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 States.
