document_title: Tiger

question_text: when did the first tiger appeared on earth

question_tokens: when did the first tiger appeared on earth

text: Tiger

text: Etymology

text: The word Panthera is probably of Oriental origin and retraceable to the Ancient Greek word panther, the Latin word panthera, the Old French word pantère, most likely meaning "the yellowish animal", or from pandarah meaning whitish-yellow. The derivation from Greek pan- ("all") and ther ("beast") may be folk etymology.[7]

text: The word specific name tigris derives from the Classical Greek language τίγρις meaning "tiger" as well as the river Tigris.[8]

text: The Middle English tigre and the Old English tigras (a plural word) were both used for the animal.[9] These derive from the Old French tigre, itself a derivative of the Latin word tigris. The original source may have been the Persian tigra meaning pointed or sharp and the Avestan tigrhi meaning an arrow, perhaps referring to the speed with which a tiger launches itself at its prey.[10]

text: Taxonomy

text: In 1758, Carl Linnaeus described the tiger in his work Systema Naturae and gave it the scientific name Felis tigris.[3] In 1929, the British taxonomist Reginald Innes Pocock subordinated the species under the genus Panthera using the scientific name Panthera tigris.[11][12]

text: Recent subspecies

text: Following Linnaeus's first descriptions of the species, several tiger specimens were described and proposed as subspecies.[13] The validity of several tiger subspecies was questioned in 1999. Most putative subspecies described in the 19th and 20th centuries were distinguished on basis of fur length and coloration, striping patterns and body size, hence characteristics that vary widely within populations. Morphologically, tigers from different regions vary little, and gene flow between populations in those regions is considered to have been possible during the Pleistocene. Therefore, it was proposed to recognize only two tiger subspecies as valid, namely P. t. tigris in mainland Asia, and P. t. sondaica in the Greater Sunda Islands and possibly in Sundaland.[14]

text: Results of craniological analysis of 111 tiger skulls from Southeast Asian range countries indicate that Sumatran tiger skulls differ from Indochinese and Javan tiger skulls, whereas Bali tiger skulls are similar in size to Javan tiger skulls. The authors proposed to classify Sumatran and Javan tiger as distinct species, P. sumatrae and P. sondaica with Bali tiger as subspecies P. sondaica balica.[15]

text: In 2015, morphological, ecological and molecular traits of all putative tiger subspecies were analysed in a combined approach. Results support distinction of the two evolutionary groups continental and Sunda tigers. The authors proposed recognition of only two subspecies, namely P. t. tigris comprising the Bengal, Malayan, Indochinese, South Chinese, Siberian and Caspian tiger populations, and P. t. sondaica comprising the Javan, Bali and Sumatran tiger populations. The authors also noted that this reclassification will affect tiger conservation management.[16] One conservation specialist welcomed this proposal as it would make captive breeding programmes and future rewilding of zoo-born tigers easier. One geneticist was sceptical of this study and maintained that the currently recognised nine subspecies can be distinguished genetically.[17]

text: In 2017, the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group revised felid taxonomy and now recognizes the tiger populations in continental Asia as P. t. tigris, and those in the Sunda Islands as P. t. sondaica.[18]

text: The following table is based on the classification of the species Panthera tigris provided in Mammal Species of the World.[13] It also reflects the classification used by the Cat Classification Task Force:

text:
Non-insular Asia

Subspecies
Description
Image

Bengal tiger (P. t. tigris) (Linnaeus, 1758)[18][13]
The Bengal tiger's coat colour varies from light yellow to reddish yellow with black stripes.[19] Males attain a total nose-to-tail length of 270 to 310 cm (110 to 120 in) and weigh between 180 to 258 kg (397 to 569 lb), while females range from 240 to 265 cm (94 to 104 in) and 100 to 160 kg (220 to 350 lb).[20][21] In northern India and Nepal, the average is larger; males weigh up to 235 kilograms (518 lb), while females average 140 kilograms (310 lb).[22] Recorded body weights of wild individuals indicate that it is the heaviest subspecies.[23]
This population occurs in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, foremost in alluvial grasslands, subtropical and tropical rainforests, scrub forests, wet and dry deciduous forests and mangrove habitats. It is extinct in Pakistan.[1] In 2014, the population in India was estimated at 2,226 mature individuals,[24] 163–253 in Nepal and 103 in Bhutan.[25]

Caspian tiger (P. t. tigris),[18] formerly P. t. virgata (Illiger, 1815)[13]
The Caspian tiger was described as having narrow and closely set stripes.[26] The size of its skull did not differ significantly from that of the Bengal tiger.[14] According to genetic analysis, it was closely related to the Siberian tiger.[27]
The population inhabited forests and riverine corridors south and east of the Black and Caspian Seas, from Eastern Anatolia into Central Asia, along the coast of the Aral Sea and the southern shore of Lake Balkhash to the Altai Mountains.[26] It had been recorded in the wild until the early 1970s and is considered extinct since the late 20th century.[28]

Siberian tiger (P. t. tigris),[18] formerly P. t. altaica (Temminck, 1844).[13] Also known as the Amur tiger.
The Siberian tiger has a thick coat with pale hues and few dark brown stripes.[26] Males have a head and body length of between 190 and 230 cm (75 and 91 in) and weigh between 180 and 306 kg (397 and 675 lb), while females average 160 to 180 cm (63 to 71 in) and 100 to 167 kg (220 to 368 lb). Tail length is about 60–110 cm (24–43 in).[20]
This population inhabits the Amur-Ussuri region of Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk Krai in far eastern Siberia, with a small population in Hunchun National Siberian Tiger Nature Reserve in northeastern China near the border to North Korea.[29][30] It is extinct in Mongolia, North Korea, and South Korea.[1] In 2005, there were 331–393 adult and subadult Siberian tigers in the region, with a breeding adult population of about 250 individuals.[31] As of 2015, there was an estimated population of 480-540 individuals in the Russian Far East.[32]

Indochinese tiger (P. t. tigris),[18] formerly P. t. corbetti Mazák, 1968[13]
The Indochinese tiger was described as being smaller than the Bengal tiger and as having a smaller skull. Males average 108 inches (270 cm) in total length and weigh between 150 and 195 kg (331 and 430 lb), while females average 96 inches (240 cm) and 100–130 kg (220–290 lb).[20]
This population occurs in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, but has not been recorded in Vietnam since 1997. In 2010, the population in Indochina was estimated at about 350 individuals. In Southeast Asia, tiger populations have declined in key areas and are threatened by illegal production of tiger bone for use in traditional medicine.[1]

Malayan tiger (P. t. tigris),[18] formerly P. t. jacksoni Luo et al., 2004
There is no clear difference between the Malayan and the Indochinese tiger in pelage or skull size.[33] It was proposed as a distinct subspecies on the basis of mtDNA and micro-satellite sequences that differs from the Indochinese tiger.[34]
Males range in total length from 190–280 cm (75–110 in) and weigh between 47.2 to 129.1 kg (104 to 285 lb), while females range from 180–260 cm (71–102 in) and 24 to 88 kg (53 to 194 lb).[35]
The population was roughly estimated at 250 to 340 adult individuals in 2013, and likely comprised less than 200 mature breeding individuals at the time.[36] The geographic division between Malayan and Indochinese tigers is unclear as tiger populations in northern Malaysia are contiguous with those in southern Thailand.[1] In Singapore the last tiger was shot in 1932; tigers are considered extirpated since the 1950s.[35]

South China tiger (P. t. tigris),[18] formerly P. t. amoyensis (Hilzheimer, 1905)[13]
The South China tiger is considered to be the most ancient of the tiger subspecies and is distinguished by a particularly narrow skull, long-muzzled nose, rhombus-like stripes and vivid orange colour. Males range in total length from 230–260 cm (91–102 in) and weigh between 130 to 180 kg (290 to 400 lb), while females range from 220–240 cm (87–94 in) and 100 to 110 kg (220 to 240 lb).[20]
The population is extinct in the wild.[1] Despite unconfirmed reports and some evidence of footprints, there has been no confirmed sighting in China since the early 1970s.[37] As of 2007, the captive population consisted of 73 individuals, which derived from six wild founders.[38]

text:
Sunda Islands

Subspecies
Description
Image

Javan tiger (P. t. sondaica) (Temminck, 1844)[18][13]
The Javan tiger was small compared to tigers of the Asian mainland.[20] Males weighed 100–141 kg (220–311 lb) and females 75–115 kg (165–254 lb).[33]
This population was limited to the Indonesian island of Java, and had been recorded until the mid-1970s.[39] After 1979, no more sightings were confirmed in the region of Mount Betiri.[40] An expedition to Mount Halimun Salak National Park in 1990 did not yield any definite, direct evidence for the continued existence of tigers.[41]

Bali tiger (P. t. sondaica),[18] formerly P. t. balica (Schwarz, 1912)[13]
The Bali tiger was the smallest tiger and limited to the Indonesian island of Bali. It had a weight of 90–100 kg (200–220 lb) in males and 65–80 kg (143–176 lb) in females.[42] A typical feature of Bali tiger skulls is the narrow occipital plane, which is analogous with the shape of skulls of Javan tigers.[43]
In Bali, tigers were hunted to extinction; the last Bali tiger, an adult female, is thought to have been killed at Sumbar Kima, West Bali, on 27 September 1937, though there were unconfirmed reports that villagers found a tiger corpse in 1963.[44]

