Wild Tiger Health Project
Created by Dr John C M Lewis

Tigers are generally solitary.

• Adults usually maintain intra-sexually exclusive territories (home ranges), i.e. the ranges of males will completely overlap those of one or more females, but there will be little overlap between males or between female territories.
• Adult males occupy much larger home ranges than females.
• Adult male home ranges typically overlap 1-3 female ranges.
• Home range size is dependent on prey density – being relatively small where prey is abundant. In Chitwan and parts of the more productive areas of India, the home ranges of females vary from ~10-40km², while those of males vary from ~ 20–200 km². In the Russian Far East, the home ranges of females vary from ~ 200-400 km^2., while those of males have been recorded in excess of 2000 km^2.
• Tiger densities vary from < 1 per 100 km² where prey densities are low (e.g. the Russian Far East) to > 10 per 100 km² where prey abundance is high in some areas of India.
• Tigers reach highest densities in very productive habitat under strong protection
• Adult females usually live out their lives in one area, whereas males hold territories for shorter times.

Tiger – tiger contact:

• The only long-term, day-to-day association between tigers is between a mother and her cubs.
• Males associate with females for breeding, and in high density populations have been observed with familiar females and cubs when resting or feeding. (Males may be tolerant of cubs they have sired, although data from the Russian Far East suggest that males do not recognise their offspring but rather assume cubs in their home range are their own.).
• Otherwise tigers meet during mating and during occasional encounters between individuals.
• Males occasionally fight over an oestrus female or territory. When they take over a new territory, males may kill existing cubs, presumably so that the resident female will come into oestrus more quickly.
• Male-male interactions may occur when young males are dispersing through territories of mature resident males.
• There is variation in contact rates in different habitats.

Whilst tigers are generally solitary, they are not anti-social.

• Tigers live within a social system maintained by visual signs, scent marks and vocalisations. Scent marks are probably the most important.
• Marking fluid is a lipid rich component of urine sprayed onto objects such as trees trunks, rocks, bushes etc, where it may persist for < 40 days. The underside of leaning trees and overhanging rocks are favourite places.
• Scent from glands located on the cheeks and between the toes is also deposited on suitable objects in a tigers territory.
• Anal gland scents are deposited on faeces.
• Visual signals include spray locations, scrapes, claw marks on trees and faeces left in obvious places.
• Scent marking & other signs are thought to provide information about individual identity, sex, reproductive condition and the time of marking.
• Tigers mark intensively when establishing a territory.
• Females scent-mark more frequently as they come into oestrus and are ready for mating.