Nutrition

Tigers feed on other ungulate animals such as deer, elk, buffalo, wild pigs and cattle. Ungulate means the animal have hooves that they use to stand on. Tigers prefer to hunt medium sized animals because hunting is very dangerous for them. Only 1 out of 10-15 attacks leads to a successful kill (Biswas, Sankarn 2002). The tigers usually hunt at night when the prey will be the most active. They begin by stalking the prey.

The dark of night doesn’t allow them to use their eye sight so they rely on hearing to follow the prey. Once the prey has been located and the tiger is ready, they ambush the animal by jumping on top of them. Usually the tiger bites the throat of the animal, which destroys the trachea and starves it of oxygen.

After the animal is dead the tiger opens the body cavity and feeds on the carcass. A lot of time is taken in the hunting process so most tigers do not eat every day. A carcass may last a few days as the tiger comes back to feed.

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