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Let’s Talk Trash! JAN/FEB 2018
©2018 The Keenan Group, Inc
FACTS ABOUT WHITE TIGERS
The tiger is the biggest species of the cat family. Tigers can reach a length of up to 3.3 metres (11 feet) and weigh as much as 300 kilograms (660 pounds). Subspecies of the tiger include the Sumatran Tiger, Siberian Tiger, Bengal Tiger, South China Tiger, Malayan Tiger and Indochinese Tiger. Many subspecies of the tiger are either endangered or already extinct. Humans are the primary cause of this through hunting and the destruction of habitats. Around half of tiger cubs don’t live beyond two years of age. Tiger cubs leave their mother when they are around 2 years of age. A group of tigers is known as an ‘ambush’ or ‘streak’. Tigers are good swimmers and can swim up to 6 kilometres. Rare white tigers carry a gene that is only present in around 1 in every 10000 tigers. Tigers usually hunt alone at night time. Tigers have been known to reach speeds up to 65 kph (40 mph). Less than 10% of hunts end successfully for tigers Tigers can easily jump over 5 metres in length. Various tiger subspecies are the national animals of Bangladesh, India, North Korea, South Korea and Malaysia. There are more tigers held privately as pets than there are in the wild. Tigers that breed with lions give birth to hybrids known as tigons and ligers.
the Siberian or Amur tiger since none survive in the South Korean wild and few if any are thought to exist in the
The national animal of South Korea is the tiger. The tiger is strongly associated with Korean culture. It appears in Korean folklore and mythology, and has traditionally been a popular subject in Korean painting and sculpture. This is also the reason the mascot of the 1988 Seoul Olympics was Hodori, a tiger symbolized to represent the Korean people. The gene for white coating is quite common among Bengal tigers, but the natural birth of a white Bengal tiger is still a very rare occasion in the wild, where white tigers are not bred selectively. The white tiger is not considered a tiger subspecies, but rather a hybrid of the existing tiger subspecies. After a gestation period of 16 weeks (about 3.5 months), a tiger gives birth to a live litter, usually comprising of three to four cubs. White tiger cubs begin to accompany their mother hunting and eventually leave her and begin their solitary life in the jungle when they are about 18 months of age. White tigers have an average lifespan of 12 years, which can be longer in captivity. It is sad to say, but today the white tiger is all but extinct in South Korea. The Korean tiger is the largest tiger subspecies in the world, and the largest living cat aside from the man-made liger. But today, the Korean tiger goes by a different name. It has become better known as
most remote North Korean mountains. All the same, a sliver of hope still remains for this mighty tiger subspecies. Half a century ago, the population of wild Korean, or Amur, tigers dipped to the brink of extinction at a mere 40 animals. Luckily, the survivors possessed enough genetic variety to make a population comeback possible. Their numbers are up substantially now thanks to conservation efforts, largely in Russia. Current estimates place the wild population at 431 to 529 individuals, virtually all living between the far eastern Russian regions of Khabarovsk and Primorsky, which border China and North Korea. It’s a potential conservation success story, but the fate of the world’s largest tiger is still far from certain. SOURCES: http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/animals/tiger.html https://www.expertsure.com/2008/11/24/korean-tigers-back-from-the-brink-of-extinction-but- not-in-south-korea/
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