Sumatran tiger (P. t. sondaica),[18] formerly P. t. sumatrae Pocock, 1929[13]
It is the smallest of all living tigers. Males range in total length from 220 to 255 cm (87 to 100 in) and weigh between 100 to 140 kg (220 to 310 lb), while females range between 215 to 230 cm (85 to 91 in) and 75 to 110 kg (165 to 243 lb).[20] The reasons for its small size compared to mainland tigers are unclear, but probably the result of competition for limited and small prey.[14] The population is thought to be of Asia mainland origin and to have been isolated about 6,000 to 12,000 years ago after a rise in sea-level created the Indonesian island of Sumatra.[33][45]
The population is the last surviving of the three Indonesian island tiger populations. It is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. By 2008, the wild population was estimated at between 441 and 679 in 10 protected areas covering about 52,000 km2 (20,000 sq mi).[46]

text: Evolution and genetics

text: The tiger's closest living relatives were previously thought to be the Panthera species lion, leopard and jaguar. Results of genetic analysis indicate that about 2.88 million years ago, the tiger and the snow leopard diverged from the other Panthera species, and that both may be more closely related to each other than to the lion, leopard and jaguar.[47][48] Results of a phylogeographic study indicate that all living tigers had a common ancestor 72,000–108,000 years ago.[34]

text: Fossil remains of the Longdan tiger were found in the Gansu province of northwestern China. This species lived at the beginning of the Pleistocene, about 2 million years ago, and is considered to be a sister taxon of the modern tiger. It was about the size of a jaguar and probably had a different coat pattern. Despite being considered more "primitive", the Longdan tiger was functionally and possibly ecologically similar to the modern tiger. As it lived in northwestern China, that may have been where the tiger lineage originated. Tigers grew in size, possibly in response to adaptive radiations of prey species like deer and bovids, which may have occurred in Southeast Asia during the early Pleistocene.[49]

text: The earliest fossils of true tigers are between 1.6 and 1.8 million years old and were found in Java. Distinct fossils are known from the early and middle Pleistocene deposits in China and Sumatra. The Trinil tiger (Panthera tigris trinilensis) lived about 1.2 million years ago and is known from fossils found at Trinil in Java.[citation needed] The Wanhsien, Ngandong, Trinil and Japanese tigers became extinct in prehistoric times.[50]

text: Tigers first reached India and northern Asia in the late Pleistocene, reaching eastern Beringia, Japan, and Sakhalin. Some fossil skulls are morphologically distinct from lion skulls, which could indicate tiger presence in Alaska during the last glacial period, about 100,000 years ago.[51] Fossils found in Japan indicate the local tigers were smaller than the mainland forms, possibly due to insular dwarfism. Until the Holocene, tigers also lived in Borneo and on the Palawan island in the Philippines.[52]

text: The tiger's full genome sequence was published in 2013. It was found to have similar repeat composition than other cat genomes and an appreciably conserved synteny.[53]

text: Hybrids

text: Lions have been known to breed with tigers (most often the Amur and Bengal tigers) to create hybrids called ligers and tigons. Such hybrids were once commonly bred in zoos, but this is now discouraged due to the emphasis on conservation. Hybrids are still bred in private menageries and in zoos in China.[citation needed]

text: The liger is a cross between a male lion and a tigress.[54] Because the lion sire passes on a growth-promoting gene, but the corresponding growth-inhibiting gene from the female tiger is absent, ligers grow far larger than either parent species. They share physical and behavioural qualities of both parent species (spots and stripes on a sandy background). Male ligers are sterile, but female ligers are often fertile. Males have about a 50% chance of having a mane, but, even if they do, their manes will be only around half the size of that of a pure lion. Ligers are typically between 10 and 12 ft (3.0 and 3.7 m) in length, and can weigh between 800 and 1,000 lb (360 and 450 kg) or more.[54]

text: The less common tigon is a cross between a lioness and a male tiger.[55] Because the male tiger does not pass on a growth-promoting gene and the lioness passes on a growth inhibiting gene, tigons are often relatively small, only weighing up to 150 kg (330 lb). Like ligers, they have physical and behavioural traits from both parental species, and males are sterile. Females are sometimes fertile and have occasionally given birth to litigons when mated to a male Asiatic lion.[56]

text: Characteristics

text: The tiger has a muscular body with powerful forelimbs, a large head and a tail that is about half the length of its body. Its pelage is dense and heavy, and colouration varies between shades of orange and brown with white ventral areas and distinctive vertical black stripes that are unique in each individual.[57][20] Stripes are likely advantageous for camouflage in vegetation such as long grass with strong vertical patterns of light and shade.[58][59] The tiger is one of only a few striped cat species; it is not known why spotted patterns and rosettes are the more common camouflage pattern among felids.[60] A tiger's coat pattern is still visible when it is shaved. This is due not to skin pigmentation, but to the stubble and hair follicles embedded in the skin, similar to human beards (colloquially five o'clock shadow), and is in common with other big cats.[61] They have a mane-like heavy growth of fur around the neck and jaws and long whiskers, especially in males. The pupils are circular with yellow irises. The small, rounded ears have a prominent white spot on the back, surrounded by black.[20] These false "eyespots", called ocelli, apparently play an important role in intraspecies communication.[62]

text: The skull is similar to that of the lion, though the frontal region is usually not as depressed or flattened, with a slightly longer postorbital region. The skull of a lion has broader nasal openings. However, due to variation in skulls of the two species, the structure of the lower jaw is a more reliable indicator of the species.[26] The tiger also has fairly stout teeth; the somewhat curved canines are the longest among living felids with a crown height of up to 90 mm (3.5 in).[20]

text: Size

text: Tigers are the most variable in size of all big cat species.[19] There is a notable sexual dimorphism between males and females, latter being consistently smaller than males. The size difference between males and females is proportionally greater in the large tiger subspecies, with males weighing up to 1.7 times more than females. Males also have wider forepaw pads than females, enabling gender to be told from tracks.[63] Males vary in total length from 250 to 390 cm (98 to 154 in) and weigh between 90 to 306 kg (198 to 675 lb) with skull length ranging from 316 to 383 mm (12.4 to 15.1 in). Females vary in total length from 200 to 275 cm (79 to 108 in), weigh 65 to 167 kg (143 to 368 lb) with skull length ranging from 268 to 318 mm (10.6 to 12.5 in).[64] The heaviest wild tiger ever reported had a total body length of 3.38 m (11.1 ft) over curves.[65] In either sex, the tail represents about 0.6 to 1.1 m (24 to 43 in) of total length.[20] Large male Siberian tigers reach a total length of more than 3.5 m (11.5 ft) over curves and 3.3 m (10.8 ft) between pegs, with a weight of up to 306 kg (675 lb). This is considerably larger than the weight of 75 to 140 kg (165 to 309 lb) reached by the Sumatran tiger. At the shoulder, tigers may variously stand 0.7 to 1.22 m (2.3 to 4.0 ft) tall.[42] The heaviest tiger on record was a Bengal tiger shot in 1967 allegedly weighing 388.7 kg (857 lb); unverified is whether this individual had a full or empty stomach.[66] It has been hypothesised that body size of different tiger populations may be correlated with climate and be explained by thermoregulation and Bergmann's rule, or by distribution and size of available prey species.[20][67]

text: The Bengal and Siberian tigers are amongst the tallest cats in shoulder height.[68][65] They are also ranked with the Caspian tiger among the biggest cats that ever existed.[20] However, a wild adult male Siberian tiger at 176.4 kilograms (389 lb) body weight is outweighed by an adult, male Bengal tiger at 196 kilograms (432 lb).[23][69]

text: To compare, the weight of a male Southern African lion has been indicated as 187.5 to 193.3 kg (413 to 426 lb).[70]

text: Colour variations

text: A well-known allele found only in the Bengal population produces the white tiger, a colour variant first recorded in the early 19th century and found in an estimated one in 10,000 natural births. Genetically, whiteness is recessive: a cub is white only when both parents carry the allele for whiteness.[71] It is not albinism, pigment being evident in the white tiger's stripes and in their blue eyes.[58] The causative mutation changes a single amino acid in the transporter protein SLC45A2.[72]

text: White tigers are more frequently bred in captivity, where the comparatively small gene pool can lead to inbreeding. This has given white tigers a greater likelihood of being born with physical defects, such as cleft palate, scoliosis (curvature of the spine), and strabismus (squint).[71] Even apparently healthy white tigers generally do not live as long as their orange counterparts. Attempts have been made to cross white and orange tigers to remedy this, often mixing with other subspecies in the process.[73]

text: Another recessive gene creates the "golden" or "golden tabby" colour variation, sometimes known as "strawberry". Golden tigers have thicker than usual light-gold fur, pale legs, and faint orange stripes. Few golden tigers are kept in captivity; they are invariably at least part Bengal. Some golden tigers carry the white tiger gene,[74] and when two such tigers are mated, they can produce some stripeless white offspring. Although a "pseudo-melanistic" effect—wide stripes that partially obscure the orange background—has been seen in some pelts, no true black tigers have been authenticated, with the possible exception of one dead specimen examined in Chittagong in 1846. These wholly or partially melanistic tigers, if they exist, are assumed to be intermittent mutations rather than a distinct species.[75][76] There are further unconfirmed reports of a "blue" or slate-coloured variant, the Maltese tiger. However, while some felids do exhibit this colouration as a solid coat, there is no known genetic configuration that would result in black stripes on a blue-gray background.[75]

text: Distribution and habitat

text: At the end of the last glacial period about 20,000 years ago, the tiger was widespread from Eastern Anatolia Region and Mesopotamia, in Central Asia to eastern Siberia and South and Southeast Asia to the Indonesian islands of Java, Bali and Sumatra.[66] Today, tigers are regionally extinct in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Pakistan and Singapore.[1]

text: Fossil remains indicate that tigers were also present in Beringia in the north, Japan to the east, and Borneo and Palawan in the Philippines in the south, during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene.[66][51][50][77][78][79][80]

text: During the 20th century, tigers became extinct in Western and Central Asia, and were restricted to isolated pockets in the remaining parts of their range. They were extirpated on the island of Bali in the 1940s, around the Caspian Sea in the 1970s, and on Java in the 1980s. This was the result of habitat loss and the ongoing killing of tigers and tiger prey. Today, their significantly fragmented and depopulated range extends eastward from India to Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, North Korea and Russia. The northern limit of their range is close to the Amur River in southeastern Siberia. The only large island they still inhabit is Sumatra.[1] Since the beginning of the 20th century, tigers' historical range has shrunk by 93%. In the decade from 1997 to 2007, the estimated area known to be occupied by tigers has declined by 41%.[2][81]

text: The tiger occupies a wide range of habitat types, but will usually require sufficient cover, proximity to water, and an abundance of prey. It prefers dense vegetation, for which its camouflage colouring is ideally suited, and where a single predator is not at a disadvantage compared with the multiple cats in a pride.[58] A further habitat requirement is the placement of suitably secluded den locations, which may consist of caves, large hollow trees, or dense vegetation.[82] The Bengal tiger in particular lives in many types of forests, including wet, evergreen, and the semi-evergreen forests of Assam and eastern Bengal, swampy mangrove forests of the Ganges Delta, deciduous forest in the Terai, and thorn forests in the Western Ghats. In various parts of its range it inhabits or had inhabited additionally partially open grassland and savanna as well as taiga forests and rocky habitats.[citation needed]

text: Biology and behaviour

text: Social and daily activities

text: Adult tigers lead largely solitary lives. They establish and maintain territories but have much wider home ranges within which they roam. Resident adults of either sex generally confine their movements to their home ranges, within which they satisfy their needs and those of their growing cubs. Individuals sharing the same area are aware of each other's movements and activities.[76] The size of the home range mainly depends on prey abundance, and, in the case of males, on access to females. A tigress may have a territory of 20 km2 (7.7 sq mi), while the territories of males are much larger, covering 60 to 100 km2 (23 to 39 sq mi). The range of a male tends to overlap those of several females, providing him with a large field of prospective mating partners.[83]

text: The tiger is a long-ranging species, and individuals disperse over distances of up to 650 km (400 mi) to reach tiger populations in other areas.[84]

text: It is strong swimmer and often bathes in ponds, lakes and rivers, thus keeping cool in the heat of the day. Generally, among the big cat species, only the jaguar shares a similar fondness for water in the wilderness.[85] Individuals can cross rivers up to 7 km (4.3 mi) wide and can swim up to 29 km (18 mi) in a day.[82] They are able to carry prey through or capture it in the water.[citation needed]

