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I N T R O D U C T I O N

Despite its great size, the Bengal tiger is able to move through the forest in silence, stalking sensitive prey like deer without alerting them to its presence.

T he tiger is one of nature’s masterpieces. A creature of beauty and grace, it rivals only humans in its power and cunning. Whether encountered through the bars of a zoo’s enclosure, or glimpsed in the wild as it stalks its prey with silent footfalls and eyes red as fire, the sight of this great cat is not easily forgotten. The tiger’s body is thickly yet exquisitely designed, the steely muscles in its back and shoulders rippling in movement, the huge legs propelling it so smoothly and qui- etly that it seems to be gliding above the jungle floor. It is the largest of all felines, some measuring up to 13 feet (4 meters) long and weighing as much as 700 pounds (318 kilograms). Its powerful canine teeth, nearly the size of aman’s finger, can kill even large prey in an instant, and it has been known to bring down adversaries as big as the elephant and the rhinoceros. When the tiger is on the prowl, the atmosphere in the forest is charged, and the air crackles with assorted cries of danger. Until this century, the tiger was the uncontested ruler of its domain, an invincible predatory monarch. It reigned supreme not just in its legendary habitat, the wilds of India, but in the jungles and mangroves of Southeast

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