Sunday, May 13, 2012

Four Color Variation of Bengal Tigers.


         The Bengal tigers are very unique among to the other tiger subspecies, because it could come out in 4 different color variations. To have these colors a mother should have the trait of the color that she might carry as a recessive traits. These colors are not tiger mutations but just a normal color variation. The color variations are snow white, standard, golden, and white colors. These colors are most likely extinct in the wild except for the standard colors and can only be find in captivity. 
        The snow white Bengal tiger is the rarest of them all there are about 20-30 of them remaining of captivity. These color of the tiger is really rare because these genes to make this color are very recessive and hard to breed. Its color is pure white, with faint gold stripes. This color of a tiger would be really hard to survive in wild unless it is snow, because since they don't blend in with its surroundings, it would be really easy for its prey to get notice and ran away. Especially because the Bengal tigers do not have great stamina to chase after its enemy for long distance. This would cause starvation to death.
        The standard color of Bengal tiger which is the orange with black stripes, is the most common that you would see. it is more common in the wild, because its color help it survive. Having its color helps it hide on tall grasses, trees, and more which helps it stalk its prey until its the right time. This cause in better survival chances which wouldn't cause starvation to death. Their also helps them hide from whatever might hunt them like the poachers.
        The golden Bengal tiger which has a golden and white fur with reddish stripes only have about 70-100 in captivity. This color variation also have less survival chances but higher than the snow white, since its color can still help blend on other things.
       The white tiger has 200 remaining. This color variation helps it hinds on tall grasses which makes it have a higher survival chances than the snow white and golden Bengal tigers.
       Therefore the closer the color it is to the standard color the more it can blend in the surroundings which gives them a higher survival chances. That is why there are more standard colored Bengal tigers survivng in the wild.

Tiger Human Conflict.

                   Bengal tigers are very endangered species along with the other tiger subspecies and unacceptable that people do to them are the reason why. Over the last century hunting Bengal tigers and destroying forest, which are their habitats, have dramatically decreased the tiger's population. Today there are about 2,500 of them left wiht a decreasing trend, and most of them are in Zoos. These tigers along with the other tiger's subspecies are hunted by poachers. Poachers tend to hunt them for trophies and also for money. These people kill these tigers to sell some of their body parts such as eyes, furs, fangs, even whiskers, and a lot more. The tiger parts are sold and would be turn in to some traditional Chinese medicine, which is not scientifically proven that works.Therefore people might probably just be wasting their money for a placebo.
                Since there are a very few of them left, they are being protected in many places. Two  of these places are The Nagarahole National Park and The Ranthambhore National Par. They are able to protect them by having park guards/rangers that are highly trained to track poachers and arrest them. They are also important, because while they supervise the place, they disable the traps and take things out that might harm or kill the tigers. However, the cruel and selfish poachers do not stop.
               This all started when the beginning of 19th century, when tigers were so numerous in India. There were so many of them that the people of India didn't want them there because they're taking too much land mass. Also because they were scared that they might start attacking the people. This resulted that killing Bengal tigers became an official policy and encourage other people to kill them as fast as possible.
            Another cause is that people are building more farms, houses, and other man made features, which took a lot of tigers territories, and habitats. Having less territories for the tigers results in big problems like troubles for them to reproduce.

Things to know about Bengal Tigers.


                      Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) are the second biggest tiger subspecies. Males can weight about 448lbs. and 270-310cm in length. Females can weight 308lbs. and 240-265cm. They are found mostly in India and some in Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Burma. Even though they could be found in these countries, they are endangered along with the other tigers species. They live in tropical moist forests, tropical dry forests, and places that are near fresh water. Bengal tigers love being in water in able to cool off. Since they can move freely in water they can also catch preys. Each Bengal tiger live alone, because its easier to sneak up on preys alone and live alone other than living in groups. They are able to live alone my marking their territories with scent marks and by scratching on trees. The only exception for seeing them in groups if the mother have cubs. Females can give birth to litters of about 2-6 cubs and would be raised alone. These cubs are mostly born during December and April, and mature up after 3-5 years. However they start to month after about 18 months and leave their family group slowly in about 2-3 years to find its own territory. The average life span of a Bengal tiger in the wild is about 8-10 years.
                    Bengal tigers are obligated carnivore meaning they only eat meat and can eat to a max of about 60 pounds of food. They prefer to hunt bigger animals that are slow, since they can't they do not have good stamina. Even though they do not have good stamina, Bengal tigers are really fast and could still chase some animals like water buffaloes. They can also prey on small animals, but would just count as a snack. Bengal tigers are also known for taking other predators such as leopards, wolves, jackals, foxes, crocodiles, and even bears. When they catch prey, they bite on the back of the victims neck or throat depending on the prey's size. Some times the tiger takes its prey in the water and kill it. The tiger's stripe can help hide from from preys since they would just look like grass shadows. If they did not find any catch during the day, they may also hunt at night, since they are really patient and nocturnal.