text: Young female tigers establish their first territories close to their mother's. The overlap between the female and her mother's territory reduces with time. Males, however, migrate further than their female counterparts and set out at a younger age to mark out their own area. A young male acquires territory either by seeking out an area devoid of other male tigers, or by living as a transient in another male's territory until he is older and strong enough to challenge the resident male. Young males seeking to establish themselves thereby comprise the highest mortality rate (30–35% per year) amongst adult tigers.[86]

text: To identify his territory, the male marks trees by spraying urine[87][88] and anal gland secretions, as well as marking trails with scat and marking trees or the ground with their claws. Females also use these "scrapes", as well as urine and scat markings. Scent markings of this type allow an individual to pick up information on another's identity, sex and reproductive status. Females in oestrus will signal their availability by scent marking more frequently and increasing their vocalisations.[58]

text: Although for the most part avoiding each other, tigers are not always territorial and relationships between individuals can be complex. An adult of either sex will sometimes share its kill with others, even those who may not be related to them. George Schaller observed a male share a kill with two females and four cubs. Unlike male lions, male tigers allow females and cubs to feed on the kill before the male is finished with it; all involved generally seem to behave amicably, in contrast to the competitive behaviour shown by a lion pride.[62] In his book Tiger, Stephen Mills describes a social eating event witnessed by Valmik Thapar and Fateh Singh Rathore in Ranthambhore National Park thus:

text: A dominant tigress they called Padmini killed a 250 kg (550 lb) male nilgai – a very large antelope. They found her at the kill just after dawn with her three 14-month-old cubs and they watched uninterrupted for the next ten hours. During this period the family was joined by two adult females and one adult male, all offspring from Padmini's previous litters, and by two unrelated tigers, one female the other unidentified. By three o'clock there were no fewer than nine tigers round the kill.[86]

text: Occasionally, male tigers participate in raising cubs, usually their own, but this is extremely rare and not always well understood. In May 2015, Amur tigers were photographed by camera traps in the Sikhote-Alin Bioshpere Reserve. The photos show a male Amur tiger pass by, followed by a female and three cubs within the span of about two minutes.[89] In Ranthambore, a male Bengal tiger raised and defended two orphaned female cubs after their mother had died of illness. The cubs remained under his care, he supplied them with food, protected them from his rival and sister, and apparently also trained them.[90]

text: Male tigers are generally more intolerant of other males within their territories than females are of other females. Territory disputes are usually solved by displays of intimidation rather than outright aggression. Several such incidents have been observed in which the subordinate tiger yielded defeat by rolling onto its back and showing its belly in a submissive posture.[91] Once dominance has been established, a male may tolerate a subordinate within his range, as long as they do not live in too close quarters.[86] The most aggressive disputes tend to occur between two males when a female is in oestrus, and may rarely result in the death of one of the males.[86][91]

text: Facial expressions include the "defense threat", where an individual bares its teeth, flattens its ears and its pupils enlarge. Both males and females show a flehmen response, a characteristic grimace, when sniffing urine markings but flehmen is more often associated with males detecting the markings made by tigresses in oestrus. Like other Panthera, tigers roar, particularly in aggressive situations, during the mating season or when making a kill. There are two different roars: the "true" roar is made using the hyoid apparatus and forced through an open mouth as it progressively closes, and the shorter, harsher "coughing" roar is made with the mouth open and teeth exposed. The "true" roar can be heard at up to 3 km (1.9 mi) away and is sometimes emitted three or four times in succession. When tense, tigers will moan, a sound similar to a roar but more subdued and made when the mouth is partially or completely closed. Moaning can be heard 400 m (1,300 ft) away.[20] Chuffing, soft, low-frequency snorting similar to purring in smaller cats, is heard in more friendly situations.[92] Other vocal communications include grunts, woofs, snarls, miaows, hisses and growls.[20]

text: Hunting and diet

text: In the wild, tigers mostly feed on large and medium-sized animals, preferring ungulates weighing at least 90 kg (200 lb).[93][94] They typically have little or no deleterious effect on their prey populations.[82] Sambar deer, chital, barasingha, wild boar, gaur, nilgai and both water buffalo and domestic buffalo, in descending order of preference, are the tiger's favoured prey in Tamil Nadu, India,[93] while gaur and sambar are the preferred prey and constitute the main diet of tigers in other parts of India.[95][96] They also prey on other predators, including dogs, leopards, pythons, sloth bears, and crocodiles.

text: In Siberia, the main prey species are Manchurian wapiti and wild boar (the two species comprising nearly 80% of the prey selected) followed by sika deer, moose, roe deer, and musk deer.[97] Asiatic black bears and Ussuri brown bears may also fall prey to tigers,[42][98][99] and they constitute up to 40.7% of the diet of Siberian tigers depending on local conditions and the bear populations.[100] In Sumatra, prey include sambar deer, muntjac, wild boar, Malayan tapir and orangutan.[101][102] In the former Caspian tiger's range, prey included saiga antelope, camels, Caucasian wisent, yak, and wild horses. Like many predators, tigers are opportunistic and may eat much smaller prey, such as monkeys, peafowl and other ground-based birds, hares, porcupines, and fish.[93][58]

text: Tigers generally do not prey on fully grown adult Asian elephants and Indian rhinoceros but incidents have been reported.[103][104] More often, it is the more vulnerable small calves that are taken.[105] Tigers have been reported attacking and killing elephants ridden by humans during tiger hunts in the 19th century.[106] When in close proximity to humans, tigers will also sometimes prey on such domestic livestock as cattle, horses, and donkeys.[107] Old or wounded tigers, unable to catch wild prey, can become man-eaters; this pattern has recurred frequently across India. An exception is in the Sundarbans, where healthy tigers prey upon fishermen and villagers in search of forest produce, humans thereby forming a minor part of the tiger's diet.[108] Although almost exclusively carnivorous, tigers will occasionally eat vegetation for dietary fibre such as fruit of the slow match tree.[107]

text: Tigers are thought to be mainly nocturnal predators,[109] but in areas where humans are typically absent, they have been observed via remote-controlled, hidden cameras, hunting in daylight.[110] They generally hunt alone and ambush their prey as most other cats do, overpowering them from any angle, using their body size and strength to knock the prey off balance. Successful hunts usually require the tiger to almost simultaneously leap onto its quarry, knock it over, and grab the throat or nape with its teeth.[82] Despite their large size, tigers can reach speeds of about 49–65 km/h (30–40 mph) but only in short bursts; consequently, tigers must be close to their prey before they break cover. If the prey catches wind of the tiger's presence before this, the tiger usually abandons the hunt rather than chase prey or battle it head-on. Horizontal leaps of up to 10 m (33 ft) have been reported, although leaps of around half this distance are more typical. One in 2 to 20 hunts, including stalking near potential prey, ends in a successful kill.[82][111][112]

text: When hunting larger animals, tigers prefer to bite the throat and use their powerful forelimbs to hold onto the prey, often simultaneously wrestling it to the ground. The tiger remains latched onto the neck until its target dies of strangulation.[62] By this method, gaurs and water buffaloes weighing over a ton have been killed by tigers weighing about a sixth as much.[113] Although they can kill healthy adults, tigers often select the calves or infirm of very large species.[114] Healthy adult prey of this type can be dangerous to tackle, as long, strong horns, legs and tusks are all potentially fatal to the tiger. No other extant land predator routinely takes on prey this large on their own.[115][116] Whilst hunting sambars, which comprise up to 60% of their prey in India, tigers have reportedly made a passable impersonation of the male sambar's rutting call to attract them.[93][107]

text: With smaller prey, such as monkeys and hares, the tiger bites the nape, often breaking the spinal cord, piercing the windpipe, or severing the jugular vein or common carotid artery.[117] Though rarely observed, some tigers have been recorded to kill prey by swiping with their paws, which are powerful enough to smash the skulls of domestic cattle,[107] and break the backs of sloth bears.[118]

text: During the 1980s, a tiger named "Genghis" in Ranthambhore National Park was observed frequently hunting prey through deep lake water, a pattern of behaviour that had not previously been witnessed in over 200 years of observations. Moreover, he appeared to be unusually successful, with 20% of hunts ending in a kill.[119]

text: After killing their prey, tigers sometimes drag it to conceal it in vegetative cover, usually pulling it by grasping with their mouths at the site of the killing bite. This, too, can require great physical strength. In one case, after it had killed an adult gaur, a tiger was observed to drag the massive carcass over a distance of 12 m (39 ft). When 13 men simultaneously tried to drag the same carcass later, they were unable to move it.[82] An adult tiger can go for up to two weeks without eating, then gorge on 34 kg (75 lb) of flesh at one time. In captivity, adult tigers are fed 3 to 6 kg (6.6 to 13.2 lb) of meat a day.[82]

text: Enemies and competitors

text: Tigers usually prefer to eat prey they have caught themselves, but are not above eating carrion in times of scarcity and may even pirate prey from other large carnivores. Although predators typically avoid one another, if a prey item is under dispute or a serious competitor is encountered, displays of aggression are common. If these are not sufficient, the conflicts may turn violent; tigers may kill competitors as leopards, dholes, striped hyenas, wolves, bears, pythons, and crocodiles on occasion. Tigers may also prey on these competitors.[42][118][120][121][122][123] Attacks on smaller predators, such as badgers, lynxes, and foxes, are almost certainly predatory.[93] Crocodiles, bears, and large packs of dholes may win conflicts against tigers and in some cases even kill them.[42][26][124][125]

text: The considerably smaller leopard avoids competition from tigers by hunting at different times of the day and hunting different prey.[126] In India's Nagarhole National Park, most prey selected by leopards were from 30 to 175 kg (66 to 386 lb) against a preference for prey weighing over 176 kg (388 lb) in the tigers. The average prey weight in the two respective big cats in India was 37.6 kg (83 lb) against 91.5 kg (202 lb).[127] With relatively abundant prey, tigers and leopards were seen to successfully coexist without competitive exclusion or interspecies dominance hierarchies that may be more common to the African savanna, where the leopard exists with the lion.[127] Golden jackals may feed on the tiger's kills.[128]

text: Reproduction

text: Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mating tigers.

