Before Tiger reached him, Mousedeer chewed a betel leaf, making a blood-red juice. Any tiger that crosses my path ends up as lunch. Sure enough, when Tiger looked in the well, he saw a tiger's face looking up at him. Frightened by his own reflection, he ran away. This tale from Singapore is especially comical because tigers have such a reputation for fierceness and bravery.
Tigers are the biggest cats in the world.
They live in diverse habitats from the cold woodlands of Siberia to the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia. But the fearsome tiger is in danger of extinction. All over Asia, forests have been cleared for timber, agriculture, and human settlements, leaving little wild habitat for tigers and their prey. Tigers, the mighty hunters, have become the hunted. Today, that number is less than 5,000.