Royal Bengal tiger (© sourabh/Getty Images)

Tigers reshape the landscape without being seen. A single presence, and the forest rearranges itself around it. The Royal Bengal tiger moves through India's forests, grasslands and mangrove swamps with a quiet authority that no other predator matches. It hunts with patience, not spectacle, using scent marks, sharpened senses and near-perfect night vision to stalk deer and wild boar. When it strikes, it does so with a finality that explains why no other creature in the wild dares contest its ground.