text: Mating can occur all year round, but is more common between November and April.[82] A female is only receptive for three to six days. Mating is frequent and noisy during that time. Gestation ranges from 93 to 112 days, with an average of 103 to 105 days. Litters consist of one or three cubs, rarely also six. Cubs weigh from 680 to 1,400 g (1.50 to 3.09 lb) each at birth, and are born blind. Females lactate for five to six months.[57] The females rears them alone, with the birth site and maternal den in a sheltered location such as a thicket, cave or rocky crevice. The father generally takes no part in rearing them. Unrelated wandering male tigers often kill cubs to make the female receptive, since the tigress may give birth to another litter within five months if the cubs of the previous litter are lost. The mortality rate of tiger cubs is about 50% in the first two years.[82] Few other predators attack tiger cubs due to the diligence and ferocity of the mother. Apart from humans and other tigers, common causes of cub mortality are starvation, freezing, and accidents.[116]

text: A dominant cub emerges in most litters, usually a male.[119] This cub is more active than its siblings and takes the lead in their play, eventually leaving its mother and becoming independent earlier. The cubs open their eyes at six to fourteen days old. By eight weeks, the cubs make short ventures outside the den with their mother, although they do not travel with her as she roams her territory until they are older. The cubs are nursed for three to six months. Around the time they are weaned, they start to accompany their mother on territorial walks and they are taught how to hunt. The cubs often become capable (and nearly adult size) hunters at eleven months old. The cubs become independent around eighteen months of age, but it is not until they are around two to two and a half years old that they fully separate from their mother. Females reach sexual maturity at three to four years, whereas males do so at four to five years. The oldest recorded captive tiger lived for 26 years. A wild specimen, having no natural predators, could in theory live to a comparable age.[82]

text: Threats

text: Major threats to the tiger include habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation and poaching for fur and body parts, which have simultaneously greatly reduced tiger populations in the wild[1] In India, only 11% of the historical tiger habitat remains due to habitat fragmentation.[129] Demand for tiger parts for use in traditional Chinese medicine has also been cited as a major threat to tiger populations.[130][131]

text: Commercial hunting and traditional medicine

text: Historically, tigers have been hunted at a large scale so their famous striped skins could be collected. The trade in tiger skins peaked in the 1960s, just before international conservation efforts took effect. By 1977, a tiger skin in an English market was considered to be worth US$4,250.[82]

text: Many people in China and other parts of Asia have a belief that various tiger parts have medicinal properties, including as pain killers and aphrodisiacs.[132] There is no scientific evidence to support these beliefs. The use of tiger parts in pharmaceutical drugs in China is already banned, and the government has made some offences in connection with tiger poaching punishable by death.[which?] Furthermore, all trade in tiger parts is illegal under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and a domestic trade ban has been in place in China since 1993.[133]

text: However, the trading of tiger parts in Asia has become a major black market industry and governmental and conservation attempts to stop it have been ineffective to date.[82] Almost all black marketers engaged in the trade are based in China and have either been shipped and sold within in their own country or into Taiwan, South Korea or Japan.[82] The Chinese subspecies was almost completely decimated by killing for commerce due to both the parts and skin trades in the 1950s through the 1970s.[82] Contributing to the illegal trade, there are a number of tiger farms in the country specialising in breeding the cats for profit. It is estimated that between 5,000 and 10,000 captive-bred, semi-tame animals live in these farms today.[134][135][136] However, many tigers for traditional medicine black market are wild ones shot or snared by poachers and may be caught anywhere in the tiger's remaining range (from Siberia to India to the Malay Peninsula to Sumatra). In the Asian black market, a tiger penis can be worth the equivalent of around $300 U.S. dollars. In the years of 1990 through 1992, 27 million products with tiger derivatives were found.[82] In July 2014 at an international convention on endangered species in Geneva, Switzerland, a Chinese representative admitted for the first time his government was aware trading in tiger skins was occurring in China.[137]

text: Conservation

text:
Tiger population status (2016)[4]

Country
Estimate

 Bangladesh
106

 Bhutan
103

 Cambodia
0

 China
>7

 India
2,226

 Indonesia
371

 Laos
2

 Malaysia
250

 Myanmar
no data

 Nepal
198

 Russia
433

 Thailand
189

 Vietnam
<5

Total
3,890

text: At the start of the 20th century, it was estimated there were over 100,000 tigers in the wild, but the population has dwindled outside of captivity to between 1,500 and 3,500.[138][139] Some estimates suggest that there are fewer than 2,500 mature breeding individuals, with no subpopulation containing more than 250 mature breeding individuals.[1] The global wild tiger population was estimated by the World Wide Fund for Nature at 3,200 in 2011 and 3,890 in 2015—Vox reported that this was the first increase in a century.[140][141]

text: India is home to the world's largest population of wild tigers.[4] A 2014 census estimated a population of 2,226, a 30% increase since 2011.[24] In 1973, India's Project Tiger, started by Indira Gandhi, established over 25 tiger reserves in reclaimed land, where human development was forbidden. The project was credited with tripling the number of wild Bengal tigers from some 1,200 in 1973 to over 3,500 in the 1990s, but a 2007 census showed that numbers had dropped back to about 1,400 tigers because of poaching.[142] Following the report, the Indian government pledged $153 million to the initiative, set up measures to combat poaching, promised funds to relocate up to 200,000 villagers in order to reduce human-tiger interactions,[143] and set up eight new tiger reserves.[144] India also reintroduced tigers to the Sariska Tiger Reserve[145] and by 2009 it was claimed that poaching had been effectively countered at Ranthambore National Park.[146]

text: In the 1940s, the Siberian tiger was on the brink of extinction with only about 40 animals remaining in the wild in Russia. As a result, anti-poaching controls were put in place by the Soviet Union and a network of protected zones (zapovedniks) were instituted, leading to a rise in the population to several hundred. Poaching again became a problem in the 1990s, when the economy of Russia collapsed. The major obstacle in preserving the species is the enormous territory individual tigers require (up to 450 km2 needed by a single female and more for a single male).[147] Current conservation efforts are led by local governments and NGO's in concert with international organisations, such as the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Wildlife Conservation Society.[148] The competitive exclusion of wolves by tigers has been used by Russian conservationists to convince hunters to tolerate the big cats. Tigers have less impact on ungulate populations than do wolves, and are effective in controlling the latter's numbers.[149] In 2005, there were thought to be about 360 animals in Russia, though these exhibited little genetic diversity.[31] However, in a decade later, the Siberian tiger census was estimated from 480 to 540 individuals.

text: Having earlier rejected the Western-led environmentalist movement, China changed its stance in the 1980s and became a party to the CITES treaty. By 1993 it had banned the trade in tiger parts, and this diminished the use of tiger bones in traditional Chinese medicine.[150] After this, the Tibetan people's trade in tiger skins became a relatively more important threat to tigers. The pelts were used in clothing, tiger-skin chuba being worn by singers and participants in horse racing festivals, and had become status symbols. In 2004, international conservation organizations launched successful environmental propaganda campaigns in China against the Tibetan tiger skin trade. There was outrage in India, where many Tibetans live, and the 14th Dalai Lama was persuaded to take up the issue. Since then there has been a change of attitude, with some Tibetans publicly burning their chubas.[151]

text: In 1994, the Indonesian Sumatran Tiger Conservation Strategy addressed the potential crisis that tigers faced in Sumatra. The Sumatran Tiger Project (STP) was initiated in June 1995 in and around the Way Kambas National Park in order to ensure the long-term viability of wild Sumatran tigers and to accumulate data on tiger life-history characteristics vital for the management of wild populations.[152] By August 1999, the teams of the STP had evaluated 52 sites of potential tiger habitat in Lampung Province, of which only 15 these were intact enough to contain tigers.[153] In the framework of the STP a community-based conservation programme was initiated to document the tiger-human dimension in the park in order to enable conservation authorities to resolve tiger-human conflicts based on a comprehensive database rather than anecdotes and opinions.[154]

text: The Wildlife Conservation Society and Panthera Corporation formed the collaboration Tigers Forever, with field sites including the world's largest tiger reserve, the 21,756 km2 (8,400 sq mi) Hukaung Valley in Myanmar. Other reserves were in the Western Ghats in India, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, the Russian Far East covering in total about 260,000 km2 (100,000 sq mi).[155]

text: Tigers have been studied in the wild using a variety of techniques. Tiger population have been estimated using plaster casts of their pugmarks, although this method was criticized as being inaccurate.[156] More recent techniques include the use of camera traps and studies of DNA from tiger scat, while radio-collaring has been used to track tigers in the wild.[157] Tiger spray has been found to be just as good, or better, as a source of DNA than scat.[158]

text: The exact number of wild tigers is unknown, as many estimates are outdated or educated guesses; few estimates are based on reliable scientific censuses. The table shows estimates according to IUCN Red List accounts and range country governments dating from 2009 to April 2016.[4]

text: Rewilding and reintroduction projects

text: In 1978, the Indian conservationist Billy Arjan Singh attempted to rewild a tiger in Dudhwa National Park; this was the captive-bred tigress Tara.[159] Soon after the release, numerous people were killed and eaten by a tigress that was subsequently shot. Government officials claimed it was Tara, though Singh disputed this. Further controversy broke out with the discovery that Tara was partly Siberian tiger.[160][161][162][163]

text: The organisation Save China's Tigers has attempted to rewild the South China tigers, with a breeding and training programme in a South African reserve known as Laohu Valley Reserve (LVR) and eventually reintroduce them to the wild of China.[164]

text: A future rewilding project was proposed for Siberian tigers set to be reintroduced to northern Russia's Pleistocene park. The Siberian tigers sent to Iran for a captive breeding project in Tehran are set to be rewilded and reintroduced to the Miankaleh peninsula, to replace the now extinct Caspian tigers.[165][166][167]

text: In captivity

text: In Ancient Roman times, tigers were kept in menageries and amphitheatres to be exhibited, trained and paraded, and were often provoked to fight humans and exotic beasts.[168][169] Since the 17th century, tigers, being rare and ferocious, were sought after to keep at European castles as symbols of their owners' power.[170] Tigers became central zoo and circus exhibits in the 18th century: a tiger could cost up to 4,000 francs in France (for comparison, a professor of the Beaux-Arts at Lyons earned only 3,000 francs a year),[171] or up to $3,500 in the United States where a lion cost no more than $1,000.[172]

text: China (2007) had over 4,000 captive tigers, of which 3,000 were held by about twenty larger facilities, with the rest held by some 200 smaller facilities.[173] The USA (2011) had 2,884 tigers in 468 facilities.[174] Nineteen states have banned private ownership of tigers, fifteen require a license, and sixteen states have no regulation.[175] Genetic ancestry of 105 captive tigers from fourteen countries and regions showed that forty-nine animals belonged distinctly to five subspecies; fifty-two animals had mixed subspecies origins.[176] As such, "many Siberian tigers in zoos today are actually the result of crosses with Bengal tigers."[177]

text: The Tiger Species Survival Plan has condemned the breeding of white tigers, alleging they are of mixed ancestry and of unknown lineage. The genes responsible for white colouration are represented by 0.001% of the population. The disproportionate growth in numbers of white tigers points to inbreeding among homozygous recessive individuals. This would lead to inbreeding depression and loss of genetic variability.[178]

text: Relation with humans

text: Tiger hunting

text: The tiger has been one of the big five game animals of Asia. Tiger hunting took place on a large scale in the early 19th and 20th centuries, being a recognised and admired sport by the British in colonial India as well as the maharajas and aristocratic class of the erstwhile princely states of pre-independence India. A single maharaja or English hunter could claim to kill over a hundred tigers in their hunting career.[82] Tiger hunting was done by some hunters on foot; others sat up on machans with a goat or buffalo tied out as bait; yet others on elephant-back.[179]

