Tigers are solitary animals and usually hunt at night. A male tiger will have a large range that will overlap with the ranges of several females. Largest of all cats, tigers are formidable predators. Tigers have razor sharp claws, long teeth, and powerful jaws and legs, tigers can bring down animals far heavier than themselves, including buffalo, deer and wild boar. The tiger's speed and refined hunting skills also capture feasts of small prey, contributing to the 40 to 100 pounds of meat that tigers can eat in a day. Tigers are ambush hunters, stalking their prey, approaching as

The number of tigers in the 1900's --over 100,000 -- dropped to 4,000 in the 1970's. It is known that all remaining tigers live in small, isolated populations in widely scattered reserves. There are certain tigers that are already extinct.

Female tigers reach maturity when they are about 3 years old, males a year or so later. In temperate climates, a tigress comes into heat only seasonally; but in tropical climates, she may come into heat throughout the year (unless she is pregnant, or is raising cubs). She signals her readiness with scent markings and locating roars.

As tigers compete with humans and industry for land, they find less and less to eat. Local people hunt the same prey as tigers do, pressing tigers to resort to domestic animals and, on r

Some common words found in the essay are:
, prey tigers, natural prey, wild tigers, pounds meat,
Approximate Word count = 512
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)