Black, white and orange everywhere: beautiful striped coats and powerful, alluring eyes make tigers one of the most revered wild animals in the world. It's awe-inspiring mixed with fear, an appropriate response to a large, muscular, agile hunter with 1- to 2-inch canine teeth and 3- to 4-inch claws. Tigers are stalkers and ambush hunters, and the distinctive stripes provide great camouflage in tall grass or wooded forests in different habitats. Dark stripes on a light background break up the tiger's silhouette as it waits for prey.
Tigers can also be black with tan stripes, all white (albino), or white and tan. The "white tigers" found in some zoos are not albinos, but white and brown variants with blue eyes (true albinos have pink eyes).