International Tiger Day 2020: Netizens pledge to protect our national animal & conserve its habitat

Tigers are one of the most fascinating creatures on the planet. Immortalised by the numerous childhood stories like the Aesop's fables, tigers have captured the imagination of every Indian child. The biggest amongst the cat family, these felines are popularly characterised by their muscular body, loud roar, and stripped skin.

Tigers have dominated the wild ecosystems in India for hundreds of thousands of years. The earliest remains of tiger fossils date back to more than two million years ago. These beautiful beasts have evolved to swim and acquired a large body size along the way. These wild cats play an important role in balancing several ecosystems, and therefore, their conservation has always been of prime importance across the world. It is said in the 1900s, around 100,000 tigers roamed worldwide. But in recent decades, much of the wild tiger population rapidly declined due to hunting and habitat loss.

Earlier, there existed about nine subspecies of tigers, but now, only six of them are present on Earth—the Bengal tiger, South China tiger, Indochinese tiger, Sumatran tiger, and the Siberian tiger. The Bengal tiger accounts for the highest numbers, forming 50% of the total tiger population worldwide. The Royal Bengal tiger weighs about 330 kgs, while the Siberian tiger is about 13 feet long and weighs 660 pounds, which is equivalent to roughly 300 kgs. The Sumatran tiger is said to be the smallest among these subspecies, weighing up to 310 pounds (140 kgs).

While lions have been dubbed as the kings of the jungle, tigers take the crown of being the largest in the cat family, with their enormous muscle mass also making them heavier than lions. On the occasion of International Tiger Day, which is celebrated every year on July 29, The Weather Channel brings to you some of the most amazing facts about these big wild cats.

Tiger stripes are unique—like human fingerprints

Tigerskin is extremely unique and was among the highly valued trade commodity in the 19th century due to the bold patterns of stripes on the animal’s body. Tigerskin displays mainly two colours—black and orange, derived from pigments eumelanin and pheomelanin, respectively. The production of the orange colour is caused by the gene SLC45A2. Just like human fingerprints are never the same, the stripe patterns are unique to each wild cat. And that is how surveyors distinguish between two different tigers during the census. The gorgeous stripes run across the width of their body, and it is not just fur which displays this stripe feature, but the tiger’s skin as well.

Tigers have webbed toes

Unlike most cats, tigers love swimming and playing in the water. In fact, such is their love for water that they seem to have adopted a semi-aquatic lifestyle by living around the water bodies. They have been observed to enjoy staying in water for longer durations, and are excellent swimmers. This in-built talent is enabled by their webbed toes, which makes it easy for them to push a greater volume of water. A surprising fact about these apex predators is that they can easily swim across rivers at a stretch several kilometres.