• Tigers cannot purr, unlike domestic cats, but produce a characteristic “chuff”.
• A tiger’s stripes are unique like fingerprints and show even on the skin.
• The length of a tiger's canine teeth without the root is 8 cm. This helps in holding and killing large prey.
• White tigers are not a separate subspecies but the result of a pigment-gene mutation; the last wild white tiger was shot in 1958.
• Tiger urine smells like buttered popcorn — that is how it marks territory.
• The tiger is the best swimmer among big cats and can cross rivers several kilometres wide.
• The white spots on the backs of the ears act as “false eyes”, deterring pursuers or helping cubs follow their mother.

The young tiger has soft fur with stripes, which helps it to hide. Adult tigers possess long, sharp fangs that allow them to quickly kill prey by biting in the neck, and have sharp retractable claws on their paws, aiding in capturing prey and climbing trees. The species' fur is dense and orange in color with black stripes; each tiger’s stripe pattern is unique and helps it to camouflage in the forest. It also has long, sensitive whiskers that assist in navigation in darkness and precise distance determination.