Tigers in popular culture

"Life of Pi" is a philosophical novel by Yann Martel that won the 2002 Booker Prize for Literature before a lush big screen adaptation won four Oscars in 2012, including best director for Ang Lee. The surreal survival story sees shipwreck survivors Pi Patel and misnamed Bengal tiger Richard Parker float adrift at sea on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean.

This opening line of "The Tyger" by English poet William Blake was part of his "Songs of Experience" collection, and is among the most recognizable in English poetry. It explores Christian religious paradigms, questioning how a God could have created an animal so ferocious as a tiger alongside gentler creatures like lambs. Pictured here is Blake's own writing and illustration.

In Rudyard Kipling's "Jungle Book," Shere Khan is a ferocious Bengal tiger who "hates man with a vengeance [...] because he fears man's gun and man's fire" and the threat to his alpha animal status in the jungle. Seen here is a still from the beloved 1967 animated Disney version where Shere Khan meets Mowgli, the "man cub" who he's determined to expel from his territory.

Not all tigers in literature have a bone to pick with man though. In A.A. Milne's beloved "Winnie the Pooh" children's book series, Tigger is Pooh's happy, energetic and sometimes troublemaking tiger friend. Tigger bounces around often to experience joy, sometimes even bouncing on others. He's also known to misspell English words like "ridicarus" for "ridiculous."

Often cited as the last great newspaper comic, cartoonist Bill Watterson's "Calvin and Hobbes," which ran from 1985 to 1995, follows the adventures of the mischievous boy Calvin and his best friend Hobbes — a tiger that may or may not actually exist. Named after 16th-century theologian John Calvin and 17th-century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes respectively, the strip celebrated imagination.

Italian author Emilio Salgari wrote this fictional tale of a 19th-century prince-turned-pirate, first published in 1883. The last of a dynasty of Borneo rulers, Sandokan avenges the murder of his parents by colonialists, and becomes known throughout the South China Sea as the "tiger of Malaysia." But the story and films (such as pictured above) are better known in Europe than in Malaysia.

The unmistakable opening riff of the Rocky 3 theme song has become a pop culture staple — especially when accompanying narratives of never-say-die type protagonists. Written and performed by the United States band Survivor, "Eye of the Tiger" has been used as an intro music by conservative US politicians. But the band has demanded that political campaigns cease using the song.

Another Booker Prize winner, "The White Tiger" is a novel by Arvind Adiga. Adapted into a film for Netflix in 2021, it tells the story of Balram Halwai, a poor Indian driver whose street smarts see him break free from serving his rich masters to become a "self-made entrepreneur." A visiting school inspector once called him the "white tiger" while noting his potential, despite his humble origins.

Run by Buddhist monks, the once popular Tiger Temple in Bangkok was open to paying tourists who could pet, feed or take pictures with the tigers for additional fees. Animals rights groups, however, had long alleged animal abuse and trafficking. It was shut down in 2016 after police raided the site and found 40 dead tiger cubs in the temple's kitchen freezer, along with other animal body parts.

A detail of the rug "Ode to the Tigers of Bandhavgarh" by Indian-born, London-based artist Raqib Shaw is seen here as part of the "Tomorrow's Tigers" project in 2019. Ten tiger-themed rugs by international artists were put up for sale at Sotheby's auction house in London. It was part of a World Wide Fund for Nature's project to raise funds and awareness to double wild tiger numbers by 2022.

If the title of the Netflix series doesn't make you question the legality of the business of big cat breeding in Florida, the shady characters might: Self-styled Joe Exotic breeds tigers for profit, while a "conservationist" tries to shut him down, Carole Baskin who runs Big Cat Rescue. In January 2022, a court upheld Exotic's 21-year sentence for plotting to kill Baskin — and for animal abuse.