Tigers vary in length from three to five meters. Color varies from bluish or greenish gray to black above and from light gray to dirty yellow or white bellow. Juveniles and specimens up to 1.5-1.8 m have a mottled appearance with their dorsal fins covered by dark spots on a light background. A race from the southeastern Caribbean has been described as shiny black above and a flawless white on the belly. The snout is short and bluntly rounded.
Teeth are the same in both upper and lower jaws, deeply notched and very serrate.
One of the few species of shark that is a true scavenger. It consumes a wide range of marine prey including fish, crustaceans and cephalopods, as well as birds, mammals, reptiles, turtles, and sea snakes. It also has been known to consume indigestable objects. One Tiger was found with a 13.5 lb tom-tom drum in its stomach. Other strange items found in the stomachs of these massive creatures include beer bottles, bags of potatoes, coal, dogs, overcoats, a driver's license, a cow's hoof, the antlers of a deer, undigested lobsters, and a chicken coop with feathers and bones still inside.