Tigers usually live about 10 to 15 years in the wild. They have a striking orange coat with bold, clear and unique black stripes. The male tiger is about one metre tall and weighs around 200 kg. The female is smaller. A tiger's tail is quite a wonderful thing; almost half as long as its entire body, and very useful to maintain balance!

A Tiger's Body

Fur
In the southern latitudes, tiger subspecies have short fur (7 to 20 mm. on the back and 15 to 35 mm. on the stomach). The Siberian tiger has longer, denser hair (40 to 60 mm. on the back and 70 to 105 mm. on the stomach; as many as 3,000 to 3,300 hairs per square centimetre) to protect it from the cold winter.

Stripes and markings
Look at a tiger's forehead and even the stripes all over its body. Just like human fingerprints, no two tigers have identical markings and the patterns of stripes vary immensely, especially from one sub species to another. Experts can even tell individual tigers apart if they get a chance to observe it close enough! The stripes, shape of the ears and even the markings on its legs and tail, all help to identify a tiger. The Sumatran tiger is the most stripey of all tigers while the Siberian tiger has the fewest markings.

The stripes of a tiger always run at right angles to the cat's body; and not along its bodyline. If they were to do so, the animal would be very conspicuous and would find it impossible to camouflage itself. The function of the stripes is to break the outline of the body amongst the vegetation and background. Stealth is the tiger's greatest strength while stalking prey.

Claws
A tiger has five toes each on its front paws and four toes each on the hind limbs, all with long claws, about 80-100 mm. long. Like most cats, tigers walk with their claws retracted and covered in a sheath of skin to prevent these important weapons from being blunted by scraping on the ground. The claws are attached to their last digits, which are moved forward, or back, with the help of tendons. Claws are extended mainly for tearing at prey or sometimes for climbing trees. Scratch marks on trees indicate the tiger's territory.

Teeth
The adult tiger has about 30 large teeth. Its razor-sharp canines, about 75 to 90 mm. long, help to tear flesh.

Eyes
Most tigers, except white tigers, have round, yellow eyes. Light gets reflected back into the retina of the tiger's eyes, allowing it to see at least six times better than humans at night.