tiger

Check out the unique bond between this bear, lion and tiger (i.e. BLT) at Noah's Ark Animal Sanctuary in Locust Grove, Ga: Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
"Are we to paint what's on the face, what's inside the face, or what's behind it?" -Pablo Picasso As an animal lover, like others here on scienceblogs, as well as a big fan of Halloween costumes, it's probably unsurprising that a good, creative animal costume will crack me up. Three more turtle dogs and a giant rat will complete the set! Turn your sweet, harmless puppy into the fearsome guardian of Hades by adding two extra heads! Sometimes, you just need to play to your strengths. In this case, it's ridiculous cuteness. Dressing animals like other animals is practically its own artform…
Zeff the Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
Rokan the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), photographed at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.
I'm back. After a two month hiatus from posting due to the grand opening of Bullitt, my second bar in San Francisco, I have finally adjusted my schedule to accommodate posting, and I'm pumped. First on my list: I have been looking for years for the best endangered species group to put my support behind. I think I've found it, WildAid. Do you know about them? If you live in Asia, then you have. If you live in the states, then maybe not. WildAid is, in my mind, the most badass endangered species preservation group in the world today. Started by wildlife investigators who were fed up with…
Believe it or not, tigers are not the largest big cat. Ligers are (you might remember ligers from Napoleon Dynamite). Why? It has to do with the weirdness that occurs when you hybridize across two lineages which have been distinctive for millions of years, but not so long so as not to be able to produce viable offspring (in fact, many ligers are fertile as well). Here's the explanation: Imprinted genes are under greater selective pressure than normal genes. This is because only one copy is active at a time. Any variations in that copy will be expressed. There is no "back-up copy" to mask its…
Tigers can no more change their stripes than leopards can change their spots. That's a good thing too, for their unchanging patterns, as individually distinct as a human fingerprint, make it easier to track any single tiger over time. That process is about to become even simpler with a computer programme that creates a three-dimensional model of a tiger's skin and can compare different shots of an animal taken at different times or angles. The programme is the brainchild of Lex Hilby from an organisation called Conservation Research and it could allow conservationists to track surviving…
Zooillogix welcomes you back to our favorite ill-conceived, questionably licensed, death-circus: Tiger Splash Park! Any Arizona state legislators amongst our readers? If so, you might want to put this place to sleep... Thanks to dedicated reader Judy for making this vid and sending us the link.
Out of Africa Wildlife Park was founded in 1988 by a husband and wife team in Arizona. In their words... "It was a preserve born from their single-minded objective of bringing God, people, and animals together in a natural setting." In our words... oh Jesus... this place is a disaster waiting to happen. In particular, we would like to introduce you to the comedically-dangerous "Tiger Splash Park," where you'll discover how tigers "instincts, intellect and feelings interact to form spontaneous, natural behavior." If that description isn't foreshadowing for the inevitable human mauling, I don't…
One person has been killed and two others injured after a tiger escaped from its cage at San Francisco Zoo. All of the victims were visitors to the zoo, a spokesman for San Francisco emergency services said. The Siberian tiger, named Tatiana, was the same one that mauled a keeper just before Christmas last year. It has now been shot dead. The incident occurred as the zoo was closing around 1700 (0100 GMT). It is not clear how the cat escaped its pen. [source]
That headline was so bad I made myself a little sick. Anyway, as reported by WCBS in New York, Simba the tiger cub was thought to have a tumor or brain infection and was scheduled for routine euthanization. Ok so there is nothing routine about euthanizing a rare Siberian tiger cub, but apparently young Simba had lost her sense of balance and the Ohio zoo was unable to provide further care. On a side note, it seems a little sketchy that the actual zoo Simba came from is not specified. Just when things were looking pretty grim for Simba, enter animal enthusiast/exotic animal wrangler/rich guy…
It's a whole new week, so I'm moving away from the artiodactyl theme (for now, at least) and the PotD will probably take on a more random aspect for a while. Today's photo is of the tiger cubs Terney (center, with tire), Changbai (left), and Koosaka (right), born at the Philadelphia Zoo a few months ago. They are Amur (or Siberian) tigers, Panthera tigris altaica, the largest of the extant tigers and also critically endangered. While the zoo notes that they contribute to tiger conservation initiatives like the Tiger Conservation Fund, it seems that these cubs will remain in captivity and…
Registered as an official cat breed by the International Cat Association since 1993, toygers will be fully recognized as a purebreed this May, 2007. Toygers display many of the same characteristics as their distant cousins, Bengal tigers, including the trademark black stripes, rusty fur and in some cases even webbed toes! Fortunately, however, they do not display attributes of their cousins' personalities; (They are known for their playfulness, intelligence and obedience, NOT for latching on to the jugular of their trainers). Breeders consider the toyger a "work in progress" and vow to…