We’ve all watched NBA players seemingly defy gravity with enormous leaps but they have nothing on this tiger leaping to catch their meal. Shot in a safari park, this short slow-mo footage captures a tiger with all four paws around four or five feet off the ground. Using their front limbs, they grab the meat and land both safely and gracefully!
Tigers and Their Power
Tigers are one of the largest and most powerful of the big cats. They can grow up to 660 pounds and run at up to 60 mph. Their natural habitats are in Asia and Eurasia and they prefer dense tropical forests but they are found in captivity all over the world.
Every tiger has an individual pattern of stripes but they all have a heavy coat, a long tail (which can be up to three feet), and sharp claws which can be four inches long. They also have very sharp teeth! Tigers are very competent swimmers and have webbed feet – they are happy to take to the water in search of a meal.
In the wild, they usually live on their own and keep themselves to themselves but they can become aggressive if their territory is threatened by other tigers or other animals.
©iStock.com/ANDREYGUDKOV
Tiger Diet
We see that this tiger is being fed what looks like a slab of raw meat. Tigers are carnivores and need meat to survive. So, being able to catch large mammals is a necessary skill for them. An adult tiger would be perfectly capable of catching both deer and antelope and will also hunt buffalo and wild boar. However, they will also eat monkeys and sloth bears and have been known to catch leopards and even crocodiles!
So, how does this magnificent animal go about catching their prey? As we see in this clip, despite their huge size tigers are surprisingly athletic. They usually start by stalking the prey and then using their explosive speed and power to catch and take it down. This uses up quite a lot of energy but tigers do not have to eat that often – they can get by with hunting just once a week. But this means that when they do eat, they need huge meals! A tiger can consume 75 pounds of meat in one sitting. They have also been seen catching a large animal and eating just some of it before covering it and coming back later to finish it off!
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