Floating ribs should be carried as a good luck talisman. To prevent a child from having convulsions, remove the small bones from the feet and tie them to the child s wrists. The largest of all the living cats, the tiger is immediately recognizable by its unique reddish orange coat with black stripes. Stripe patterns differ among individuals and are as unique to the animal as are fingerprints to humans. The dark lines above the eyes tend to be symmetrical, but the marks on the sides of the face and body can be different.
Males have a prominent ruff or collar, which is especially pronounced in the Sumatran tiger.
White tigers have been seen in the wild in India, and 1 single white cub taken by the name of Mohan was the progenitor of most white tigers now in captivity. White tigers have brown stripes and crystal blue eyes, and some specimens in captivity have no stripes at all. Black tigers have been reported, but only a single pelt from illegal traders remains the only evidence. Body size of the tiger varies with latitude, the smallest occurring at low latitudes in Indonesia and the largest at high altitudes in Manchuria and Siberia. In captivity, tigers have lived more than 26 years, as compared to 15 in the wild.