are actually doing important conservation work for tigers, helping to rehabilitate them or help their populations recover. But other places use this as a facade so that they can exploit these animals. If you've ever watched the tiger King documentary, you can see that these Tigers were not kept in healthy environments. According to the Humane Society. These kinds of places will exploit Tiger clubs for profit. And when they're too big for their enclosures, they'll put them in cages and sell them to the exotic pet trade. It's important to recognize these types of organizations and fight against them. Aside from all of the trouble that tigers are facing right now, there are a lot of great organizations that are helping, you should check out save the tiger fund save Tigers now, which is a campaign by the World Wildlife Fund and the National Tiger Conservation Authority. Thank you so much for coming on this adventure with me as we explored the world of tigers. You can find the sources that we use for this podcast and links to organizations that we reference at on wildlife.org. You can also email us with any questions at on wildlife. dot podcast@gmail.com and you can follow us on Instagram at on underscore wildlife or on tik tok at on wildlife Don't forget to tune in next Wednesday for another awesome episode. And that's on wildlife.

Jess Avellino

You've been listening to on wildlife with Alex re brought to you every Wednesday.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai