Two or three cubs are normally born, and sometimes more, inside a den made from thick vegetation, a cave, or a rocky crevice. They nurse for three to six months, although they may begin eating meat as early as two month old and can hunt by about one year of age. Cubs will stay with their mother for about two years. Territory Male tigers have a large territory, the size of which varies depending on how much vegetation, water, and prey are available. In Russia, territories may be as large as 385 square miles, while a male tiger in the Indian subcontinent may occupy 40 square miles or less.
Females have smaller, mutually exclusive ranges contained within a male's range.
All tigers mark their territories with urine, feces, and scratching on tree trunks. Tigers are believed to have evolved over 1 million years ago in what is now South China. From there the tiger eventually spread north to the Amur region of far eastern Russia, south to the islands of Indonesia, and southwest to Indochina and the Indian subcontinent, eastern Turkey, and the Caspian Sea. Wherever tigers lived, they commanded deep respect and awe from their human neighbors. This century has already seen major losses of wild tigers.