The tiger is without a doubt the supreme ruler of large cats, whereas the lion rules the animal kingdom. The tiger, which plainly dwarfs all other existing felines to a significant extent, is the biggest species of living cat.
Tigers have a beautiful and menacing appearance due to their distinguishing coloration and stripes. These apex predators once roamed throughout a large portion of South and Central Asia.
Unfortunately, habitat degradation and poaching have led to a steady reduction in their population. Several subspecies vanished entirely from their native area in the last several decades, going extinct.
Despite ongoing attempts, conserving tiger numbers is primarily an uphill struggle. The few remaining tigers today are forced to compete for survival in ever-shrinking ranges.
Nonetheless, because of their enormous size and distinctive traits, tigers continue to draw our attention. So, what are the biggest tigers in the world? I’ll talk about the biggest tiger species alive today in this post. I’ll also talk about the extinct tiger species that was superior to all others.
I’ll also include the biggest tiger in the world ever captured and found in the wild. I’ll finish with some commonly known tigers facts to cap it all off. Prepare to become an expert on the biggest tigers in the world.
1. The Biggest Current Subspecies of Tiger
Scientists formerly thought there were eight subspecies of tigers. However, scientists have changed this number to nine as a result of a recent study. Now three species (Javan, Bali, and Caspian) out of nine are extinct.
The recently added Malayan tigers, Indochinese tigers, Sumatran tigers, South China tigers, Siberian tigers which are also known as the Amur tigers, and the Bengal tiger famously called as Indian tiger, are among the extant subspecies.
The Sumatran tiger is by far the smallest among extant tigers. The Sunda Islands are home to just the Sumatran tiger subspecies. Males may weigh 220 to 310 pounds and range in length from 87 to 100 inches.
The newly identified Malayan tiger from the Malay Peninsula comes in second place in terms of size. Males of these tigers weigh between 220 and 308 pounds and range in length from 75 to 112 inches, growing just slightly bigger than Sumatran tigers.
The South China tiger follows that. These tigers, which were once exclusively found in southern China, could already be extinct in the wild as there have been nearly no confirmed sightings since the late 1980s.
Males in captivity often weigh between 287 and 386 pounds and measure between 91 and 104 inches in length. The Indochinese tiger follows, with a range that includes remote areas of Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Males typically measure between 100 and 112 inches in length and weigh between 331 and 430 pounds.
According to the ranking of the biggest tigers in the world, the Bengal tiger comes in second. They are one of the most abundant tiger subspecies and may be found in Nepal, Bangladesh, and India.
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Males typically measure 110 to 120 inches long and weigh between 386 and 573 pounds. The Siberian tiger, the indisputable biggest living tiger subspecies, edges over the Bengal tiger, which is unquestionably enormous.
2. The Biggest Tiger in the World: The Siberian Tiger
In my ranking of the biggest tigers in the world, the Siberian tiger also known as Panthera Tigris Altaica comes at the top. Siberian tigers have a variety of names depending on where they are found Russian Far East, Northeast China, and in their native North Korea.
Other names for this animal include Ussurian Tigers, Manchurian, Amur, and Korean. The Siberian tiger, a close cousin of the extinct Caspian tiger, nearly went extinct but is now thought to be stable because of vigorous conservation efforts.
Records show that a Siberian male tiger normally weighed between 397 and 675 pounds and was up to 120 inches long. Unfortunately, current tigers do not reach the same size as their elder ancestors due to habitat loss and reduced food availability.
Due to habitat degradation, most wild Siberian tigers nowadays are on the smaller side of average, which is most likely a result of longer feeding intervals.
2.1. The Largest Siberian Tiger Known to Man
The heaviest Siberian tiger ever recorded was 932 pounds, which is a huge amount and it is considered the largest tiger in this breed.
The majority of tigers today inhabit the Siberian subspecies. A Male Siberian tiger typically weighs between 389 and 475 pounds and measures 70 to 82 inches in height. A female Siberian tiger is 66 to 72 inches long and weighs 260 to 303 pounds. The largest known tigers are Siberian tigers, however, in the wild, a tiger’s size varies depending on where it lives.
Jaipur, the largest Siberian tiger ever recorded, was a 932 lb male that lived in captivity. He was 10 feet and 11 inches long from snout to tail. The largest tiger ever officially documented, Jaipur, belonged to an American trainer. He was fed heavily and lived in captivity, which allowed him to grow larger as the largest Siberian tiger.
