The Endangered Bengal Tiger |
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Bengal Tiger Mating and BreedingUnlike some other large predators such as the lion, Bengal Tigers do not enjoy a family environment. They do not have lifetime mates or any other interest in communal living. Once the mating ritual is completed, each goes their own separate way.When a female comes into season and is ready for a mate, she aggressively advertises her condition by scent marks plus loud calls and roars which can carry for miles, all in hopes that a suitable male will notice and find her. Although the female's fertile period is only a week or less, the male stays with her for up to two months or more. Their mating is frequent and frantic, as often as 50 times per day. He does not hang around to witness the birth of their prodigy or help the mother in any way. Once impregnated, the gestation period is 16 weeks more or less. When ready to whelp, the tigress will locate a suitable den in a cave or other out of the way place to give birth to her litter of two to four tiger cubs. She may move the cubs several times to different dens all during the time they are with her. Bengal Tiger cubs are nursed for the first 8 weeks. Nursing is augmented with meat towards the end of this period and up until they are six months old. The mother will continue to provide food until the cubs are about a year old. After that, they are able hunt their own food but stay with mom for another year. During this time, the tigress often accompanies her offspring in a hunt. At about two years of age, young Bengal Tigers venture off to stake out their own territories. It will take them another year or two to reach sexual maturity and become ready to find a mate and reproduce. It is interesting to note and observed in captivity that tigers will mate with lions. The resultant tiger cubs are classified as ligers when the male of the union is a lion or tigons when the male is a tiger. These animals are mostly sterile and are unable to reproduce. |
