Top 10 things you never knew about tigers

Both the skin and the fur of a tiger is striped

TODAY is International Tiger Day (tigerday.org), held annually on July 29 to help raise funds and awareness to protect the habitats of tigers.

 

The tiger is the largest big cat

1. In the past 100 years, the number of tigers in the wild has decreased from 100,000 to 3,000-4,000.

2. They have also lost about 93 per cent of their natural habitat.

3. The tiger is the largest big cat, reaching more than 11ft in length and weighing more than 850lb.

4. In 2006, researchers at the University of Queensland, Australia reported tests showing that wild goats can be frightened off by the smell of tiger excrement.

5. Charlotte Brontë, author of Jane Eyre, had a cat called Tiger.

 

The tiger is the national animal of Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Malaysia and South Korea

6. The only films with ‘tiger’ in their titles to win Oscars are Save The Tiger (Jack Lemmon won Best Actor) in 1973 and Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, which won four Oscars in 2000.

7. The real first names of golfer Tiger Woods are Eldrick Tont.

8. The tiger is the national animal of Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Malaysia and South Korea.

9. The tiger does not only has striped fur, its skin is striped too.

10. Sabre-toothed tigers were not technically tigers but a breed of the prehistoric cat Smilodon fatalis.