Unfortunately, the largest Siberian tiger in nature is not expected to break any records very soon. Siberian male and female tigers’ weight was examined by scientists, who discovered that since the first part of the 20th century, their size has substantially dropped.
In fact, there is a case to be made that Bengal tigers are now, on average, bigger than Siberians because Siberians have shrunk so much. Due to the killing of larger individuals and dwindling opportunities to capture larger prey, the number of Siberian tigers is declining.
Hercules, a combination of tiger, and the lion is the biggest living cat as of 2021. He was born in 2003, is 11 feet tall, weighs 922 pounds, and has a 3.3m wingspan. In South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach Safari Wildlife Reserve, Hercules dwells. His diet of around 20 pounds of meat every day and his existence in captivity are the causes of his size.
One of the biggest big cats is the liger, although you won’t see one in the wild. Because lions are mostly found in Africa and tigers are found in Asia, where lion habitat is sparse, tigers and lions cannot mate in the wild.
2.2. Comparing Wild to Captive Siberian Tigers
The Siberian tigers you will find in the wild are substantially smaller than those kept in captivity. Of the wild, they inhabit chilly locations in China and Far Eastern Russia.
Siberian tigers housed in captivity have better access to food since they cannot travel long distances. Siberian tigers may cover up to 620 miles in the wild in search of food. Tigers are creatures that move around and hunt for most of the day.
Some tigers in captivity only have cages that are around 13 by 23 feet in size. Despite living in considerably larger spaces, the wild cats in tiger sanctuaries are not as active as they would be in the wild.
Additionally, captive tigers receive significantly more frequent feedings on a daily basis. Although historical Siberian tigers have the potential to be the biggest subspecies, as we just said, their native habitat is dwindling.
Their food includes elk, deer, rabbits, and boar, to name a few. Food can occasionally become sparse in the regions of Russia where wild Siberian tigers reside.
2.3. Comparing Siberian Tigers to Other Big Cats
The biggest species of big cat found in the wild is the Siberian tiger. Some tiger species, like the Bengal tiger, may naturally be larger than the Siberian tiger due to the abundance of food in their habitat. Although they do not normally occur in the wild, tigers are now one of the biggest big cats in the world.
Another kind of large cat that rivals all the tigers in size and ferocity is the lion. Lion males typically weigh 418 lbs and females 280 lbs. The biggest lion ever recorded was a captive animal that weighed 827 pounds.
2.4. The Reason Siberian Tigers are so Big
Since Siberian tigers live in colder climates, they have greater body fat to keep warm. They are currently regarded as the biggest members of the tiger family. When it comes to animals, one generalization is that some species will grow larger the further north they are situated from the equator.
Animals will require a larger size to live in extremely cold conditions. Near the Chinese border, in the forests and mountains of eastern Russia, Siberian tigers can be found. They have evolved to survive the chilly winters and high heights.
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Tigers are currently considered an endangered species, and all subspecies have small numbers. The Bengal Tiger, which can be found in India, is the species with the greatest population. There are presently just 2,000 of this species left.
Because of their distinctive skin pattern and claws, tigers face a serious problem with poaching. In most places where tigers exist, efforts are being done to try to sustain their number.
2.5. Siberian Tiger – Population
They can be found in China and North Korea, but the birch forests of eastern Russia are where they are most frequently seen. Despite living in a much harsher habitat in the north than other tigers do, these animals enjoy a number of advantages.
The environment in northern woods is the most comprehensive and has the lowest human density of any tiger habitat. In addition, the huge woods provide tigers far more room to roam as Russia’s lumber industry is now less established than that of many other countries.
2.6. Siberian Tigers’ Hunting
Tigers are solitary creatures that actively scent-mark vast regions to ward off rivals. They are savage hunters who cover great distances in searches of nighttime food like wild boar and elk. Because no two tigers have precisely the same stripes, they may hunt stealthily by using their distinctive coats as camouflage.
Before acting quickly and murdering their victim, they wait patiently and sneak up on it. Hungry tigers eat up to 60 pounds of food in a single night, despite the fact that they normally eat less.
2.7. Siberian Tigers – Reproduction
Females give birth to litters of two to six pups, raising them on their own with little to no help from the father. Cubs can hunt only after they are 18 months old. They stay with their moms for two to three years before separating to discover their own area.
