The tiger is the largest cat on Earth — a striped, solitary hunter that can weigh as much as three adult humans and still move in near-total silence.
Here are the facts behind the icon, from their fingerprint-like stripes to their comeback story.
Tigers are the largest living cat species: big male Siberian (Amur) tigers can exceed 600 pounds (270 kg) and stretch over 10 feet including the tail.
Every tiger's stripe pattern is unique, like a human fingerprint, and researchers use the patterns to identify individuals in the wild.
A tiger's skin is striped too, not just its fur.
Unlike most cats, tigers are strong, enthusiastic swimmers and often cool off in rivers and pools; they can cross rivers several miles wide.
A tiger's roar can carry for roughly 2 miles (3 km).
Tigers are solitary hunters that rely on ambush, attacking from cover with a bite to the neck or throat of prey.
Tigers can eat up to about 75-88 pounds (34-40 kg) of meat in a single sitting, then go days without eating.
Six tiger subspecies survive today, including the Bengal, Siberian, Sumatran, Indochinese, Malayan, and South China tigers; the Caspian, Javan, and Bali tigers went extinct in the 20th century.
The white coat of 'white tigers' comes from a rare recessive gene found mainly in Bengal tigers — they are not a separate subspecies and are not albino.
India is home to the majority of the world's wild tigers.
Wild tiger numbers collapsed from perhaps 100,000 in 1900 to under 4,000 today, though counts have been slowly rising since 2010 thanks to conservation efforts.
A tiger's night vision is roughly six times better than a human's, making it a formidable nocturnal hunter.
Tiger cubs are born blind and stay with their mother for about two years learning to hunt.
Tigers mark large territories with scent, scratch marks, and vocalizations; male territories can span over 60 square miles in prey-poor regions.
Unlike lions, tigers hunt alone — which is why they've evolved to take down prey as large as buffalo and gaur single-handedly.
The tiger is the national animal of India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and South Korea.
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