Tigers are predominately solitary creatures except for maternal bonding and during mating. They occupy exclusive territories that they defend against intruders of the same sex by marking with urine and scrapes at boundaries. After a gestation period of around 103 days, litters of around two or three tiger cubs are born to a tigress. For the next 6-8 weeks, cubs live only on their mother’s milk before she begins taking them to kill to feed.
Mating season happens throughout the year, although it has been suggested that tiger reproduction, in Peninsular Malaysia, might have a seasonal peak around November to March. Female tigers reach maturity when they are about 3 years old, a year ahead of males. When they finally leave their mother’s territory – anywhere from a year and a half to three years of age – females tend to stay closer to their mother’s range.
Tigers are carnivores and are specialised predators of large-hoofed mammals. In Malaysia, the main tiger-prey species are wild boar, Sambar deer, and medium-sized mammals such as Barking deer (muntjak).The Malayan tiger is found in peat swamps although they prefer lowland dipterocarp forests. A habitat generalist, there are estimated to be at least 490 individual adult tigers in the forests of Peninsular Malaysia. There are no tigers in Sabah and Sarawak.
No comments:
Post a Comment