Lithe and massively muscled, they are a natural wonder, a faultless embodiment of power and beauty. Females are slightly smaller and lighter. Tigers use their powerful forelimbs and strong claws to wrestle prey to the ground. Canine teeth as long as a human thumb deliver the killing bite. Heedless of slashing hooves and antlers, it must go for the killing bite, ignoring the danger.
Injury can be the ultimate penalty.
A wounded tiger will starve if it can't hunt. A tiger usually makes a large kill every eight days or so, then feeds on the carcass until all the meat is gone. Their distribution spanned Asia, stretching from Siberia in the north to Bali near the equator. The big cats even roamed eastern Europe, hunting red deer in the forests of Azerbaijan and Georgia, and wild boar in the reedbeds of the Caspian sea. Today the Caspian tiger is extinct, as are the island subspecies of Bali and Java.