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How does a tiger become invisible in the jungle?

Did you know that your house cat is a distant relative of a tiger? Only a tiger is 50 times bigger! An adult tiger weighs up to 300 kilograms - as much as three adult men combined. And its length with its tail is 3 meters. It is the largest wild cat in the world!

But the most amazing thing is how it hunts. Imagine: an orange animal with black stripes lies in the grass. It would seem that it can be seen from a kilometer away. But it is not! In the jungle, where the sun breaks through the leaves, these stripes turn the tiger into a shadow. The eyes of the animal it is waiting for see only spots of light and shadow. This is called camouflage.

A tiger can sit still for four hours. Not a muscle twitches! Then it makes a 20-foot jump. It's like jumping over an entire car in one jump. Its paws are padded, so it carries even such a large carcass more quietly than a cat scurrying across the carpet.

Did you know that each tiger has its own unique pattern of stripes? Just like your fingerprints. Scientists can identify each tiger in nature by its stripes, like a passport. If you shave a tiger (which, of course, no one does), the stripes will even remain on the skin!

Unfortunately, there are only about 4,500 tigers left in the world. A hundred years ago, there were 100,000 of them. That is why special reserves have been created in India and Russia, where these striped giants live in safety. The tiger is a real miracle that we must protect.