Ecological Niche

The tiger sleeps on rocks, in grass, within their wild habitat, or anyplace that is convenient when they feel they need to rest. Tigers are cautious to not use too much energy — they frequently choose the most convenient spots so they will have the most energy. Most tigers are nocturnal, which limits their interaction with other species. For example, they usually interact little with Asiatic wild dogs, brown bears, and wolves. Tigers do not hibernate or migrate — logically, they live in places that are warm all year- round (tropical environments), so this isn’t necessary.

Male tigers don’t have any specific way of attracting mates. Tigers aren’t very social animals, with only frequent interaction occurring between a tiger mom and a tiger child. When male and female tigers meet they go around in a circle growling, in an effort to build trust. Once that trust is built, they perform what ever sexual act they desire. Tigers mate in tropical climates, usually from November to April — or during the winter months in temperature regions. Tigers have a gestation period of 103 days. In tigers, typically 3-4 offspring are born during one pregnancy.

The female parents are essentially the parents of the tiger offspring. The male parents have little role to play in the birth of the offspring or raising the offspring. Tiger offspring are completely reliant on their mom’s, and in return their mom’s try not to let them out of their sight. In order to give protection to their offspring, the mothers’ construct a den away from predators and harsh weather.

Tigers become able to fend for themselves at around 18 months of age, and leave their mom’s when they are around 2 and a half years old.

Tigers are carnivores and they are predators. They eat things from the size of termites, all the way to the size of elephant calves. However, they mainly eat large-bodies prey that are around 45 pounds or larger. Predators of the tiger include organisms such as: moose, deer species, pigs, cows, horses, buffaloes, and goats. Tigers eat around 88 pounds of meat at one time. They eat around 50 deer-sized animals each year, or approximately one per week. Tigers are ambush hunters, which means that they wait for carnivorous animals so that they can trap and capture them — they do this as opposed to a faster approach to killing.

One example of a symbiotic relationship that tigers have is with golden jackals. This is an example of Commensalism. The tiger, being a predatory species, kills other organisms, and golden jackals eat the remains of what the tiger killed. There is also another example of a symbiotic relationship with the Sumatran tiger — this is an example of Mutualism between the Sumatran tiger and coliform bacteria. The bacteria gets its energy from “Fermenting lactose inside the tiger, so the bacteria benefits. The bacteria contains an enzyme that helps break down sugars in the tiger’s food and gives the food more nutritional value, so the tiger benefits from that,” says The Beautiful Bengal Tiger.

Tigers belong to the 4th Trophic Level: Secondary Carnivores(Third Level Consumers). This means that tigers eat herbivores and carnivores. So, essentially, tigers gain energy by eating these animals, and provide energy for their habitat by having certain symbiotic relationships like the one’s described above. Tigers are at the top of the food chain, which means that they have no natural predators. Tigers kill other animals but aren’t subjected to constant attacks by other organisms, as would be the case if they were lower down in the food chain.