The largest members of the cat family and also the most powerful, tigers are some of the most feared predators and yet, some of the cutest felines. Some facts about tigers are hard to believe.

No wonder brave people end up sometimes adopting tamed cubs as pets. Here’s a list of amazing, fun, weird or unusual facts you may or may not know about tigers:

1. Tigers have got the power! And are not afraid to use it. They can easily kill animals twice their size, not to mention humans who happen to invade their territory.
2. They have large, extremely sharp teeth which they rely on for feeding and wrestling. When they love their canines, tigers are prone to starving to death as they can no longer kill or defend themselves.
3. Tigers have a nose as sensitive as perfume creators do and can detect the scent of prey from many miles. They will travel long distances guided only by smell to kill other animals.
4. Tigers have quite an appetite. A Bengal tiger will eat 21 kg of meat in a night and is susceptible to kill the equivalent of up to 10 buffaloes per semester.
5. The stripes on each tiger’s backs are unique. Just like fingerprints.
6. Tigers are solitary creatures, and rarely kill in groups, but when this happens, they show a courtesy lions don’t, letting the females and cubs to feed first.
7. They are violently loud! A roaring tiger can be heard from a distance of 2km at night.
8. Baby tigers depend on their mother to survive. Usually, a female tiger can give birth to as many as seven cubs. However, as she must leave them alone during the hunt, survival of the fittest comes in.
9. The Siberian (or the amur) tiger has the lightest shade of fur of all tiger subspecies, sporting a pale to white hair and brown stripes. They are also faster, more skilled and often blend in the snow in order to attack prey. They are the largest and most dangerous of all tigers.
10. Tigers are incredibly skilled in telling the age, gender, and reproductive condition of other tigers. They mark their territories with urine and can determine detailed information about their peers through the scent.
11. They save their meals for later. When a big kill emerges, they might as well bury the remains under a bush or in a safe place and later come back to feed again.
12. They purr. They can be incredibly cute, just like cats, and manifest affection towards each other, especially in families or with a kid cub.
13. Tigers are elegant creatures, and mostly, creatures of comfort. They like to bathe in the sun, play with their cubs, roll on their backs when content and bathe. Unlike cats, they are proficient swimmers. They enjoy water in summer and often go for a swim or a chill in lakes.
14. Tigers are meant to be free and live in their natural habitat. Sadly, even though they are endangered in some parts of the globe, they are still caged and used for mindless entertainment in travelling circuses.
15. Some tiger species have been extinct as late as the 20^th The Thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, was a fierce apex predator resembling both a tiger and a wolf, and populated continental Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea until it was hunted down up to the point of disappearance.
16. The Sumatran tiger is the second most endangered subspecies. Excessive poaching and the decline of these big cats’ natural habitat lowered their currently existing number to a rough 500.

This concludes our list of astonishing facts about tigers. What do you think?

Photo: miaminewtimes.com