text: Man-eating tigers

text: Wild tigers that have had no prior contact with humans actively avoid interactions with humans. However, tigers cause more human deaths through direct attack than any other wild mammal.[82] Attacks are occasionally provoked, as tigers lash out after being injured while they themselves are hunted. Attacks can be provoked accidentally, as when a human surprises a tiger or inadvertently comes between a mother and her young,[180] or as in a case in rural India when a postman startled a tiger, used to seeing him on foot, by riding a bicycle.[181] Occasionally tigers come to view people as prey. Such attacks are most common in areas where population growth, logging, and farming have put pressure on tiger habitats and reduced their wild prey. Most man-eating tigers are old, missing teeth, and unable to capture their preferred prey.[58] For example, the Champawat Tiger, a tigress found in Nepal and then India, had two broken canines. She was responsible for an estimated 430 human deaths, the most attacks known to be perpetrated by a single wild animal, by the time she was shot in 1907 by Jim Corbett.[65] According to Corbett, tiger attacks on humans are normally in daytime, when people are working outdoors and are not keeping watch.[182] Early writings tend to describe man-eating tigers as cowardly because of their ambush tactics.[183]

text: Man-eaters have been a particular problem in recent decades in India and Bangladesh, especially in Kumaon, Garhwal and the Sundarbans mangrove swamps of Bengal, where some healthy tigers have hunted humans. Because of rapid habitat loss attributed to climate change, tiger attacks have increased in the Sundarbans.[185] The Sundarbans area had 129 human deaths from tigers from 1969 to 1971. In the 10 years prior to that period, about 100 attacks per year in the Sundarbans, with a high of around 430 in some years of the 1960s.[82] Unusually, in some years in the Sundarbans, more humans are killed by tigers than vice versa.[82] In 1972, India's production of honey and beeswax dropped by 50% when at least 29 people who gathered these materials were devoured.[82] In 1986 in the Sundarbans, since tigers almost always attack from the rear, masks with human faces were worn on the back of the head, on the theory that tigers usually do not attack if seen by their prey. This decreased the number of attacks only temporarily. All other means to prevent attacks, such as providing more prey or using electrified human dummies, worked less well.[186]

text: At least 27 people were killed or seriously injured by captive tigers in the United States from 1998 to 2001.[187][187]

text: In some cases, rather than being predatory, tiger attacks on human seem to be territorial in nature. At least in one case, a tigress with cubs killed eight people entering her territory without consuming them at all.[188]

text: Cultural depictions

text: Tigers and their superlative qualities have been a source of fascination for mankind since ancient times, and they are routinely visible as important cultural and media motifs. They are also considered one of the charismatic megafauna, and are used as the face of conservation campaigns worldwide. In a 2004 online poll conducted by cable television channel Animal Planet, involving more than 50,000 viewers from 73 countries, the tiger was voted the world's favourite animal with 21% of the vote, narrowly beating the dog.[189]

text: In myth and legend

text: In Chinese myth and culture, the tiger is one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. In Chinese art, the tiger is depicted as an earth symbol and equal rival of the Chinese dragon – the two representing matter and spirit respectively. The Southern Chinese martial art Hung Ga is based on the movements of the tiger and the crane. In Imperial China, a tiger was the personification of war and often represented the highest army general (or present day defense secretary),[190] while the emperor and empress were represented by a dragon and phoenix, respectively. The White Tiger (Chinese: 白虎; pinyin: Bái Hǔ) is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. It is sometimes called the White Tiger of the West (西方白虎), and it represents the west and the autumn season.[190]

text: The tiger's tail appears in stories from countries including China and Korea, it being generally inadvisable to grasp a tiger by the tail.[191][192]

text: In Buddhism, the tiger is one of the Three Senseless Creatures, symbolising anger, with the monkey representing greed and the deer lovesickness.[190] The Tungusic peoples considered the Siberian tiger a near-deity and often referred to it as "Grandfather" or "Old man". The Udege and Nanai called it "Amba". The Manchu considered the Siberian tiger as "Hu Lin," the king.[63] In Hinduism, the god Shiva wears and sits on tiger skin.[193] The ten-armed warrior goddess Durga rides the tigress (or lioness) Damon into battle. In southern India the god Ayyappan was associated with a tiger.[194]

text: The weretiger replaces the werewolf in shapeshifting folklore in Asia;[195] in India they were evil sorcerers, while in Indonesia and Malaysia they were somewhat more benign.[196] In the Hindu epic Mahabharata, tigers are fiercer and more ruthless than lions.[197]

text: In literature, art and film

text: In William Blake's poem in the Songs of Experience, titled "The Tyger," the tiger is a menacing and fearful animal. In Yann Martel's 2001 Man Booker Prize winning novel Life of Pi, the protagonist, surviving shipwreck for months in a small boat, somehow avoids being eaten by the other survivor, a large Bengal tiger. The story was adapted in Ang Lee's 2012 feature film of the same name. Jim Corbett's 1944 Man-Eaters of Kumaon tells ten true stories of his tiger-hunting exploits in what is now the northern Uttarakhand region of India. The book has sold over four million copies,[198] and has been the basis of both fictional and documentary films. In Rudyard Kipling's 1894 The Jungle Book, the tiger, Shere Khan, is the mortal enemy of the human protagonist, Mowgli; the book has formed the basis of both live-action and animated films. Other tiger characters aimed at children tend to be more benign, as for instance Tigger in A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh and Hobbes of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, both of whom are represented as simply stuffed animals come to life.

text: Tiger are also mascots for various sports teams around the world. Tony the Tiger is a famous mascot for Kellogg's breakfast cereal Frosted Flakes. The Esso (Exxon) brand of petrol was advertised from 1969 onwards with the slogan 'put a tiger in your tank', and a tiger mascot; more than 2.5 million synthetic tiger tails were sold to motorists, who tied them to their petrol tank caps.[199]

text: The tiger appears in heraldry but is distinct from the heraldic beast tyger, a wolflike, snouted creature which has its roots in European Medieval bestiaries.

text: Political symbolism

text: The tiger is one of the animals displayed on the Pashupati seal of the Indus Valley Civilisation. The tiger was the emblem of the Chola Dynasty and was depicted on coins, seals and banners.[200] The seals of several Chola copper coins show the tiger, the Pandyan emblem fish and the Chera emblem bow, indicating that the Cholas had achieved political supremacy over the latter two dynasties. Gold coins found in Kavilayadavalli in the Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh have motifs of the tiger, bow and some indistinct marks.[201] The tiger symbol of Chola Empire was later adopted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the tiger became a symbol of the unrecognised state of Tamil Eelam and Tamil independence movement.[202]

text: The Bengal tiger is the national animal of India and Bangladesh.[203] The Malaysian tiger is the national animal of Malaysia.[204] The Siberian tiger is the national animal of South Korea. Since the successful economies of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore were described as the Four Asian Tigers, a tiger economy is a metaphor for a nation in rapid development.


document_title: Transfer RNA

question_text: which cellular component controls the correct attachment of amino acid to certain trna

root

text: Transfer RNA

text: Overview[edit]

text: While the specific nucleotide sequence of an mRNA specifies which amino acids are incorporated into the protein product of the gene from which the mRNA is transcribed, the role of tRNA is to specify which sequence from the genetic code corresponds to which amino acid.[3] The mRNA encodes a protein as a series of contiguous codons, each of which is recognized by a particular tRNA. One end of the tRNA matches the genetic code in a three-nucleotide sequence called the anticodon. The anticodon forms three complementary base pairs with a codon in mRNA during protein biosynthesis. On the other end of the tRNA is a covalent attachment to the amino acid that corresponds to the anticodon sequence. Each type of tRNA molecule can be attached to only one type of amino acid, so each organism has many types of tRNA. Because the genetic code contains multiple codons that specify the same amino acid, there are several tRNA molecules bearing different anticodons which carry the same amino acid.

tag: p

text: The covalent attachment to the tRNA 3’ end is catalyzed by enzymes called aminoacyl tRNA synthetases. During protein synthesis, tRNAs with attached amino acids are delivered to the ribosome by proteins called elongation factors, which aid in association of the tRNA with the ribosome, synthesis of the new polypeptide and translocation (movement) of the ribosome along the mRNA. If the tRNA's anticodon matches the mRNA, another tRNA already bound to the ribosome transfers the growing polypeptide chain from its 3’ end to the amino acid attached to the 3’ end of the newly delivered tRNA, a reaction catalyzed by the ribosome.

text: A large number of the individual nucleotides in a tRNA molecule may be chemically modified, often by methylation or deamidation. These unusual bases sometimes affect the tRNA's interaction with ribosomes and sometimes occur in the anticodon to alter base-pairing properties.[4]:29.1.2

text: Structure[edit]

text: The structure of tRNA can be decomposed into its primary structure, its secondary structure (usually visualized as the cloverleaf structure), and its tertiary structure[5] (all tRNAs have a similar L-shaped 3D structure that allows them to fit into the P and A sites of the ribosome). The cloverleaf structure becomes the 3D L-shaped structure through coaxial stacking of the helices, which is a common RNA tertiary structure motif.

text: The lengths of each arm, as well as the loop 'diameter', in a tRNA molecule vary from species to species.[5][6]

text: The tRNA structure consists of the following:

text:
A 5'-terminal phosphate group.
The acceptor stem is a 7- to 9-base pair (bp) stem made by the base pairing of the 5'-terminal nucleotide with the 3'-terminal nucleotide (which contains the CCA 3'-terminal group used to attach the amino acid). In general, such 3'-terminal tRNA-like structures are referred to as 'genomic tags'. The acceptor stem may contain non-Watson-Crick base pairs.[5][7]
The CCA tail is a cytosine-cytosine-adenine sequence at the 3' end of the tRNA molecule. The amino acid loaded onto the tRNA by aminoacyl tRNA synthetases, to form aminoacyl-tRNA, is covalently bonded to the 3'-hydroxyl group on the CCA tail.[8] This sequence is important for the recognition of tRNA by enzymes and critical in translation.[9][10] In prokaryotes, the CCA sequence is transcribed in some tRNA sequences. In most prokaryotic tRNAs and eukaryotic tRNAs, the CCA sequence is added during processing and therefore does not appear in the tRNA gene.[11]
The D arm is a 4- to 6-bp stem ending in a loop that often contains dihydrouridine.[5]
The anticodon arm is a 5-bp stem whose loop contains the anticodon.[5] The tRNA 5'-to-3' primary structure contains the anticodon but in reverse order, since 3'-to-5' directionality is required to read the mRNA from 5'-to-3'.
The T arm is a 4- to 5- bp stem containing the sequence TΨC where Ψ is pseudouridine, a modified uridine.[5]
Bases that have been modified, especially by methylation (e.g. tRNA (guanine-N7-)-methyltransferase), occur in several positions throughout the tRNA. The first anticodon base, or wobble-position, is sometimes modified to inosine (derived from adenine), pseudouridine or lysidine (derived from cytosine).[12]

tag: ol

text: Anticodon[edit]

text: An anticodon[13] is a unit made up of three nucleotides that correspond to the three bases of the codon on the mRNA. Each tRNA contains a distinct anticodon triplet sequence that can form 3 complementary base pairs to one or more codons for an amino acid. Some anticodons can pair with more than one codon due to a phenomenon known as wobble base pairing. Frequently, the first nucleotide of the anticodon is one not found on mRNA: inosine, which can hydrogen bond to more than one base in the corresponding codon position.[4]:29.3.9 In the genetic code, it is common for a single amino acid to be specified by all four third-position possibilities, or at least by both pyrimidines and purines; for example, the amino acid glycine is coded for by the codon sequences GGU, GGC, GGA, and GGG. Other modified nucleotides may also appear at the first anticodon position—sometimes known as the "wobble position"—resulting in subtle changes to the genetic code, as for example in mitochondria.[14]

text: To provide a one-to-one correspondence between tRNA molecules and codons that specify amino acids, 61 types of tRNA molecules would be required per cell, as there are 61 sense codons of the standard genetic code. However, many cells contain fewer than 61 types of tRNAs because the wobble base is capable of binding to several, though not necessarily all, of the codons that specify a particular amino acid. A minimum of 31 tRNAs are required to translate, unambiguously, all 61 sense codons. The maximum observed is 41.[3][15]

text: Aminoacylation[edit]

text: Aminoacylation is the process of adding an aminoacyl group to a compound. It covalently links an amino acid to the CCA 3' end of a tRNA molecule.

