Royal Bangal Taiger

The Royal Bangal Taiger :
Tigers in Bangladesh are now relegated to the forests of the Sundarbans and the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The Chittagong forest is contiguous with tiger habitat in India and Myanmar, but the tiger population is of unknown status.
As of 2004, population estimates in Bangladesh ranged from 200 to 419, mostly in the Sunderbans.This region is the only mangrove habitat in this bioregion, where tigers survive, swimming between islands in the delta to hunt prey. Bangladesh's Forest Department is raising mangrove plantations supplying forage for spotted deer. Since 2001, afforestation has continued on a small scale in newly accreted lands and islands of the Sundarbans. From October 2005 to January 2007, the first camera-trap survey was conducted across six sites in the Bangladesh Sundarbans to estimate tiger population density. The average of these six sites provided an estimate of 3.7 tigers per 100 km² (39 sq mi). Since the Bangladesh Sundarbans is an area of 5,770 km² (2,230 sq mi) it was inferred that the total tiger population comprised approximately 200 individuals. In another study, home ranges of adult female tigers were recorded comprising between 12 and 14 km² (4.6 and 5.4 sq mi)., which would indicate an approximate carrying capacity of 150 adult females. The small home range of adult female tigers (and consequent high density of tigers) in this habitat type relative to other areas may be related to both the high density of prey and the small size of the Sundarbans tigers.
Since 2007 tiger monitoring surveys have been carried out every year by WildTeam in the Bangladesh Sundarbans to monitor changes in the Bangladesh tiger population and assess the effectiveness of conservation actions. This survey measures changes in the frequency of tiger track sets along the sides of tidal waterways as an index of relative tiger abundance across the Sundarbans landscape.

Some interesting facts:
1. Since tigers hunt mostly at dusk and dawn their stripes help them hide in the shadows of tall grasses. They stalk and pounce because they are not able to chase prey a long distance.
2. The territorial male tiger usually travels alone, marking his boundaries with urine, droppings, and scratch marks to warn off trespassers.
3. A tiger can consume as much as 40 kg (88 lb.) of meat in one feeding.
4. Tigers may drag their prey to water to eat. They are commonly seen in the shade or wading in pools to cool off.
5. Since white tigers have pigmented stripes and blue eyes, they are not albinos.
6. It is estimated that there are less than 3,000 Bengal tigers left in the wild.