Shere Khan is a fictional Bengal tiger in Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book and its adaptations. He is often portrayed as the main antagonist, itself an exaggeration of his role in the original stories, in which he only appears a third of the time. Shere Khan is named after Afghan Emperor Sher Shah Suri. Khan is a title of distinction among the Turco-Mongol peoples, usually meaning chief or ruler. According to The Kipling Society, the name shows that Shere Khan "is the chief among tigers". Source: Wikipedia (en)