2.8. Threats to Siberian Tiger Survival
The lack of habitat brought on by deforestation is one factor contributing to their population decline. Additionally, Siberian tigers are unlawfully hunted or poached for their body parts and fur, which are used in traditional remedies.
3. The Biggest Extinct Tigers
The Caspian tiger, Javan tiger, and Bali tiger are the three extinct subspecies of current tigers. The Bali tiger was the smallest species of tiger until it went extinct in the 1950s. Males typically weighed between 200 and 220 pounds and were between 87 and 91 inches long.
The Javan tiger is another, and it probably became extinct in the wild in the middle of the 1970s, mostly as a result of habitat degradation and poaching. Males were typically between 220 and 311 pounds in weight and 98 inches long when they were alive.
The Caspian tiger, the biggest extinct subspecies of the contemporary tiger, just recently became extinct. 2003 is thought to have been the year in which the final Caspian tiger perished.
In the past, they were found in the Caspian Sea region, China, Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey, from where they got their name. They also went by the names Mazandaran tigers, Turanian tigers, Hyrcanian tigers, and Balkhash tigers, they all shared many traits with Siberian tigers.
Male Caspian tigers typically weighed between 370 and 530 pounds and were between 106 and 116 inches long, just slightly smaller than Siberian tigers.
The greatest extinct tiger, however, did not become extinct lately; rather, it vanished from the planet’s surface millions of years ago. In the Pleistocene era, the Sundaland area of Indonesia was home to Panthere Tigris Solensis also called as Ngandong tiger.
This enormous tiger’s remains were discovered at a location close to the settlement of Ngandong, from where it derives its name.
The Ngandong tiger was around 138 inches long and estimated to have weighed up to 1,040 pounds based on the size of the fossils that have been found. With those dimensions, it would be one of the world’s largest land carnivores and weigh almost twice as much as the largest extant tigers.
4. The Biggest Wild Tiger Ever Discovered
A male Bengal tiger that was enlarged was the biggest tiger ever discovered in the wild. Prior to being killed by hunters in November 1967, this enormous specimen resided in Uttar Pradesh, India. He was almost 10 feet, 7 inches long and around 857 pounds when fully grown.
The fact that he had only recently consumed a buffalo, as found by an autopsy, definitely contributed to his excessive weight. Nevertheless, this animal is among the biggest tigers ever seen in the wild. Other tales of enormous tigers could never corroborate their assertions, thus they must be treated with caution.
5. Some Facts about Tigers
5.1. Tiger Populations
Only 3,900 tiger populations live in the wild today, as per the World Wildlife Fund. This implies a 95% decrease in the number of tigers worldwide from the estimated 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th-century reconsideration of the World Wildlife Fund.
5.2. White Tiger
by Joshua J. Cotten / Unsplash
The white tiger is not distinct subspecies; rather, they are the result of a genetic aberration that makes their fur become white rather than orange as they age. Since they don’t belong to a separate species or subspecies, they cannot become extinct.
5.3. Rarest Tiger
The South China tiger, which is practically extinct in the wild, is the rarest living tiger. The only significant populations at the moment are those found in zoos, while a few lone individuals may still exist. Only about 100 animals exist in captivity at this time.
6. Home to Half of the World’s Tigers – India
Everyone is said to be most terrified of tigers among wild creatures. It is an extremely powerful animal that can leap a great distance.
It appears to be extremely peaceful but is actually very cunning and is capable of suddenly capturing its victim from a great distance. It develops a strong taste for the blood and meat of other wild creatures, and tigers eat rabbits, dogs, goats, deer, cows, and, on occasion, even humans.
Tigers are known as the “Lord of the Jungle” because they represent the abundance of wildlife in the nation. The combination of this animal’s agility, immense power, elegance, and strength is one of the main factors in its respect and high regard.
India is said to be the home of nearly half of the world’s tigers. The Indian government established Project Tiger in 1973 to safeguard the continued survival of this majestic animal in the nation and to demolish the miseries tigers face.
There are around eight different tiger races, and the Royal Bengal Tiger, an Indian race, may be found practically everywhere in the nation. A few years after Project Tiger was started, the number of tigers in India began to noticeably increase.
In all, there were roughly 3,750 tigers in the nation as per the 1993 census. A total of 23 tiger reserves totaling 33,406 square kilometers have been established around the nation as part of Project Tiger.
Final Note
Hope this information is quite enough for you to know about the biggest tiger in the world.
Last Updated on by kalidaspandian
