The beautiful, striped coat and that powerful, mesmerizing gaze make the tiger one of the world’s most revered animals. It’s a reverence mixed with a bit of fear, an appropriate reaction to a large, well-muscled, swift hunter with inch-long claws and three-inch-long canine teeth. The tiger is a stalk-and-ambush hunter, and the distinctive stripes are good camouflage in the long grass or wooded forests of their habitat. Dark stripes on a pale background break up the tiger’s outline as it lies in wait for prey to come near. Tigers are not gregarious big cats like lions—they tend to be solitary, usually coming together only for mating, and mothers with their cubs. Cubs have a lot to learn, so they stay with their moms for up to three years.