Do you know that tigers are the biggest cats in the world. There are five different kinds or sub-species of tiger alive in the world today. Tigers are called Panthera tigris in latin, Bagh in hindi & Bengali, Kaduva in Malayalam & Pedda Puli in telugu..
Types of Tigers:
Earlier there were 8 kinds of tigers but human killing has left only 5 kinds of them. These are
1. Amur (Siberian) tigers
2. Royal Bengal tigers
3. Indo-chinese tigers
4. South China tigers
5. Sumatran tigers
See the link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-HC2PVUcLk
INDIAN STORIES:
The Story of Goddess Durga
The tiger is vahana(vehicle) of goddess DURGA. Do you know that in Nepal there is no burning of Ravana on Dusshera because it is believed that Goddess Durga, riding a tiger, killed Mahishasura ( a buffalo-headed demon) on the same day. Mahishasura it is said , was so powerful that none of the gods were able to defeat him. Therefore they met together to form Durga with 18 hands, many weapons, riding a tiger. It thus shows that tiger has always been a very important symbol of power & might.
The story of Lord Ayyappan:
Ayyappan was born as a result of alliance between Siva & Vishnu when Vishnu appearded in Mohini Rupa after churning of milky ocean. He is the third son of Siva after Ganesha and Kartikeya. Ayyappan, was found by a childless king & queen on the bank of a river. They brought him home as their own child. But when the queen had a child of her own she became jealous of Ayyappan. The queen pretended that she was very ill & she would be cured by drinking tiger's milk. Ayyappan , who was 12 years old volunteered & went to the forest. He returned riding a tiger followed by all tigers of the forest. The king begged for forgiveness & asked where did Ayyapan want his temple to be built?
Ayyapan fired an arrow & it fell at a place Sabari. Hence, the Sabarimalai temple was built. Both the stories thus show how important the tiger has been to our mythology. The tiger has been an important part of Chinese, Korean, Sumerian , Japanese & European mythologies. It is a pity that the tiger is endangered because of us humans killing it discriminately. Killing a tiger with a sword or a spear has always been considered very courageous.
KOREAN STORIES
The Legend of Dan-gun
In the ancient times, Hwan-In ruled the heaven. He loved his son, Hwan- Ung who was a clever, compassionate & constructive man. One day, Hwan-Ung pleaded with his father to let him go to earth & rule Korea. Hwan -In said yes and sent him along with Pung-Beg (the Earl of Wind), U-Sa (the Chancellor of Rain), and Un-Sa (The Chancellor of Clouds). The ministers were able to control rain, wind, clouds, and all natural elements. Meanwhile a bear and a tiger lived on the earth in a cave near a sandalwood tree & wanted to become human. Hwan-ung told them that to become humans they will have to live in a dark cave for 100 days & eat only garlic and mugwort. The bear lived in the cave, but the tiger was extremely restless and ran away. The bear became a beautiful woman, married Hwan-Ung was made the Queen. Soon she gave birth to a prince, Dan-gun, or the Sandalwood King. Dan-gun reigned as the first human king of the North Korea. Koreans believe that the tiger still roams the mountains. Though the tiger did not become a human, even today people's affection for the tiger is special. The tiger is seen as brave and sacred.
The Mountain Spirit
In ancient times the tiger was a messenger of the mountain spirit, San Shin.
The Matchmakng Mountain Spirit
Once upon a time there lived a rich man Kim, who had a beautiful daughter named Ok-bun. Ok-bun became friend with a poor boy P'al-bong. Both of them were very close friends. As they got older, Ok-bun's father realized that they loved each other & wanted to get married. Kim decided to marry his daughter to Tol-swae, who was also a nobleman. Kim wanted to get her married quickly & arranged for the engagement and set an early wedding date. Both Ok-bun & P'al-bong felt very sad. On the wedding day when the bridegroom entered the bridal chamber, where Ok-bun was waiting for him, a tiger took away Ok-bun.
