Where does the Tiger Live?

Nowadays, the Tiger has become a true symbol of natural power. But for all its fame, there are still many misunderstandings about the big cat. So much so that it is not uncommon to see people mistaken about its location. Because the Tiger is not a simple wild cat found everywhere on earth, its natural habitat, although very varied, depends on certain factors.

Of course, we will not discuss the subject of Tigers in captivity, which can be found anywhere on earth. Animal parks and zoos worldwide have them so that today there are more Tigers in captivity than in the wild. It is, therefore, much more fascinating for us to tell you about the habitat of the Tiger in its natural environment.

Even if its population has dropped sharply over the last few centuries, the Tiger still lives on the lands of many countries. But the vast territory it once inhabited is not the same nowadays. So much so that it now occupies small patches of land and can even live in the same region as the local population. When we know what the man-eater can do to people who encroach on its land, we quickly realize the problem that this cohabitation poses.

Despite all this, the Tiger belongs above all to a single continent, the one where it became the legendary animal we know today. With this article, we invite you to discover the lands of origin of the Tiger and the environments and the countries the most adapted to its survival.

Asia: A territory specific to the Tiger

 Tigers are native to the Asian continent and historically were widespread from the Caucasus through Indonesia to Siberia, populating most of Asia and the Indian subcontinent. However, their range has shrunk considerably in just one century. This big cat is endemic to Asia and is not found in the wild anywhere else. It does not exist and has never lived in the wild on African lands. If the Lion is the King of Africa, the Tiger is the Emperor of Asia.

At present, the Tiger is only found in Southeast Asia, India, some Russian regions, and northeastern China, with a few recorded in southeastern Tibet. In short, it is an Asian animal, found in the wild in about 10 countries: China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Malaysia, Burma, Russia, Thailand, and Nepal, and possibly North Korea.

In the last century, two subspecies of tigers disappeared from the lands of 2 Indonesian islands. The Java Tiger and the Bali Tiger have vanished from the globe's surface. As a result, only one subspecies of Tiger is left in Indonesia, on the island of Sumatra. Some fossils suggest that the tiger also lived on Borneo and on Palawan, in the Philippines.

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Tigers can adapt to different environments ranging from the Siberian taiga to the Indian savannahs, through the tropical mangroves of the Sundarbans in India and Bangladesh. This versatility comes from the great adaptability of this fearsome carnivore and has led to rapid evolution between subspecies. By living in territories with sometimes opposite climates, the organism of these animals has been transformed over time to maximize the species' chances of survival.

Siberian Tigers, for example, thrive in Russia's cold, sometimes snow-covered forests, which explains why their fur is slightly thicker than other subspecies. On the other hand, some Tigers found in Southeast Asia, such as the Sumatran Tiger, the smallest subspecies, have smaller measurements.

We'll now look at the Tiger's most desirable conditions. These are not always places where Tigers are found in large numbers today. However, leaving the human factor aside, they are ideal habitats for their survival. In this second part, we set poaching and habitat degradation aside and describe the areas as they would be without human interference.

Areas Where Tigers Live

1) Prerequisites for the life of the Tiger

 Above all, even if the habitats of the Tiger may vary between each subspecies, they must have certain essential elements such as

PROXIMITY TO A WATER SOURCE

The Tiger needs water to stay hydrated, but not only for that. Tigers also use these water sources to stalk prey that comes to drink there. Tigers are strong swimmers, which sometimes allows them to drag their victims into the water.

AN ABUNDANCE OF PREY

Tigers need access to prey to survive. A large part of their diet consists of ungulates. These herbivores are large mammals and represent an enormous amount of food for the Tiger. Given how much food the animal needs, it is easy to see that a territory without these large animals cannot support the Tiger.

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A DENSE VEGETATION

This condition is essential because the Tiger watches for its prey while hidden in the tall grass. Its stripes allow it to camouflage itself within the vegetation. The Tiger does not have enough stamina to exhaust its target; stealth attacks are the only way to succeed in its hunt. Its environment must therefore allow it to move around unseen. We describe each step of this stealthy approach in how the tiger hunts its prey.

2) The Indian Savanna

India is home to many animal species; it is the only country in the world where wild Tigers and Lions both live, although its wild lions are found only in the state of Gujarat. India is a Tiger country, especially thanks to its climate and its very favorable vegetation. The Indian savannahs are made up of high golden grasses in which the Tiger becomes invisible thanks to its striped coat.