text: Each tRNA is aminoacylated (or charged) with a specific amino acid by an aminoacyl tRNA synthetase. There is normally a single aminoacyl tRNA synthetase for each amino acid, despite the fact that there can be more than one tRNA, and more than one anticodon, for an amino acid. Recognition of the appropriate tRNA by the synthetases is not mediated solely by the anticodon, and the acceptor stem often plays a prominent role.[16] Reaction:

text:
amino acid + ATP → aminoacyl-AMP + PPi
aminoacyl-AMP + tRNA → aminoacyl-tRNA + AMP

text: Certain organisms can have one or more aminoacyl tRNA synthetases missing. This leads to charging of the tRNA by a chemically related amino acid. An enzyme or enzymes modify the charged amino acid to the final one. For example, Helicobacter pylori has glutaminyl tRNA synthetase missing. Thus, glutamate tRNA synthetase charges tRNA-glutamine(tRNA-Gln) with glutamate. An amidotransferase then converts the acid side chain of the glutamate to the amide, forming the correctly charged gln-tRNA-Gln.

text: Binding to ribosome[edit]

text: The ribosome has three binding sites for tRNA molecules that span the space between the two ribosomal subunits: the A (aminoacyl),[18] P (peptidyl), and E (exit) sites. In addition, the ribosome has two other sites for tRNA binding that are used during mRNA decoding or during the initiation of protein synthesis. These are the T site (named elongation factor Tu) and I site (initiation).[19][20] By convention, the tRNA binding sites are denoted with the site on the small ribosomal subunit listed first and the site on the large ribosomal subunit listed second. For example, the A site is often written A/A, the P site, P/P, and the E site, E/E.[19] The binding proteins like L27, L2, L14, L15, L16 at the A- and P- sites have been determined by affinity labeling by A.P. Czernilofsky et al. (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci, USA, pp 230–234, 1974).

text: Once translation initiation is complete, the first aminoacyl tRNA is located in the P/P site, ready for the elongation cycle described below. During translation elongation, tRNA first binds to the ribosome as part of a complex with elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) or its eukaryotic (eEF-1) or archaeal counterpart. This initial tRNA binding site is called the A/T site. In the A/T site, the A-site half resides in the small ribosomal subunit where the mRNA decoding site is located. The mRNA decoding site is where the mRNA codon is read out during translation. The T-site half resides mainly on the large ribosomal subunit where EF-Tu or eEF-1 interacts with the ribosome. Once mRNA decoding is complete, the aminoacyl-tRNA is bound in the A/A site and is ready for the next peptide bond to be formed to its attached amino acid. The peptidyl-tRNA, which transfers the growing polypeptide to the aminoacyl-tRNA bound in the A/A site, is bound in the P/P site. Once the peptide bond is formed, the tRNA in the P/P site is deacylated, or has a free 3’ end, and the tRNA in the A/A site carries the growing polypeptide chain. To allow for the next elongation cycle, the tRNAs then move through hybrid A/P and P/E binding sites, before completing the cycle and residing in the P/P and E/E sites. Once the A/A and P/P tRNAs have moved to the P/P and E/E sites, the mRNA has also moved over by one codon and the A/T site is vacant, ready for the next round of mRNA decoding. The tRNA bound in the E/E site then leaves the ribosome.

text: The P/I site is actually the first to bind to aminoacyl tRNA, which is delivered by an initiation factor called IF2 in bacteria.[20] However, the existence of the P/I site in eukaryotic or archaeal ribosomes has not yet been confirmed. The P-site protein L27 has been determined by affinity labeling by E. Collatz and A.P. Czernilofsky (FEBS Lett., Vol. 63, pp 283–286, 1976).

text: tRNA genes[edit]

text: Organisms vary in the number of tRNA genes in their genome. The nematode worm C. elegans, a commonly used model organism in genetics studies, has 29,647 [21] genes in its nuclear genome, of which 620 code for tRNA.[22][23] The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has 275 tRNA genes in its genome.

text: In the human genome, which, according to January 2013 estimates, has about 20,848 protein coding genes [24] in total, there are 497 nuclear genes encoding cytoplasmic tRNA molecules, and 324 tRNA-derived pseudogenes—tRNA genes thought to be no longer functional[25] (although pseudo tRNAs have been shown to be involved in antibiotic resistance in bacteria ).[26] Regions in nuclear chromosomes, very similar in sequence to mitochondrial tRNA genes, have also been identified (tRNA-lookalikes).[27] These tRNA-lookalikes are also considered part of the nuclear mitochondrial DNA (genes transferred from the mitochondria to the nucleus).[27][28]

text: As with all eukaryotes, there are 22 mitochondrial tRNA genes[29] in humans. Mutations in some of these genes have been associated with severe diseases like the MELAS syndrome.

text: Cytoplasmic tRNA genes can be grouped into 49 families according to their anticodon features. These genes are found on all chromosomes, except 22 and Y chromosome. High clustering on 6p is observed (140 tRNA genes), as well on 1 chromosome.[25]

text: The HGNC, in collaboration with the Genomic tRNA Database (GtRNAdb) and experts in the field, has approved unique names for human genes that encode tRNAs.

text: Evolution[edit]

text: The top half of tRNA (consisting of the D arm and the acceptor stem with 5'-terminal phosphate group and 3'-terminal CCA group) and the bottom half (consisting of the T arm and the anticodon arm) are independent units in structure as well as in function. The top half may have evolved first including the 3'-terminal genomic tag which originally may have marked tRNA-like molecules for replication in early RNA world. The bottom half may have evolved later as an expansion, e. g. as protein synthesis started in RNA world and turned it into a (ribonucleoprotein world (RNP world). This proposed scenario is called genomic tag hypothesis. In fact, tRNA and tRNA-like aggregates have an important catalytic influence (i. e. as ribozymes) on replication still today. These roles may be regarded as 'molecular (or chemical) fossiles' of RNA world.[30]

text: Genomic tRNA content is a differentiating feature of genomes among biological domains of life: Archaea present the simplest situation in terms of genomic tRNA content with a uniform number of gene copies, Bacteria have an intermediate situation and Eukarya present the most complex situation.[31] Eukarya present not only more tRNA gene content than the other two kingdoms but also a high variation in gene copy number among different isoacceptors, and this complexity seem to be due to duplications of tRNA genes and changes in anticodon specificity[citation needed].

text: Evolution of the tRNA gene copy number across different species has been linked to the appearance of specific tRNA modification enzymes (uridine methyltransferases in Bacteria, and adenosine deaminases in Eukarya), which increase the decoding capacity of a given tRNA.[31] As an example, tRNAAla encodes four different tRNA isoacceptors (AGC, UGC, GGC and CGC). In Eukarya, AGC isoacceptors are extremely enriched in gene copy number in comparison to the rest of isoacceptors, and this has been correlated with its A-to-I modification of its wobble base. This same trend has been shown for most amino acids of eukaryal species. Indeed, the effect of these two tRNA modifications is also seen in codon usage bias. Highly expressed genes seem to be enriched in codons that are exclusively using codons that will be decoded by these modified tRNAs, which suggests a possible role of these codons—and consequently of these tRNA modifications—in translation efficiency.[31]

text: tRNA-derived fragments[edit]

text: tRNA-derived fragments (or tRFs) are short molecules that emerge after cleavage of the mature tRNAs or the precursor transcript.[32][33][34][35] Both cytoplasmic and mitochondrial tRNAs can produce fragments.[36] There are at least four structural types of tRFs believed to originate from mature tRNAs, including the relatively long tRNA halves and short 5’-tRFs, 3’-tRFs and i-tRFs.[32][36][37] The precursor tRNA can be cleaved to produce molecules from the 5’ leader or 3’ trail sequences. Cleavage enzymes include Angiogenin, Dicer, RNase Z and RNase P.[32][33] Especially in the case of Angiogenin, the tRFs have a characteristically unusual cyclic phosphate at their 3’ end and a hydroxyl group at the 5’ end.[38]

text: tRFs have multiple dependencies and roles. They exhibit significant changes between sexes, among races and disease status.[36] Functionally, they can be loaded on Ago and act through RNAi pathways,[34][36][37][39] participate in the formation of stress granules,[40] displace mRNAs from RNA-binding proteins[41] or inhibit translation.[42] At the system or the organismal level, the four types of tRFs have a diverse spectrum of activities. Functionally, tRFs are associated with viral infection,[43] cancer,[36][37] cell proliferation [38] and also with epigenetic transgenerational regulation of metabolism.[44]

text: tRFs are not restricted to humans but have been shown to exist in multiple organisms.[37][45][46][47]

text: Two online tools are available for those wishing to learn more about tRFs: the framework for the interactive exploration of mitochondrial and nuclear tRNA fragments (MINTbase)[48] and the relational database of Transfer RNA related Fragments(tRFdb).[49] MINTbase also provides a naming scheme for the naming of tRFs called tRF-license plates that is genome independent.

