Bengal Tigers Exhibit
Southwick's Zoo is proud to be the home to two Bengal Tigers. Females, Kya (a standard gold) and Taj (white) are siblings and litter mates who came to Southwick's Zoo in 2008 when they were four months old. They were born in November of 2007 at the Wildlife World Zoo in Phoenix, Arizona. The girls have adapted very well in their spacious home. They especially enjoy their wading pool and waterfall. Visitors to the park enjoy watching the antics of these curious and spirited tigers chasing, pouncing, and stalking each other and on warmer days they can be found swimming and playing in the water.
Scientific Name: panthera tigres
Class: Mammalia
Other Names: Indian Tiger, Royal Tiger
Appearance: The Bengal tiger can grow up to be 10 feet long (from tip to tail) for males and 8 feet long for females. They can weigh up to 500 lbs for males and around 400 lbs for females. Tigers are the largest of the big cats. The Bengal tiger has a magnificent appearance. The coat color is golden orange with narrow black, gray, or brown stripes generally in a vertical direction. They have small round ears with black backs with a central white spot. The tiger is the only truly striped cat, all other striped cats are tabbies. The underside of the tiger is creamy or white. A rare variant of coat coloring is a chalky white coat with darker stripes and blue eyes. They are commonly called white tigers. These tigers are not albino tigers, their coloring is caused by a recessive gene. It is virtually impossible to find a white tiger in the wild today. White tigers are bred in captivity and both parents have to possess the recessive gene in order to produce a white tiger.
Lifespan: The Bengal tiger can live up to 18 years in captivity and 15 years in the wild.
Habitat: Bengal tigers dwell in tropical jungles, brush, marshlands, and tall grasslands in fragmented areas of Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Bhutan, and Burma. Tigers can adapt and live in a variety of habitats. They do need adequate cover to be able to ambush or stalk their prey and are therefore usually most likely to be found in jungles and forests.
Diet: Tigers are carnivores and avid hunters. They usually hunt medium to large prey such as pigs, deer, antelopes, and buffalo.
Predators: The tiger's biggest threat is man. The reason tigers are rapidly vanishing from their native habitat is due to poaching and habitat deforestation. Bengal tigers are protected under the endangered species act and there are approximately 5000 - 7000 of these animals in the wild.
Fun Facts: Tigers are solitary animals, they even avoid their own kind. The tiger is very territorial and must have a large area to hunt. While hunting a tiger may travel up to 12 miles. They are primarily night hunters. The tiger is an excellent swimmer and unlike most cats, they love water! Just over 100 years ago, there were over 100,000 tigers roaming the earth, during the last 64 years four subspecies of tigers have become extinct. (Bali, Javan, Caspian, and South China tiger) A tiger can consume as much as 88 lbs of meat in one feeding! A tiger's roar can be heard for 2 miles.
