Tiger Reveling in Life
Happy tiger rolling in the grass
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Male Tiger
He is getting his bone out of the water to play with it
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Tiger and Sunshine
Tiger taking in the sun, the orange of his coat is on fire with it's rays.
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Tiger Enjoying the Grass
Tiger nibbling on grass
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Tiger in the Sun
Handsome Tiger in creamtone
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Tiger Playing
Tiger rolling in the grass
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Orange Tiger
The beautiful golden glint of a tiger's eye's suggests its complexity and precision...Cats have a broad horizontal streak (the visual streak) near the center of the eye, where a high concentration of nerve cells leads to the optic nerve. This increases their visual acuity horizontally, making them better than humans at spotting movement and fleeing prey moving across the plane." "Tiger-The Ultimate Guide" , 2004, by Valmik Thapar.
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Tiger Camouflage
Tiger walking in the grass. The rugged Paaiskloof gorge runs through the Tiger Canyons sanctuary. The habitat is extremely diverse with aquatic and riverine bush along the Van der Kloof Dam and rugged mountains flattening out to open savannah grasslands with thickets. The land provides suitable medium to large size prey animals for the tigers.
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Tiger Yawn
Respect the jaw. These white teeth tell us this is a young tiger
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Tiger Drinking
Crouching for a drink of water. Tigers like to cool off in water and are strong swimmers
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Panthera Tigris
The tiger has an impressive head and broad jaw
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Tiger Coat
Tigers have gorgeous dense fur coats with bold stripes, the belly is white
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Yawning Tiger
He has large canines and the jaw moves up and down, no sideways motion
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Tiger Canine Teeth
Tigers have the largest canines of all the big cats, up to 3 inches long. The teeth are filled with pressure sensitive nerves to help guide the cat to bite down in the right place to quickly kill their prey.
For more information on tiger anatomy, including teeth and jaws visit: http://www.jvbigcats.co.za/tigeranatomy.htm or purchase, "Tiger-The Ultimate Guide" by Valmik Thapar, 2004AfricaBengal_tigerJohn_Varty SundarbansTiger CanyonsTiger_Canyonsbig catscamouflagefelinemammalSouth AfricaSouth_AfricatigerBigCatsPhilippolisbig catcarnivorecatanimalswildbig_cat
Yawning Tiger
He has large canines and the jaw moves up and down, no sideways motion
AfricaBengal_tigerJohn_Varty SundarbansTiger CanyonsTiger_Canyonsbig catscamouflagefelinemammalSouth AfricaSouth_AfricatigerBigCatsPhilippolisbig catcarnivorecatanimalswildbig_cat
Yawning Tiger
He has large canines and the jaw moves up and down, no sideways motion
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John Varty with Zaria
Mr. Varty is working to save the wild tiger. This cat was hand reared and although relaxed with John she remains a wild tiger.
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Tiger Hiding in Shrubbery
In India after a bad day looking for tigers in a reserve we saw a sign saying, "Don't feel badly if you did not see the tiger. He saw you". That is so true, they can track you through the grass and be right on top of you and you would not know it.
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Eyeball to Eyeball
The tigers make eye contact with us
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View of Tiger Canyons
The habitat in Philopolis the site of Tiger Canyons, SA.
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Sunderban Licking Zaria
Zaria might be coming into estrous and Sunderban is very attentive. They don't look it, but they are still cubs and have not yet parted to go their own ways. This pair is a brother and sister. Sunderban is much larger than Zaria. They were abandoned by their mother and hand reared.
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Ground Squirrels
This squirrel is terrestrial and lives in burrows, only in Africa. They were all over the grass in front of the main building at Tiger Canyons. I did not see them near any tigers.
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Seato, Large Adult Male Tiger
Seato has a torn lip, but it is healed and he is a large, healthy male tiger
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Seato, Large Adult Male Tiger
I believe Seato was the largest, heaviest tiger at the sanctuary when I was there.
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Seato Takes the Road
Tiger Canyons has vehicle paths and the cats prefer them to the grass
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Tiger Profile
"The tiger, whose proper nutrition depends upon consuming one deer-size animal a week, evolved into a supreme hunter. Its sensory organs help it to locate elusive animals in the densest of undergrowth or on the blackest of nights, and its striped fur allows it to blend in with the surroundings. The tiger's padded paws permit a stealthy and silent approach when stalking a potential kill, and its skeleton and muscles provide the strength and speed necessary to catch prey as big as an elephant or as small as a grasshopper. A strong jaw and razor-sharp teeth can deliver a quick death, tearing tough hide and slicing through raw meat... from "Tiger-The Ultimate Guide" by Valmik Thapar, 2004
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Tiger in Landscape
Tiger Surveying his Domain
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The Yawn
From what I've observed of cats, big and small, if they are not hunting, eating, sleeping, watching or playing they may well be yawning. This big fellow displays his gorgeous shoulders and huge mouth and teeth.
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Tiger Pattern
Beautiful patterned tiger back. His hind legs are longer than his front, the better to spring with, and they can spring 32.5 feet through the air.
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Smiling Tiger
If Tigers can smile I think this one is.
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Tiger Portrait
Bengal Tiger in Tiger Canyons, South Africa
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White Tiger in Landscape
Tibo at Dusk in Tiger Canyons. From "Tiger- The Ultimate Guide", 2004, by Valmik Thapar: ...white tigers, exist, albeit rarely in the wild because they would be at an obvious disadvantage when hunting and so would seldom survive to pass on their white genes. White tigers are not actually albinos, which would be totally white with red eyes. Instead, they are described as leucocystic, meaning that they have a recessive trait that causes a lack of dark pigments, which produces a white coat, gray to brown stripes, and stunning blue eyes. For some reason, they also seem to grow faster and bigger than their yellow relatives.
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Tibo on the Rocks
Tibo, female tiger at sunset
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Tibo on the Rocks
Tibo, perched a top high rocks and very at ease in environment, as the sun starts to set.
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Tiger, from Should to Hip
tiger from shoulder to hip. "Meat can be digested far more efficiently than grass. It requires a far less complicated gut to convert meat to protein than it does to convert grass to protein. Thus tigers have shortened guts (four times their body length, as compared with five times in an omnivorous fox) and comparatively small and light abdomens, a factor that contributes to the tiger's ability to accelerate quickly when in pursuit of prey." from "Tiger-The Ultimate Guide", 2004 by Valmik Thapar
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Seato, Large Male Tiger
Mature male Bengal tiger
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Tibo, White Tigress in the Grass
Tibo is a shy tiger. Tigers each have different stripes and differing personalities. Some of the tigers carried on as if we were not there, but Tibo tended to turn away from the camera.
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Alert Tiger from Behind
It is bad form to say a tiger is "cute", but the round ears with their white spots are startling at first and I found them to be very attractive. I cannot find a definitive reason for the spots, but they are on most of the big cats' ears. When a tiger is threatened it swivels the ears so that the would be attacker can see the white "flashes".
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Tiger Talk
Sunderban being very affectionate to his sister, Zaria
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Tiger Talk
Sunderban being very affectionate to his sister, Zaria
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Seato in the Grass
Seato's ears from behind with their "alert" eye markigs
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Tiger Talk
Tibo, white female tiger with Seato, large male tiger. "Tigers walk on their toes, which have big soft pads to help them tread almost silently through the undergrowth. These sensitive pads can be a disadvantage: if a tiger treads on something sharp, the pads will bleed profusely; if it tries to cross hot ground its feet will burn and blister easily. These common injuries do heal quickly, with lost of licking and care." Valmik Thapar in "Tiger-The Ultimate Guide", 2004.
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