Animal trainers

[Polar]

(02-09-2016, 03:17 AM)Pckts Wrote: I have read quite a bit of animal trainers and there are usually some common grounds, a couple of those are these statements

-Tigers a bit more agile, faster with their movements and more unpredictable than lions
-Lions are more about Hierarchy and the Group and Tigers are more about themselves.  
-Lions are bit more rigid in their movements
-Lions are overly aggressive/possessive during mating season where a tiger doesn't seem to care as much and certainly isn't as protective over the female, just his breeding rights.

Tigers just all and all seem to not handle captivity as well compared to lions, lions have more of a one track mind and as long as they are taken care of in the female and food dep't they usually do just fine where a tiger is a bit more sensitive and susceptible to a number of emotional issues, Stress and anxiety seem to be two major factors.
This is purely an observation made by me from reading multiple big cat trainers takes on the animals.
My guess to this is probably the brain of the tiger, I know some will still debate who's smarter but the fact remains that the tiger has the larger brain of the two and with a larger brain may come more complex thoughts, may be they have these emotional breakdowns because they are able to have a bit more complex internal thoughts. (Purely speculation by me)



I have only read a few trainers speak about polar bears but so far I am getting the gist that they are aggressive creatures with very unpredictable nature
But all and all, of course its going to come down to individual personalities and also the scenarios they are trained under.

The first four points are okay, but the fifth one, I am referring to a wild tiger, not a trained tiger. I've seen/read accounts of tigers attacking other resident tigers simply because they thought that the victim tiger was homing on to his mate (and note that, in some of these accounts, these tigers were "territories" apart from each other.) I can provide some if you want, I have it on my USB drive.

I don't really think that tigers are more capable of emotional complexity than lions. Felines, small and big, are very stern and cold when it comes to expressing their emotions, rather than a dog or bear who actively engages in emotional expression. Emotional breakdown increase in tigers? I don't really understand that concept, could you clarify that for me, please?

However, I agree with tigers possessing increased strategical intelligence (since they're alone and have to adapt to hunting different large prey) and slightly more memory than lions. Situational awareness, logical/emotional intelligence, and skill learning rate are very similar among the two, in my opinion.  Although, ursids take the lead in most of mental abilities.

I will have to say this, though. It seems that these two cats were subjected to different methods of training, socialization, behavior, appearance, and/or skill, thus the reason why some trainers prefer one over the other.

I am still really doubtful of circus trainers'/big cat trainers' opinions as they seem to have bias as well as little to none knowledge of the animals in their wild form. Reply