text: tRNA biogenesis[edit]

text: In eukaryotic cells, tRNAs are transcribed by RNA polymerase III as pre-tRNAs in the nucleus.[50] RNA polymerase III recognizes two highly conserved downstream promoter sequences: the 5' intragenic control region (5'-ICR, D-control region, or A box), and the 3'-ICR (T-control region or B box) inside tRNA genes.[2][51][52] The first promoter begins at +8 of mature tRNAs and the second promoter is located 30-60 nucleotides downstream of the first promoter. The transcription terminates after a stretch of four or more thymidines.[2][52]

text: Pre-tRNAs undergo extensive modifications inside the nucleus. Some pre-tRNAs contain introns that are spliced, or cut, to form the functional tRNA molecule;[53] in bacteria these self-splice, whereas in eukaryotes and archaea they are removed by tRNA-splicing endonucleases.[54] Eukaryotic pre-tRNA contains bulge-helix-bulge (BHB) structure motif that is important for recognition and precise splicing of tRNA intron by endonucleases.[55] This motif position and structure are evolutionary conserved. However, some organisms, such as unicellular algae have a non-canonical position of BHB-motif as well as 5'- and 3'-ends of the spliced intron sequence.[55] The 5' sequence is removed by RNase P,[56] whereas the 3' end is removed by the tRNase Z enzyme.[57] A notable exception is in the archaeon Nanoarchaeum equitans, which does not possess an RNase P enzyme and has a promoter placed such that transcription starts at the 5' end of the mature tRNA.[58] The non-templated 3' CCA tail is added by a nucleotidyl transferase.[59] Before tRNAs are exported into the cytoplasm by Los1/Xpo-t,[60][61] tRNAs are aminoacylated.[62] The order of the processing events is not conserved. For example, in yeast, the splicing is not carried out in the nucleus but at the cytoplasmic side of mitochondrial membranes.[63]

text: History[edit]

text: The existence of tRNA was first hypothesized by Francis Crick, based on the assumption that there must exist an adapter molecule capable of mediating the translation of the RNA alphabet into the protein alphabet. Significant research on structure was conducted in the early 1960s by Alex Rich and Don Caspar, two researchers in Boston, the Jacques Fresco group in Princeton University and a United Kingdom group at King's College London.[64] In 1965, Robert W. Holley of Cornell University reported the primary structure and suggested three secondary structures.[65] tRNA was first crystallized in Madison, Wisconsin, by Robert M. Bock.[66] The cloverleaf structure was ascertained by several other studies in the following years[67] and was finally confirmed using X-ray crystallography studies in 1974. Two independent groups, Kim Sung-Hou working under Alexander Rich and a British group headed by Aaron Klug, published the same crystallography findings within a year.[68][69]


document_title: Goin' Out of My Head

question_text: who wrote the song going out of my head

question_tokens: who wrote the song going out of my head

text: Goin' Out of My Head

text:
"Goin' Out of My Head"Song by Little Anthony & the ImperialsLanguage
EnglishReleased
1964Genre
PopLength
2:50Songwriter(s)
Teddy RandazzoBobby Weinstein

tag: table

text: "Goin' Out of My Head" is a song written by Teddy Randazzo and Bobby Weinstein, initially recorded by Little Anthony & the Imperials in 1964. Randazzo, a childhood friend of the group, wrote the song especially for them, having also supplied the group with their previous Top 20 Hit "I'm on the Outside (Looking In)".[1] Their original version of the song was a Billboard Top 10 Pop hit, reaching #6 on the Billboard Hot 100,[2] and #1 in the Canadian RPM-list in 1965. The song peaked at #8 on Cashbox magazine's R&B chart (Billboard was in a chart recess for R&B listings at that time). The Little Anthony & the Imperials original recording is the best-known version of the song, and the gold standard- although it's since been covered by many other artists.

text: Credits: The Imperials[edit]

text:
"Little Anthony" Gourdine – Lead Vocals
Sammy Strain – First Tenor
Ernest Wright – Second Tenor
Clarence "Wah-Hoo" Collins – Baritone/Bass, Group Founder
Orchestra directed by Don Costa
Gary Chester - drums

tag: ul

text: Cover versions[edit]

text:
The Blossoms (with Fanita James singing lead), Shindig! – 1964
Dodie West (Decca UK 7" F12046) - UK Official Singles Chart #39 14-20th January 1965
Wes Montgomery – 1965[3]
Cilla Black – 1965
Petula Clark – 1965
Willie Bobo – 1965
Illinois Jacquet – 1965
Sergio Mendes (and Brazil '66) – 1966[4]
Billy May – 1966
Ella Fitzgerald – 1966
Harry James - 1966
Lou Christie – 1966
Chris Montez – 1966
The Zombies – 1966
Lynne Randell – 1966
Les McCann – 1967
Count Basie – 1967
The Lettermen – 1967 (As a medley with, "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, 1968)
Laurindo Almeida - 1967
Los Hermanos Castro – 1967
Ramsey Lewis – 1968
Ray Conniff – 1968
Earl Grant – 1968

Hank Mobley – 1968
Gladys Knight & the Pips – 1968
Florence Ballard – 1968
Classics IV – 1968
The New Swing Sextet – 1968
Tony Mottola – 1968
Vic Damone – 1968
Shirley Bassey – 1968
Hep Stars Medley with Can't take my eyes of you live - 1968
Frank Sinatra – 1969
Santo & Johnny - 1969
Richard Hayman – 1969
Dionne Warwick – 1970
Anni-Frid Lyngstad – 1971 (Version with Swedish lyrics called "Jag blir galen när jag tänker på dej")
Harvey Averne – 1971
Floyd Cramer – 1971
Nora Aunor - 1973
Gloria Gaynor – 1978
Vikki Carr – 1982
Lawrence Welk – 1989
Pérez Prado – 1990
Julio Martini – 1991

Doc Severinsen – 1992
George Shearing – 1993
Les Baxter – 1993
Jack McDuff – 1993
The Lennon Sisters – 1994
Percy Faith & His Orchestra – 1995
Gerry Mulligan – 1995
Tito Puente – 1996
Luther Vandross – 1996
Tichina Arnold - 1997
Long John Baldry – 1998
Queen Latifah – 1998
Michele Lee – 1999
Dr. John – 1999
Diahann Carroll – 1999
Nancy Wilson – 1999
Alexandra Billings – 2000
Smokey Robinson & the Miracles – 2002
Al Martino – 2005
Trijntje Oosterhuis – 2006
The Delfonics – 2007
The 5th Dimension – 2007


document_title: List of Cricket World Cup records

question_text: who holds the record for most boundaries in an innings in the tournament

text: List of Cricket World Cup records

text: Notation[edit]

text: Team notation

text:
(300–3) indicates that a team scored 300 runs for three wickets and the innings was closed, either due to a successful run chase or if no overs remained (or are able) to be bowled.
(300) indicates that a team scored 300 runs and was all out, either by losing all ten wickets or by having one or more batsmen unable to bat and losing the remaining wickets.

text: Batting notation

text:
(100) indicates that a batsman scored 100 runs and was out.
(100*) indicates that a batsman scored 100 runs and was not out.

text: Bowling notation

text: (5–100) indicates that a bowler has captured five wickets while giving away 100 runs.

text: Currently playing

text: Record holders who are currently playing ODIs or streaks that are still active and can change have a ^ next to their name.

text: Team[edit]

text: Overall[edit]

text:
Record
First
Second
Ref.

Highest score
 Australia v  Afghanistan (2015)
417–6
 India v  Bermuda (2007)
413–5
[5]

Lowest score
 Canada v  Sri Lanka (2003)
36
 Canada v  England (1979)
 Namibia v  Australia (2003)
45
[6]

Highest match aggregate
 Australia v  Sri Lanka (2015)
688–18
 India v  England (2011)
676–18
[7]

Lowest match aggregate
 Canada v  Sri Lanka (2003)
73–11
 Canada v  England (1979)
91–12
[8]

Highest successful run chase
 Ireland v  England (2011)
329–7
 Bangladesh v  Scotland (2015)
322–4
[9]

Highest winning margin (runs)
 Australia v  Afghanistan (2015)
275
 India v  Bermuda (2007)
 South Africa v  West Indies (2015)
257
[10]

Lowest winning margin (runs)
 Australia v  India (1987)
 Australia v  India (1992)
1
 Sri Lanka v  England (2007)
2
[11]

Highest win %
 Australia
75.30%
 India
65.45%
[12]

Most wins
 Australia
62
 New Zealand
48
[13]

Most losses
 Zimbabwe
42
 Sri Lanka
35
[14]

text: The result percentage excludes no results and counts ties as half a win.[12]

text: The closest margin of victory occurred twice in matches featuring Australia and India. However, there have also been four tied matches in World Cup history.[15]

text: The first was in the 1999 Cricket World Cup semi-final, in which a run out in the final over with only one run required prevented South Africa advancing to the final instead of Australia, who progressed because the latter had a better rank in the previous stage – Super Sixes.[16] The second tied match, in the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa, was a case in which the Duckworth-Lewis method caused a South African loss against Sri Lanka. With the onset of rain, the South African batsmen achieved the score they believed was required to win the match and then blocked out the last ball of the over to avoid losing wickets, however, the score they believed indicated a win actually indicated the score required to tie the match. This tie meant South Africa could not advance to the Super Sixes stage.[17] The third tie happened in a group match between Ireland and Zimbabwe at Kingston in the 2007 Cricket World Cup.[18] The fourth tie happened in a group match between India and England at Bangalore in the 2011 Cricket World Cup.[19]

text: In 2007, South Africa scored 353/3 in a rain-shortened match against the Netherlands. Their effort came from a shortened game of 40 overs, a run rate of 8.83 runs per over.[20]

text: The highest score in a World Cup match is 6–417, achieved by Australia, playing Afghanistan in a group match. Having lost to New Zealand in their previous match, Australia asserted their dominance by beating the associates playing in their first World Cup the highest world records 805 runs and 5 outs

text: One tournament[edit]

text:
100% win record[21]

Team
Year
Matches played

 Australia
(2007)
11

 Australia
(2003)
11

 Sri Lanka
(1996)
8*

 West Indies
(1975)
5

 West Indies
(1979)
4**

text: Note: *Sri Lanka's 8 in 1996 includes 2 wins on forfeit. **West Indies had 5 scheduled matches in 1979, but one was a "no result" due to rain.

text: Streaks[edit]

text:
Record
First
Second

Most consecutive wins
 Australia (1999–2011)
27*[22]
 India (2011–2015)
11[23]

Most consecutive matches without being defeated
 Australia (1999–2011)
34*[22]
 India (2011–2015)
11[23]

Most consecutive defeats
 Zimbabwe (1983–1992)
18[24]
 Scotland (1999–2015)
14[25]

text: *Australia's streak of 34 matches without defeat consists of 32 wins, 1 tie and 1 no-result. During this streak, after 25 straight wins they had a no-result, followed by 2 more wins, making a total of 27 consecutive wins.

text: Batting[edit]

text: Overall[edit]

text: This section is missing information about the second fastest 150. Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. (February 2015)

text:
Record
First
Second
Ref(s)

Most runs
 Sachin Tendulkar
2278
 Ricky Ponting
1743
[26]

Highest average (min. 20 inns.)
 AB de Villiers
63.52
 Michael Clarke
63.42
[27]

Highest Strike rate (min. 20 inns.)
 Brendon McCullum
120.84
 AB de Villiers
117.29
[28]

Fastest double century
 Chris Gayle v Zimbabwe (2015)
138 balls
 Martin Guptill v West Indies (2015)
152 balls
[29]

Fastest 150
 AB de Villiers v West Indies (2015)
64 balls
-
-
[30]

