Animal Quick Facts
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Size
Males can grow up to 10.5 feet long and can weigh between 450 and 675 pounds. Females are up to 8 feet long and weigh 200 to 350 pounds.
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Color
Reddish-orange to reddish-brown with distinctive dark vertical stripes.
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Lifespan
14.3 years (median life expectancy for females) - 16 years (median life expectancy for males)
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Range
The Amur River Valley in the Russian Far East, in Northern China, and Southern Russia in Asia.
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Habitat
Primarily found in woodlands and birch forests.
Panthera tigris altaica
Location in the Zoo: Forest Passage
The tiger is the largest living feline, growing up to 10 feet in length and weighing up to 675 pounds. Much like a fingerprint, a tiger’s stripes are variable between individuals with no two tigers looking just the same. These tigers eat deer, antelope, wild cattle, and wild pigs. They can move extremely swiftly over short distances and they are excellent swimmers. Tigers hunt at night, ambushing their prey.
Amur tigers reach sexual maturity at three years for females and four years for males. Like most cats, tigers are induced ovulators. A female tiger signals she is in estrus through behavior, scent, and sound. Once a male finds a mate, copulation is continuous for a five-day period. The gestation period is approximately 103 days.
Amur tigers are endangered. Tigers are considered keystone species, meaning that they are vital to maintaining a healthy ecosystem. At one time, there were nine tiger subspecies. Only six remain now and even they are on the brink, with one, the South China Tiger, to be considered almost functionally extinct. The Amur tiger population reached an all-time low of 24 animals in the 1940s. Because of survival programs, that number has grown to an estimated 600.