Tigers, the big cat of Asia. It is a beautiful majestic animal that is slowly and sadly becoming extinct. Tigers and their ancestors have been around since 2 million years ago. Their origins are from North China and Central Asia. And despite popular opinion, they are not related to the Sabertooth tiger. This was from a different branch of the cat family that became extinct many years ago But today, Tigers are becoming more and more rare in the wild. Most people at some point in their life will see a tiger that sadly see this tiger behind bars in this zoo.
Are Tigers friendly? Their beauty is undeniable, with large dark stripes along there fur and they’re deceiving cuddly appearance. Tigers are by far one of the most beautiful animals ever created. But tigers are also known for their ferocious look. With 30 teeth created primarily for slicing through flesh, females weighing anywhere from 100 to 200 pounds, and males weighing up to 300 pounds, anyone would be scared of a tiger and across its path. And in some places tigers do eat humans. And unfortunately, once a tiger has a taste for human flesh, they love it.
Tigers are hunters. They slink down deep in the bush sneaking up on their prey, waiting for the perfect moment to attack. In the wild, they have been known to take down many species of deer, wild boar, and even zebras. When a while tiger catches its prey is likely to gorge on that pray until he can eat no more. This is simply a means of survival. Tigers in a zoo are often fed horse meat, approximately 10 pounds a day including vitamins.
And what about the baby tigers, better known as cubs? When a female tiger goes into heat and becomes pregnant. She could produce a litter averaging two to 3 cubs, but sometimes as many as five. Unfortunately, one cub usually dies at birth. After impregnating the female, a male tiger no longer has anything to do with the raising of the cubs. The female tiger will allow her cubs to nurse anywhere from six to eight weeks. At that point, the female tiger begins to take her cubs on kills with her. And by the time, a cub reaches the age of 18 months. It is ready to make its first kill.
So why not telling you all this about tigers? The truth is that tigers are beautiful, wonderful animals that are dangerously close to being extinct. We see a tiger in the zoo and you know that there’s one in every zoo across America. It’s hard to imagine that tigers could be anywhere near extinction. The current estimate is that one tiger a day is killed in Asia. And why are they being killed, because of Asian medicine. Some parts of Asian medicine based in mystical and mythical treatments use tiger parts for a number of things. And because of their belief that these parts will to cure many ailments, many Asians still hunt these tigers every day. AT this rate, tigers will only be seen in zoos, or even worse, only taxidermy in museums.
by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
Amazon Price: $4.99
Customer Review: Concise novelization from the movie with nice full color pictures in the middle. My twelve year old son, my mother and I really enjoyed the movie as well as this book. My mother also thought some of the foreign films like Duma are often more engaging than a lot of the stuff coming out of Hollywood.
by Mary Batten, Michael Langham Rowe
Amazon Price: $3.99
by Jan Sovak
Amazon Price: $3.49
Customer Review: There are ten wild cats depicted in this little book. All are realistically rendered, most are heads but four of them are fully drawn designs. They snarl and stalk and pounce across the page and are popular with younger girls and boys. I passed some of these out last year at Halloween, and the kids
