Bengal Tigers

The wild Bengal tiger is the largest found tiger in India. The World Conservation Union Cat Specialist Group has estimated between 3,250 - 4,700 Bengal tigers in the Indian sub-continent. There are 66 different protected zones for the Bengal tigers in India. There are 3 protected zones for Bengal tigers in Nepal inhabiting around 150-250 tigers, 4 protected areas in Bhutan housing 50-250 tigers, 3 protected areas in Bangladesh housing 300-450 tigers. The number of wild Bengal tigers in Myanmar is unknown. Bengal tigers have been captivated in zoos since 1880. The first zoo in India to provide habitat to the tigers was the Alipore Zoo in Calcutta. They have been bred so successfully in captivity that there are astonishingly high captive Bengals today. Many are sent to sanctuaries to live out their lives. The International Tiger Studbook says the total captive population of pure- bred (there has been a lot of crossing of pure Bengals with tigers of unknown descent) Bengal tigers is 333. Of those 333, 289 have the orange color typical of tigers and the remaining 44 are white. All of the pure strain captive Bengal tigers are housed in zoos in India except for 1 pure strain female Bengal tiger that is housed in the United