Fastest century
 Kevin O'Brien v England (2011)[31]
50 balls
 Glenn Maxwell v Sri Lanka (2015)
51 balls
[32]

Fastest fifty
 Brendon McCullum v England (2015)
18 balls
 Brendon McCullum v Canada (2007)
 Angelo Mathews v Scotland (2015)
20 balls
[33]

Most centuries
 Sachin Tendulkar
6
 Ricky Ponting
 Kumar Sangakkara

5
[32][34][35]

Most 50+ scores
 Sachin Tendulkar
21
 Kumar Sangakkara
12
[36]

Most ducks
 Nathan Astle
5 out of 22
 Ijaz Ahmed
5 out of 26
[37]

Most sixes
 Chris Gayle
 AB de Villiers
37
 Ricky Ponting
31
[38]

Most sixes in an innings
 Chris Gayle v Zimbabwe (2015)
16
 Martin Guptill v West Indies (2015)
11
[39]

Highest score
 Martin Guptill v West Indies (2015)
237*
 Chris Gayle v Zimbabwe (2015)
215
[40]

Most runs through boundaries in an innings
 Martin Guptill v West Indies (2015)
162
 Chris Gayle v Zimbabwe (2015)
136
[40][41]

Highest partnership
 Marlon Samuels & Chris Gayle
(2nd wicket) v Zimbabwe (2015)
372
 Sourav Ganguly & Rahul Dravid
(2nd wicket) v Sri Lanka (1999)
318
[42]

text: Sachin Tendulkar holds numerous batting records, including those for the most centuries, most fifties and most runs. He also has the most Man of the Match awards.[43]

text: One tournament[edit]

text:
Record
First
Second
Ref(s)

Most centuries
 Kumar Sangakkara
4
2015
 Mark Waugh
 Sourav Ganguly
 Matthew Hayden
3
1996
2003
2007
[32][44]

Most 50+ scores
 Sachin Tendulkar
7
2003[45]
 David Boon
 Martin Crowe
 Javed Miandad
 Sachin Tendulkar
 Rahul Dravid
 Ricky Ponting
 Mahela Jayawardene
 Scott Styris
 Kevin Pietersen
 Graeme Smith
 Yuvraj Singh
 Jonathan Trott
 Steve Smith
5
1987
1992
1992
1996
1999
2007
2007
2007
2007
2007
2011
2011
2015
[36][46]

Most runs in a tournament
 Sachin Tendulkar
673 (11 innings)
2003
 Matthew Hayden
659 (10 innings)[47]
2007
[48]

Most sixes
 Chris Gayle
26 (6 innings)
2015
 AB de Villiers
21 (7 innings)
2015
[49]

text: Streaks[edit]

text:
Record
First
Ref(s)

Most consecutive centuries
 Kumar Sangakkara
4
2015
[50][51]

Most consecutive 50+ scores
 Steve Smith^
5
2015
[52]

Most consecutive ducks
 Nicholas De Groot
 Shem Ngoche
3
2003
2011
[53]

text: Bowling[edit]

text: Overall[edit]

text:
Record
First
Second
Ref(s)

Most wickets
 Glenn McGrath
71
 Muttiah Muralitharan
68
[54]

Lowest average (min. 1000 balls bowled)
 Glenn McGrath
18.19
 Imran Khan
19.26
[55]

Economy rate (min. 1000 balls bowled)
 Andy Roberts
3.24
 Ian Botham
3.43
[56]

Strike rate (min. 1000 balls bowled)
 Lasith Malinga
23.8
 Zaheer Khan
27.1
[57]

Best bowling figures
 Glenn McGrath v Namibia (2003)
7–15
 Andrew Bichel v England (2003)
7–20
[58]

Most wickets in consecutive balls
 Lasith Malinga
4 v South Africa (2007)

 Chetan Sharma
3 v New Zealand (1987)
[59][60]

 Saqlain Mushtaq
3 v Zimbabwe (1999)

 Chaminda Vaas
3 v Bangladesh (2003)

 Brett Lee
3 v Kenya (2003)

 Lasith Malinga
3 v Kenya (2011)

 Kemar Roach
3 v Netherlands (2011)

 Steven Finn
3 v Australia (2015)

 JP Duminy
3 v Sri Lanka (2015)

text: Glenn McGrath dominates the bowling records, and holds all but three of the records. Lasith Malinga became the first player to take four wickets in four balls at an international level in the 2007 World Cup, against South Africa.[61] Chaminda Vaas took four wickets in five balls against Bangladesh in 2003, including wickets with the first three balls of the match. There have also been hat tricks in Cricket World Cups by Chetan Sharma, Saqlain Mushtaq, Brett Lee, Kemar Roach, Steven Finn and JP Duminy.[59][62][63]

text: Chetan Sharma was the first bowler to take a hat-trick in a Cricket World Cup. Lasith Malinga was the first bowler to take 2 hat-tricks during the Cricket World Cup.

text: One tournament[edit]

text:
Wickets
Player
Year
Matches
Overs
Maidens
Runs
Economy Rate
Best Bowling

26
 Glenn McGrath
2007
11
80.5
5
357
4.41
3 / 14

23
 Chaminda Vaas
2003
10
88
14
331
3.76
6 / 25

23
 Muttiah Muralitharan
2007
10
84.4
1
351
4.14
4 / 19

23
 Shaun Tait
2007
11
84.3
1
467
5.52
4 / 29

text: Fielding[edit]

text: While records for best fielders have varied through different World Cups, the records for wicketkeepers have been occupied by Kumar Sangakkara who holds the record for most dismissals overall and Adam Gilchrist which holds the record for most dismissals by a wicketkeeper in one tournament and in one match.

text: Overall[edit]

text:
Record
First
Second
Ref(s)

Most dismissals (wicketkeeper)
 Kumar Sangakkara
54
 Adam Gilchrist
52
[64]

Most catches (fielder)
 Ricky Ponting
28
 Sanath Jayasuriya
18+
7/ ///|[65]

text: One tournament[edit]

text:
Record
First
Second
Ref(s)

Most dismissals (wicketkeeper)
 Adam Gilchrist
21
2003
 Kumar Sangakkara
 Adam Gilchrist
17
2003
2007
[66]

Most catches (fielder)
 Ricky Ponting
11
2003
 Rilee Rossouw
9
2015
[67]

text: One match[edit]

text:
Record
First
Ref(s)

Most dismissals (wicketkeeper)
 Adam Gilchrist
 Sarfraz Ahmed
6
2003
2015
[68]

Most catches (fielder)
 Mohammed Kaif
 Soumya Sarkar
 Umar Akmal
4
2003
2015
2015
[69]

text: Extras[edit]

text: An extra is a run scored by a means other than a batsman hitting the ball. Other than runs scored off the bat from a no-ball, a batsman is not given credit for extras and the extras are tallied separately on the scorecard and count only towards the team's score.

text:
Record
First
Second
Ref(s)

Most extras conceded in one innings
 Scotland v  Pakistan (1999)
59 (5 b, 6 lb, 33 w, 15 nb)
 India v  Zimbabwe (1999)
51 (0 b, 14 lb, 21 w, 16 nb)
[70]

text: Other Records[edit]

text: There are certain records other than batting, bowling or fielding. These records include participation records, hosting records etc.

text: Grounds[edit]

text: The World Cup has been held in England four times. As a result, English grounds have hosted the most World Cup matches.

text:
Record
First
Second
Ref(s)

Most matches hosted by a ground
 Headingley, Leeds
12
 Trent Bridge, Nottingham
 Old Trafford, Manchester
 Edgbaston, Birmingham
11
[71][72]

text: Umpires[edit]

text:
Record
First
Second
Ref(s)

Most matches as umpire in World Cup
 David Shepherd
46
 Steve Bucknor
45
[73]

Most finals as umpire in World Cup
 Steve Bucknor
5
 David Shepherd
 Dickie Bird
3
[74]

text: Appearances[edit]

text: In Terms of World Cup Tournaments[edit]

text: Note:This includes players who were in the final announced squads of their respective countries for the Tournament.

text:
Tournaments played
Player
List of appearances
Notes and References

6
 Javed Miandad
 Sachin Tendulkar
1975,1979,1983,1987,1992,1996
1992,1996,1999,2003,2007,2011
[75]

5
 Imran Khan
 Arjuna Ranatunga
 Wasim Akram
 Aravinda de Silva
 Brian Lara
 Sanath Jayasuriya
 Inzamam-ul-Haq
 Ricky Ponting
 Jacques Kallis
 S. Chanderpaul
 M. Muralitharan
 Steve Tikolo
 Thomas Odoyo
 Shahid Afridi
 Daniel Vettori^
 Mahela Jayawardene
1975,1979,1983,1987,1992
1983,1987,1992,1996,1999
1987,1992,1996,1999,2003
1987,1992,1996,1999,2003
1992,1996,1999,2003,2007
1992,1996,1999,2003,2007
1992,1996,1999,2003,2007
1996,1999,2003,2007,2011
1996,1999,2003,2007,2011
1996,1999,2003,2007,2011
1996,1999,2003,2007,2011
1996,1999,2003,2007,2011
1996,1999,2003,2007,2011
1999,2003,2007,2011,2015
1999,2003,2007,2011,2015
1999,2003,2007,2011,2015

^ Vettori was part of the 1999 world cup squad but didn't
appear even in a single match (he was a substitute throughout the tournament)

text: In Terms of Matches[edit]

text: The top 10 list is dominated by players who have appeared in five World Cup tournaments.

text:
Record
First
Second
Ref(s)

Most appearances in World Cup
 Ricky Ponting
46
 Sachin Tendulkar
45
[76]

text: Representing More Than One Country[edit]

text: Anderson Cummins, Kepler Wessels, Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan are the only four players to have represented two different countries in Cricket World Cup.[77]

text: Most World Cup Titles[edit]

text: Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath and Ricky Ponting share the record of three World Cup titles. Each was a member of Australia's winning teams of 1999, 2003 and 2007.

text: Age[edit]

text: A total of 76 players aged 20 years or less had made an appearance in the World Cup[78] and 18 players aged more than 40 had played in the competition.[79]

text:
Record
First
Second
Ref(s)

Youngest player
 Nitish Kumar
16 years, 283 days
2011
 Talha Jubair
17 years, 70 days
2003
[80][81]

Oldest player
 Nolan Clarke
47 years, 257 days
1996
 John Traicos
44 years, 306 days
1992
[82][83]

text: Captaincy[edit]

text:
Record
First
Second
Ref(s)

Most matches as captain[84]
 Ricky Ponting
29
 Stephen Fleming
27
[85]

Best win % as captain (min. 10 matches)[84]
 Ricky Ponting
92.85% (29 matches)
 Clive Lloyd
88.23% (17 matches)
[85]

text: Youngest Captain to lift World Cup Trophy[edit]

text:
World Cup
Captain
Age

1983
Kapil Dev
24 yrs 5 mnths 19 days

2003
Ricky Ponting
28 yrs 3 mnths 4 days

2011
M S Dhoni
29 yrs 8 mnths 26 days