The Sumatran Tiger: An Endangered Species

1. The main threat to these beautiful creatures is illegal hunting (poaching) and trade of the meat, pelts and also body parts.
2. Another big problem is the loss of the tiger's habitat due to the clearing of the land they live on for plantations, settlements, logging and farming reasons. In fact, between the years of 1985 and 1997, almost 16.6 acres of forest were lost on the Sumatra island.

Even though these tigers have full protection in Indonesia, pelts and body parts of these tigers are still found to be traded openly in Sumatra.

• There are only 400-500 Sumatran tigers left in the wild. The Bali tiger and the Javan tiger are both extinct subspecies of tigers that used to inhabit other islands of Indonesia.

Sumatran Tigers weigh from 165-308 pounds, the females being smaller than the males.

• They have webbing between their feet, and like other tigers, Sumatran tigers very good at swimming and tend to catch fish and other creatures that inhabit the water.
• They have dark stripes all across their bodies, with orange underneath. They usually tend to have more stripes then other species of tigers, helping them blend in.
• Sumatran tigers are the smallest subspecies of tigers in the world.
• Like some of the other species of tigers, the Sumatran tiger has white spots on the back of it's ears, giving the illusion that it has eyes on it's ears.
• Each tiger has their own stripe pattern on their fur, so you can tell the different tigers apart.

• They usually hunt larger mammals such as wild boar, cattle, goats, and deer. But they have also been know to hunt smaller creatures such as fish, crocodiles and birds.
• These tigers usually consume up to forty pounds of meat at one time, and then don't eat for the next few days, unlike Sumatran tigers that are in captivity.
• Their life span is ranging from 15 to 20 years in the wild.

"The island of Sumatra is the only place where tigers, rhinos, orangutans and elephants live together. The presence of the Sumatran tiger is an important indicator of a forest's biodiversity. Protecting tigers and their habitat means many other species benefit—including humans."

-WWF-