Tigresses of Telia Lake in Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, India

© Ashish Parmar/Alam

One rare streak. International Tiger Day

Famously solitary, tigers seldom live in groups so this rare “streak”, as a group of tigers is called, is an exception. So much so, they became the subjects of a TV documentary called ‘Girl Gang of Telia’. Today, on International Tiger Day, we’re featuring these tigress sisters from Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, only about 3,900 tigers are left in the wild (compared with at least 20,000 lions), their decline caused by poaching and the fragmentation and destruction of their habitat. While tigers once roamed over almost all of Asia and parts of the Middle East, their natural territory has been reduced by 93%. By far the largest number of wild tigers can be found here in India, home to between 70% and 80% of the world’s tiger population. Russia and Bangladesh are a distant second and third.

Tigers are the largest of all cats, weighing as much as 660lb (300kg) and the largest terrestrial animal whose diet consists solely of meat. They are ambush predators who hunt mostly at night, relying on stealth and strength to take down large prey like deer, boar, buffalo and even crocodiles. Their stripes camouflage them in forests and tall grass, and each tiger’s stripes are as unique as fingerprints are among people. Mona, Seeta, Lara, and Sonam, the tigress sisters, began to hunt together to improve their chances of catching prey. This behaviour is typical of lions but almost unheard of for tigers, proving they can adapt, in order to succeed.