The Sumatran Tiger is the only tiger subspecies that is tied down to a specific region. Sumatran tigers are found only on the island of Sumatra and unlike their cousins, the Siberian, Bengal, South China, and Indo-Chinese, the Sumatran tiger has many differences due to where they live.

The Sumatran tiger is smaller than other tigers. The females weigh between 165-242 lbs. and males weigh between 220-310 lbs. whereas other tigers have been known to weigh up to 570 lbs! The Sumatran tiger also has the darkest coat of all the tigers, with their black strips closely spaced and sometimes doubled. They are also one of the more endangered of the tigers with only 400 remaining in the wild and 210 living in zoos.

Other than their size and coloring Sumatran tigers are not unlike other tigers found throughout Asia and India. All tigers are carnivorous, feeding mostly on wild boar, medium to large deer, and red deer. When tigers get together and hunt, which does not happen often, they will hunt "guar" which is a huge wild cattle. Tigers are also known to eat domestic animals such as cows, goats, and sometimes even humans. A tiger eats about 33-40 lbs. of a meat a night and must kill about once a week.

Tigers have exceptional eyesight, especially at night. During the daytime, their eyesight is about as good as a human's; however, at night their large eye openings gather in more light making everything look brighter. Tigers also have binocular vision which helps them gage how far away objects are which is helpful when stalking prey.

They also have a good sense of hearing; however, their sense of smell is much better than most animals. Tigers primarily use their sense of smell to communicate with other tigers, but they can also use it to track prey. Tigers use not only their nose to smell, but also scent glands in the roof of their mouth near the upper incisor teeth. So, if you ever see a tiger with it's mouth open, there's a good chance, they are just trying to smell something as those scent glands are more sensitive than their nose.

Tigers are known to be solitary creatures; however, this does not necessarily mean that they are anti-social creatures. Tigers can tell when other tigers are near by scent marks, visual markings such as scratch marks and by the stripes on the coat, they can tell the individual tigers apart.

Tigers usually only come together to mate and females can only have one litter every two years. The female's gestation period is about 100-112 days. When they give birth, it is usually to a litter of two to three cubs blind and helpless cubs. Cubs weigh only about two pounds at birth and will nurse for sixth months after birth. During the next 18 months, the cubs become more independent and eventually strike out on their own at two years of age. Usually the male tigers roam farther away from their mother's territory whereas a female tiger will establish territory adjacent to their mother's, or even take over part of their mother's territory.

Tigers do not live very long lives out in the wild due to hunting, poaching, habitat destruction, and fights with other tigers over territory. Tigers live to 20 years of age in zoos, but only 15 years in the wild. Only half of all cubs born survive long enough to separate from their mother and of those, only 40% live long enough to establish a territory of their own and produce young. This does not bode well for tiger survival; however, most of the countries that tigers inhabit have set up nature reserves for the animal and also barrier areas to keep them away from human settlements.

To help out the tiger population even more, most zoos participate in the Species Survival Plan (SSP) which keeps a stud book of all available males and females to mate. The zoos go through these stud books to pick out tigers and try to mate them with genetically compatible females. This helps to make sure that they are breeding tigers without genetic mutations.

One genetic mutation however that zoos were particularly interested in keeping was the mutation that created the white tigers. White tigers are different than most regular tigers as their fur is all white with chocolate colored stripes and blue eyes. The first white tiger cub is believed to be one that was trapped by the Maharaja of Rewa who found the cub orphaned in the jungle in 1951. The cub was named Mohan and was later mated to a normal colored captive tigress who produced three litters of cubs—all with normal coloring. A few years later, Mohan was mated with one of the offspring thus producing the first litter of white cubs who were the ancestors of white tigers found in zoos today. Once zoos found out that the white tiger coloring was a gene mutation and could only be reproduced by inbreeding a white tiger with its children or other relatives, they have since disbanded the breeding of the white tiger. As of June 1998, there were 30 white tigers left in US zoos and no one is quite sure how many are in the hands of private individuals.

Despite efforts of zoos worldwide and the nature preserves set up by India and the Asian countries, tigers are disappearing at an alarming rate. Overpopulation and the illegal trade of tiger fur is quickly pushing this species towards extinction. There are some things we can do to help the tigers survive though. We can write letters to our local newspapers expanding awareness of the tiger's plight, volunteer at local zoos, adopt a tiger at your local zoo, or join organizations like the World Wildlife Fund and the National Wildlife Federation. Hopefully together we can save the tigers.