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Myth busted!
Scientists once thought
Amur tigers were the
biggest cats in the world.
But new data show theyre
the same size as
India s Bengal
tigers.

A long tAIl helpS
A runnIng tIger
keep ItS BAlAnce.
MuM teAcheS her By KAreN De Seve
twInS to hunt. ilently moving through the trees,
S
a tigress stalks her prey. Deep
snow covers the ground and with
each step the big cat sinks in to
her belly. She knows the snow will
muffle any sounds, so she can sneak up on a
wild boar that is rooting around for pine nuts.
A few metres away, the tiger pauses, crouches
and then launches her 125-kilogram body
towards her prey. Snow sprays with each leap
as her plate-sized paws prepare to pounce on
the boar.
in the Snow tail and orange, black and white body. Now
A powdery cloud fills the air. Then the
snow settles, revealing the metre-long
stained red, the tigress grasps the boar in
her mouth.
She carries her catch behind some larch
© tom & pat leeson / ardea (big picture); © image source / corbis (tiger running); © toshiji fukuda / minden pictures (tiger and cubs) watching their mother hunt. They practise
trees and her two cubs join her from a nearby
hill. Camouflaged among the trees, they were
their pouncing as they approach their
dinner. These yearlings will start hunting for
themselves in three to six months. For now,
they are content with the meal their mother
provided, followed by some snooze time. The
cats curl up near their dinner scraps and fall
asleep as a night-time chill creeps through
the forest.
These Siberian or Amur tigers live
further north than any other tiger
subspecies.

N at i o N a l G e o G r a p h i c K i D S 19