The tiger dropped Ok-bun at P'al-bong's door. In the meantime, Tol-swae searched to look for Ok-bun. He thought she had surely been killed by the tiger. When everybody found Ok-bun then everyone nodded and said that it was the mountain spirit, San Shin, at his matchmaking again, and that no human should interfere. So a marriage between the two childhood sweethearts was arranged and they lived happily every after.
References
The Tiger Call, Published in March, 1996, WWF-IndiaFolk Tales from Korea, 3rd edition, by Zong In-Sob, 1982, Hollym International Corp: New Jersey Tiger, Burning Bright, Kathleen J. Crane Foundation, 1992, Hollym International Corp: New Jersey
Books to read:
At the Zoo. National Geographic Society, 1992.
Bowden, Joan. A World Without Tigers. Dial Books for Young Readers, 1993. Hewett, Joan. Tiger, Tiger, Growing Up. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1993. Who's Who at the Zoo? DK Publishing, Inc., 1994.
Check this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHr4lZ3Mhm0
WHAT DOES TIGER LIKE?
A tiger is a powerful jumper and can easily leap ten feet (three meters) off the ground. Tigers can run 35 miles per hour! That's really fast. Whether in the wild or in captivity, the tiger loves to sleep!
Tigers always live in forests because they offer places to hide. Tigers do not like big open spaces. Tigers like to hide, because they hunt by sneaking up on their prey. If they didn't have grasses or trees to hide behind they will never get food!
Tigers do eat people-but only in very unusual situations! Sometimes people roam where tigers live. A sick or injured tiger finds it easier to attack a person than to hunt for its usual prey.
People have found ways to protect themselves by wearing masks on the back of their heads. Tigers only attack from behind, so the mask fools them. It seems like the person is always facing them! Another method used to deter tigers is Scarecrows- which gives electric shock so any tiger that touches the dummy gets a mild shock. It helps teach tigers to stop attacking people.
Tigers don't like becoming pets because they are wild. Even captive cubs that have been raised by humans are not domesticated. Trainers in a circus use whips or chairs to scare the tigers into submission.
Want to learn more about tigers? Here it is……
White tigers are not a separate subspecies of tiger, they are not from cold, snowy climates-they come from India. White tigers are a rare form of Bengal tiger. They're regular tigers with whiskers and tails-they just happen to be colored white. White tigers actually range from pure white to white with chocolate brown or black stripes. Many white tigers have blue eyes, but some have amber or even greenish eyes.
White is a very, very unusual color for a wild tiger. Of the thousands of tigers in the wild, only a few are white. There are many white tigers in captivity, though-and almost all of them are descended from a wild white Bengal tiger named Mohan that was captured in India in the 1950s.
Almost all of the captive white tigers in North America today are descended from Mohan and are highly inbred. Some white tigers have also been mated with other tiger subspecies, creating what are called hybrid tigers.
WHY SHOULD WE SAVE TIGER?
Saving the tiger means saving mankind..
Not only is tiger a beautiful animal but it is also the indicator of the forest's health. Saving the tiger means we save the forest since tiger cannot live in places where trees have vanished and in turn secure food and water for all.
If we make sure tigers live, we have to make sure that deer, antelope and all other animals that the tiger eats (its prey base) live. To make sure that these herbivores live, we must make sure that all the trees, grass and other plants that these prey animals need for food are protected. In this way, the whole forest gets saved! Saving the tiger means saving its entire forest kingdom with all the other animals in it.
Also forests catch and help store rainwater and protect soils. In this way we protect our rivers and recharge groundwater sources. Areas with less trees lead to floods, killing people and destroying homes. It takes away the precious soil, leaving behind a wasteland. The soil jams up our lakes and dams, reducing their ability to store water. By destroying the tiger's home, we not only harm tigers, but also ourselves.
The tiger thus becomes the symbol for the protection of all species on our earth since it is at the top of the foodchain. This is why we sometimes call the tiger, an apex predator, an indicator of our ecosystem's health
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