Tigers are one of the strongest, powerful, and most feared animal in the wild. Their beautiful orange and black striped coats provide camouflage when hunting prey. Here are 10 facts about tigers that might surprise you!

1: Tigers are the largest wild cats in the world.

Surprisingly, when tigers are born they weigh as little as 1.6 kilograms. When they become adults they can weigh up to 363 kilograms, and their average length is 3 meters!

2: Tigers are carnivores!!! 

This means they only eat meat. Some of their favorite animals to hunt are deer, pigs, antelopes, buffalo, and cows!

3: Tigers know how to swim!

Unlike most members of the cat family, tigers are actually good swimmers, and they can swim for hours up to 30 km. They enjoy the water especially to cool off during warmer days.

4: Tigers are mainly nocturnal animals.

This means that tigers prefer engaging in most of their hunting activities at night. Especially with their amazing night vision!

Obviously this still won’t stop them from passing up the chance for a daytime snack when it’s available.

5: The famous Tiger Stripes are unique!

A tigers stripes are like a human fingerprint, each one is different and no two tigers will ever have the exact same stripes. Fun Fact: the Tiger stripes don’t just appear on their fur, they even have stripes on their skin!

6: There are 5 various tiger subspecies.

These subspecies are the Bengal tiger, South China tiger, Indochinese tiger, Sumatran tiger and Siberian tiger.

7: Tiger cubs are born blind!

They open their eyes only 1-2 weeks after birth.

8: Tigers can mate with Lions!

These rare hybrids are known as tigons and ligers.

9: Animal prints have been a huge fashion trend for quite a while now, including Tiger print!

(No fur involved)

10: Anyone who has Netflix has heard of the Tiger King!

This is a crime documentary miniseries about the life of  Tiger zookeeper Joe Exotic and his very very weird colleagues.