Appearance
When we talk about tigers, people often are talking about their beauty and power. But let's take a closer look to this 'packaging'.
- Camouflage
The most mammals have camouflage to hide themself in their territory, which makes them very hard to see. In case of the tiger, who lives mainly in forests and savannah, orange is perfect. But why those stripes? A lion doen't need them. These stripes have to do with light: these stripes "break" the light, so the tiger can hide himself better.
Something remarkable is that the tiger's stripes are something like fingerprints for us: there are no two tigers with identical strip patterns. If you were to shave a tiger, you would still be able to see where his stripes would be. As a result, this unfortunate tiger would regrow the same pattern as before.
The fur of a tiger doesn't need to be orange. There exist also white tigers and black tigers. They contain genetic characteristics that originally only ocurred with the Bengal tiger, but recently, thanks to a human helping hand in zoos, there are now also other subspecies with a white fur, mainly with the Siberian tiger
- The feet
The feet are essential for tigers to survive. He doesn't need them only for hunting, but also to sneak, to climb into trees, fighting ... in other words: the hind legs are essential for a healthy tiger.
To perform all these actions without expending too much energy the tiger has claws which can be pulled in. The tiger can, like a normal cat, retract its claws, but how does this work?
They only need 2 muscles for that for eacht nail: the biceps and the triceps.
When the claw is pulled in, the biceps is relaxes and the triceps stretches, the result is that, thanks to 3 bones, the claw will be pulled in and protected.
When the claw is pulled out, the triceps will stretch and the biceps relaxes, as result that the claw will pull out.
The most mammals have camouflage to hide themself in their territory, which makes them very hard to see. In case of the tiger, who lives mainly in forests and savannah, orange is perfect. But why those stripes? A lion doen't need them. These stripes have to do with light: these stripes "break" the light, so the tiger can hide himself better.
Something remarkable is that the tiger's stripes are something like fingerprints for us: there are no two tigers with identical strip patterns. If you were to shave a tiger, you would still be able to see where his stripes would be. As a result, this unfortunate tiger would regrow the same pattern as before.
The fur of a tiger doesn't need to be orange. There exist also white tigers and black tigers. They contain genetic characteristics that originally only ocurred with the Bengal tiger, but recently, thanks to a human helping hand in zoos, there are now also other subspecies with a white fur, mainly with the Siberian tiger
The feet are essential for tigers to survive. He doesn't need them only for hunting, but also to sneak, to climb into trees, fighting ... in other words: the hind legs are essential for a healthy tiger.
To perform all these actions without expending too much energy the tiger has claws which can be pulled in. The tiger can, like a normal cat, retract its claws, but how does this work?
They only need 2 muscles for that for eacht nail: the biceps and the triceps.
When the claw is pulled in, the biceps is relaxes and the triceps stretches, the result is that, thanks to 3 bones, the claw will be pulled in and protected.
When the claw is pulled out, the triceps will stretch and the biceps relaxes, as result that the claw will pull out.