9 Siberian Tiger Facts for Kids
1. Siberian Tigers are among the biggest living cats along with the Bengal Tiger. This species of tiger hails from the Russian Far East. The population is in a lot of trouble. There are only about 250 of these tigers left in the wild.
2. It was thought that the population was improving and that the adult cat numbers ranged in between 300-350 but recent studies indicate that the population is dwindling.
3. The Siberian Tiger is actually the larger of the two species of tigers. A male Siberian can weigh up to about 750 pounds. It can range in length up to about 9 feet although a tiger in captivity was 14 feet in length and well over a thousand pounds. There are stories of hunters killing tigers that exceeded the 14 feet and weighing well over twelve hundred pounds but these “stories” are anecdotal in nature and the measurements cannot be relied upon as accurate.
4. They live in the Sikhote-Alin Mountain range. They travel great distances sometimes as much as 612 miles a year in search of food and for mating. They live solitary lives and come together only to breed. The gestation time is about 3.5 months.
5. The female gives birth to two to four cubs which are born blind. The mother prepares a den for the cubs and they are often left on their own while she hunts. The cubs remain with their mother until they are almost three years old.
6.The female cubs will pick range areas close to where they are born while the males will have to leave to look for a mate. Males are killed more often than females which leave the ratio of males to females at about 2 females for every male.
Diet
7. They are predators and will hunt a full range of grazing animals. They hunt alone. They sustain on a full diet of meat. Since there has been a decrease in ungulate populations the tigers have compensated their diet with bear.
8. Scat samples have contained the hair of bears and other indications of tiger on bear attacks have been recorded. This is an unusual turn of events for the natural order of things and scientist feel it is out of desperation that the tiger is now adding bear to their diet.
Conservation Efforts
9. Man is the tigers only predator. The population is near extinction and it is largely due to the hunting of tigers, the depletion of its food supply by man and the depletion of its habitat. Conservation efforts have been in full effect since the turn of the century.