Facts: Tigers on the Strip
One of the tigers who lives on Karl Mitchell's land at Big Cat Encounters. It costs approximately $10,000 a year to keep a single tiger in captivity. (View larger version)
- Since 2000, there have been over 100 privately owned big cats that have escaped or been found released from their enclosures in the USA.
- Tigers can mate throughout the year, it is most common between November and April.
- A tiger is the largest living cat.
- Tigers are naturally found in the wild in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Russia.
- A wild tiger can eat 60 pounds of meat in one night.
- Tigers and lions are becoming endangered due to lack of territory and poaching.
- Tigers can climb trees.
- There are six recognized subspecies of tiger, although one of them, the South China Tiger, hasn't been observed in the wild for over 30 years.
- According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, there are nine subspecies of leopards.
- Brown bears and polar bears have been known to mate in the wild creating natural hybrid bears. The two species are closely related.
- Grizzly bear claws can grow up to 4 inches long while black bear claws will grow to about 2 inches.
- A group of bears is sometimes called a sloth of bears.
