The tiger is the most aquatic big cat and often hunts in water. Unlike most cats, tigers regularly enter ponds, rivers, lakes, and flooded wetlands to cool themselves, travel, ambush prey, and escape heat.
Tigers are powerful swimmers, and their partially webbed toes help them move through water. They may swim several kilometres and have been observed crossing wide rivers. Bengal tigers are especially associated with the mangrove channels and tidal waterways of the Sundarbans, where land and water form a shifting hunting landscape.
A common mix-up is the jaguar, which is also an excellent swimmer and frequently hunts aquatic prey such as caimans, fish, and turtles. The distinction is that tigers are broadly recognized for their unusually regular use of water across their range, while jaguars are particularly specialized for aquatic hunting in parts of the Americas. Tigers still mainly hunt terrestrial animals, including deer and wild pigs.