Tyger (heraldry)

Tyger, also known as heraldic tiger or tygre, is an imaginary beast used as a charge in heraldry.

It has the tufted tail of a lion and a thick mane along the neck like a horse.

It has large jaws and a pointed or even horned snout, and its head bears little resemblance to that of any real animal except, distantly, the wolf's.

[citation needed] As real tigers were unknown to early British heraldists, depictions of this creature were drawn from artists' ideas of this creature that they knew only through secondhand accounts.

[1] When real tigers became better known to Europeans, notably through the colonization of India, they began to be depicted in heraldry alongside the traditional heraldic tyger.