Tiger Panthera tigris

The Tiger, the largest and heaviest of big cat species and endangered in the wild, is still native to parts of India, southeast Asia and Siberian Russia. There were six regional subspecies, the most common and all but one photo shown on this page being Bengal Tigers, the second largest/heaviest of the subspecies. In 2017 all mainland Asian tigers were reclassified as one subspecies.

The coat of all tiger subspecies is naturally the iconic orange with white under-parts and black stripes. Some Bengal Tigers carry a gene which, rarely, results in a white, striped coat (see link below).

Tigers need a huge area of land to hunt and are usually solitary except when a pair comes together to mate or a tigress is raising cubs.

Male and female have similar coats although males are usually bigger and have wider, hairier sideburns. Although they are cats, they enjoy water.