The Bengal Tiger is the subspecies of Tiger living on the Indian territory; it is not the ancestor of the other subspecies, because all living tigers descend from a common ancestor that lived about 110,000 years ago. The oldest known fossils of the tiger lineage come from China. Today, India is home to the largest population of Bengal Tigers in the world, as we explain in the largest tiger population.

The vegetation is dense, the water sources sufficient, but above all, the variety of prey is remarkable. The Tiger is a large carnivore that needs large animals to sustain itself. India is home to animals such as the chital, the sambar, the buffalo, the elephant, and even the rhinoceros. A wide range of prey is available to this nocturnal hunter, so the Indian government aims to make the country a sanctuary of animal diversity.

The hunting territory of this striped beast extends over India, although it is fragmented into reserves. Thus, even if the savannah is the preferred environment of the Tiger, it is also present in the Sundarbans, a mangrove region shared by India and Bangladesh. It also inhabits tropical forests and rainforests next to grasslands, where it can drink its fill. There are many safaris in India where tourists can observe the Tiger.

3) The Siberian Tiger

 The boreal forests of deepest Russia are an ideal habitat for the Siberian Tiger. Indeed, these remote woods offer calm and serenity to the Tiger in addition to a great diversity of prey to hunt. However, the extreme climatic conditions of this environment have forced it to evolve. Thus, this subspecies has very thick fur in key areas, which protects it from snow and cold. In this way, the legs and neck of this big cat of the snows are covered with long hair. Our lifelike tiger plush toys keep that soft, striped look, from small cubs to lounging tigers.

However, despite all these elements in favor of the Siberian Tiger, the world population of this tiger is under serious threat, making the animal an endangered species. Once again, Man is the only one responsible for this catastrophe by massacring its habitat. Indeed, illegal trade and deforestation are the two reasons pushing these tigers toward extinction. Even if the forest guards do their best to fight against poaching, the means are not sufficient to keep viable wildlife.

Despite this sad event, the dense forests of Russia and especially those of the Amur region remain a home for the Siberian Tiger. The Siberian Tiger is a perfect example of its impressive ability to adapt. No one could have predicted before its discovery that the Tiger would be able to live in a territory where temperatures are around -20 degrees, given how well it suits the warm and sunny regions of South Asia.

4) The Indonesian Islands

 Even if Indonesia saw two of its three subspecies of Tigers go extinct, the climate of these islands was, however, perfectly adapted to its proliferation. Indeed, the Indonesian Tigers lived at the foot of the mountains and in low-altitude forests. Thanks to the hills, these tigers could drink in peace in the rivers and hunt for deer. Moreover, at that time, the center of the islands had almost no human presence, because people preferred to settle on the coasts.

Unfortunately, the demographic explosion of the Indonesian archipelago spelled the end for most of its tigers. To feed a growing population, the islands' interior began to be transformed into agricultural land, and plantations invaded the territory of the solitary big cat. This change irrevocably led to the destruction of its habitat, forcing it to live in smaller and smaller parts. The Sumatran tiger is the only subspecies to have survived this intensive agricultural policy.

These Indonesian islands were wildlife paradises. They show that the tiger had no problem evolving in territories surrounded by water. The adaptation of these "island tigers" was and continues to be obvious when we look at the Sumatran Tiger. The low presence of large deer has caused them to evolve by reducing their size more and more. This is why they were the three smallest subspecies of Tigers.

To summarize

The Tiger lives in many countries even if its population has decreased mainly in the last decades. It is one of the animals adapting most easily to an environment thanks to its versatility. This characteristic allows it to populate diverse regions with almost opposite climates. Nevertheless, the Tiger was born in Asia and existed only on the Asian continent in the wild.

Therefore, the African Tiger is a common misconception that continues to persist today. However, the big cat can be found in some African reserves, but it was imported from Asia. The Tiger will always prefer the hot and humid climate of the Indian savannah. But nothing prevents it from living in the snowy forests of Russia or the mountainous woods of the Indonesian islands. Whatever the landscape, the pieces in our tiger figurine collection show the tiger in its typical moments: a roar, a stride, a family gathered close.

However, if one thing is sure, it is that no matter where the Tiger lives, it is in great danger. The environment is not everything: human actions can lead to its permanent disappearance. In this way, we can see that the Tiger has lost more than 90% of its historic range, even though its numbers are now rising in countries such as India and Nepal. More globally, it seems that poachers and human activity primarily threaten wildlife. We must act very quickly if we want to preserve this unique species, the Tiger.

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