Top 10 facts about Tigers

Tigers were around about 2 million years ago.

Over the last 150 years, the tigers' range has shrunk by nearly 95%. There are estimated to be around 3,900 tigers left in the wild.  

There are more tigers in captivity in the US than are left in the wild. 

Around 3,000 of the world's wild tigers are in India

Tigers have soft toe pads which help them walk silently through their habitat. A tiger will typically travel 6-12 miles during a night’s hunting. During the day, a tiger’s stripes can act as camouflage, allowing it to blend in with its surroundings for stalking and ambushing its prey.

Tigers primarily hunt deer, but as opportunistic predators, they can also eat wild boars, birds, fish, rodents, amphibians, reptiles, and even insects. A large deer can provide a tiger with one week's food, but only one out of every ten hunts is successful.

Tigers don't usually eat their prey at the kill site - but instead drag their prey into cover to feed. If a tiger leaves - say to get a drink - it will cover it's kill by raking leaves, dirt, grass and even rocks over the carcass. 

The vocal repertoire of tigers is vast - they grunt, growl, roar, moan, snarl, chuff, hiss and gasp. It's thought that each vocalisation is used to communicate different things.

It's been said that tiger urine smells like buttered popcorn

WWF's aim is to help double the number of wild tigers from 3,200 in 2010, to at least 6,000 by 2022 (the next Chinese year of the tiger), through conservation in 14 priority landscapes. Priority tiger landscapes can potentially support around 10,000 tigers - 2.5 times more than the current estimated population.