# How come no tigers in Africa? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 11, 2006, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-tigers-in-africa/368366 "2006-08-11T22:46:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-tigers-in-africa/368366/1 "2006-08-11T22:46:06Z")
I was at a parent/teacher conference t’other day. I noticed one of the kids had a book on his desk. The book was entitled, “African Folk Tales.” It had a picture of a happy little kid surrounded by all manner of African animals: The proper sort of elephant, hyenas, Anansi was there, some zebras…and a tiger. And I became mildy annoyed that there would be a tiger on the cover of a book expressly concerning itself with Africa. My first thought was, “Why is there a tiger on the cover of this book when tigers are not an African animal?” Then I wondered, “Gee, do tigers maybe appear in some African tales–maybe as a representation of a lost traveller?” And then my mind settled on, "Why the hell didn’t tigers ever make it into Africa? There were lions in Yurp and Asia–what kept the tigers out of Africa? Was it an early form of feline Apartheid? Was it blatant specism? Irreconcilable religious differences? What? And don’t tell me it was a food problem because people abound in Africa and tigers don’t mind eating people. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-tigers-in-africa/368366/2 "2006-08-11T23:21:57Z")
“We _found_ the skin in a bicycle shop in Cairo. The owner wanted us to take it to Dar Es Salaam…” “God told us to do it.” “To tell you the truth, we’re completely mad.” Okay, I got nothin’. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-tigers-in-africa/368366/3 "2006-08-11T23:28:55Z")
Eh…it was worth it. No I have to dig out the movie for tonight. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-tigers-in-africa/368366/4 "2006-08-11T23:28:59Z")
Going by [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tiger_distribution.gif), they perhaps never got anywhere near Africa? The automatic assumption ‘big cat = Africa’ is understandable, given the ignorance presented to children (cf the OP), but nonetheless wrong. Or, to put it another way, why no pumas in Africa? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-tigers-in-africa/368366/5 "2006-08-11T23:33:40Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] Going by [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tiger_distribution.gif), they perhaps never got anywhere near Africa? The automatic assumption ‘big cat = Africa’ is understandable, given the ignorance presented to children (cf the OP), but nonetheless wrong. Or, to put it another way, why no pumas in Africa? 🙂 [/QUOTE] Well…no pumas in Africa because…well shoot, Cheetahs came from America so yeah, them too. Why the hell no pumas in Africa either? Back to tigers tho, is there a geographical tiger barrier of some kind in the middle east? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-tigers-in-africa/368366/6 "2006-08-11T23:43:27Z")
[QUOTE=Inigo Montoya] Back to tigers tho, is there a geographical tiger barrier of some kind in the middle east? [/QUOTE] I’m no zoologist…but there’s a fair few deserts around that part of the world! ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2006, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-tigers-in-africa/368366/7 "2006-08-12T00:09:51Z")
[QUOTE=Inigo Montoya] And then my mind settled on, "Why the hell didn’t tigers ever make it into Africa? [/quote] Insuffient cover. Seriously. Tigers are solitary ambush hunters and need relatively densely wooded land to hunt successfully and compete with the other big cats. They are restricted to forests, mangrove swamps and similar densely timbered country and there have always been large stretches of desert an open savanna between south Asia and the sub-Saharan African forests. > [@](#): > > There were lions in Yurp and Asia.,.. What’s this “were” bit? There still are lions in India. Leopards managed to cover an even greater range. That’s because lions and leopards have no probelm hunting in deserts and open savanna and so were easily able to cross southern Europe and Asia. ---
**Author:** ![Amaranta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Amaranta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amaranta)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2006, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-tigers-in-africa/368366/8 "2006-08-12T01:06:09Z")
But… but… the internet doesn’t lie! There’s [lions and tigers, only in Kenya!](http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/kenya/) (probably NSFW - sound) Kenya, oh Kenya, come to Kennnnnyaaaaa… ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2006, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-tigers-in-africa/368366/9 "2006-08-12T01:31:10Z")
[QUOTE=Amaranta] But… but… the internet doesn’t lie! There’s [lions and tigers, only in Kenya!](http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/kenya/) (probably NSFW - sound) Kenya, oh Kenya, come to Kennnnnyaaaaa… [/QUOTE] Kenya believe it?!? You beat me to it.. In reality, you’ll have to go back a Million years to see tigers in Africa: [http://www.indiantiger.org/tigers-around-the-globe/african-tiger.html](http://www.indiantiger.org/tigers-around-the-globe/african-tiger.html) > [@](#): > > African Tiger > Although conventional wisdom has it that there never have been tigers in Africa, there is evidence from fossils that the sabre-tooth species was found in many parts of the continent until about a million years ago. Dramatic climate and geographic change was a likely cause why they forgot Kenya.