Keepers feed the tigers a commercial carnivore diet that looks a lot like ground beef but is designed to meet their nutritional needs.
The tigers also eat beef chunks, bones and frozen-thawed rabbits. They weigh each animal once a week to ensure that they notice any variations and can adjust diets or catch any potential problems early. You bet! Tigers are excellent swimmers. There are even reports of tigers hunting in the water in the wild. Skip to main content. Entry passes are required for all guests, including infants. All visitors ages 2 and older are required to wear a mask in all indoor spaces at the Zoo, regardless of their vaccination status.
Fully vaccinated visitors do not need to wear a mask in outdoor areas. And More Tiger Facts. Share this page:. Just How Big are Tigers? And More Tiger Facts Jul. July 29 is International Tiger Day, so sink your teeth into these fun facts about big cats. Amur tigers are the largest cats in the world. A male Amur tiger can weigh up to pounds and grow to be 10 feet long from head to tail. Males are larger than the females, which weigh to pounds. Like human fingerprints, the striped pattern on each Amur tiger's fur is unique to that individual.
Their fur is lighter than other tigers' fur, and it becomes even lighter in winter. To protect them from the cold, their fur grows thicker than other tigers' fur, and they have manes. Most of a tiger's diet consists of large prey, such as pigs, deer, rhinos or elephant calves. To kill their prey, tigers clamp down on the animal's neck with their jaws and suffocate the animal.
The tiger's canine teeth have pressure-sensing nerves, so it knows exactly where to deliver a fatal bite to its prey, according to the WWF.
Tigers are solitary creatures; they like to spend most of their time alone, roaming their massive territories looking for food. According to the San Diego Zoo , the Siberian tiger has the largest range; its territory spans more than 4, square miles 10, square km. Tigers mark their territory by spraying a mix of urine and scent gland secretions onto trees and rocks. They also scratch marks into trees with their claws. Tiger babies are born helpless. At birth, a cub weighs 2.
Around half of all cubs don't live beyond the age of two, according to WWF. The mother must leave the cubs while she hunts, leaving them open to other predators.
Most tiger mothers are unable to kill enough prey to feed a large litter, so some cubs may die of starvation. At just 8 weeks old, tiger cubs are ready to learn how to hunt and go out on hunting expeditions with their mother. Tigers travel great distances in search of food, and they hunt at any time of day or night.
They're not great runners, and they rarely chase their prey very far. Instead, they approach their target stealthily, taking cover behind trees, rocks, or bushes. The cats get as close as possible before pouncing on their unsuspecting victim. When it comes time to dispatch their prey, tigers use one of two methods. Note: the following description is not for the faint of heart!
If it's a small animal, they kill it with a bite to the back of the neck, breaking the spinal cord. If it's a large animal, they kill it by suffocating it with a bite to the throat. A large kill may provide food for several days, depending on whether it's eaten by one tiger or several usually a mother and her offspring.
When a female tiger is ready to mate, she attracts males by roaring and spraying "marking fluid," a fragrant musk. Eager males smell and hear the female, and seek her out in hopes of mating. If several males approach, a bloody battle is likely to ensue. The winning male now has another situation to contend with: the female's "fickle" behavior. She acts eager one moment, rolling on the ground in front of the male, and aggressive the next, spitting and striking him with her claws.
Since the male needs to be accepted by the female, he doesn't retaliate, but patiently courts her. About three-and-a-half months after mating, the female is ready to give birth.
Prior to the event, she will find a sheltered spot -- either a cave, a dense thicket, or a depression in thick grass.
There she gives birth to her kittens the average litter size being three. The babies are tiny, each weighing just two or three pounds. The kittens stay near the den for their first few weeks of life, but by the time they're two months old, they start following mom when she goes in search of food. Over the next several months, the youngsters learn to hunt for themselves through imitation and practice. They become independent when they're one-and-a-half to two years old.
Young females are ready to breed by the time they're three years old.
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