ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris)

[GuateGojira]

Sundari (T-02), the famous lady of Nagarahole:
 
Following the same road of Peter, I decided to share an interesting fact that I have found about Sundari, the only tigress captured in Nagarahole NP and at this day, the heaviest female tiger on scientific record.
 
Most of our data about the four tigers captured in Nagarahole NP came from a second hand source, which is the mandatory book of Dr Sunquist and his wife Fiona “Wild Cats of the World” of 2002. The table on tiger size is the first source of the body size of those tigers in southwest India. The other source for the weights is the book “Hulirayana Akashavani” (2007) of Dr Karanth and TS Gopal, written in Kannada, and translated by an old poster named “Ppardus”, a very reliable source in the old days of AVA.
 
The point is that the two sources quotes different weights for the male tigers, and I don’t even know if the second sources even mention the female weight, although it shows its picture.
 
At the end, the conclusion was that the weights of the Kannada book were the original ones and those in Sunquist book are those adjusted for stomach content (-30 kg each specimen). However, I always had the doubt about Sundari (T-02), was she adjusted? The weight that presents Sunquist is of 177 kg, so I guess it should be, but now, I think that something seems incorrect.
 
Like all know, I have the book “Tiger: the ultimate guide” of Valmik Thapar (2004), and at it, there are several small chapters of other authors that enlarge specific themes about the life of the tigers. One of them is “Tigers and Leopards” from Dr Karanth (page 144) and there, he describe, for the second time in a first-hand form (the first was the 240 kg male tiger T-01 that latter died from infected injures and old age), the weight of one of his tigers, the one and only Sundari, check it out:

*This image is copyright of its original author

 
Yes, that is a taste of the magnificent book that is “Tigers: the ultimate guide” and is as large as a big Bible, if you have the $6.00 that cost (used), expend it, its value is incredible. But returning to the point, we can see that he mention that she weighed 145 kg, not the 177 kg figure of Sunquist, and what is more important, 177 – 145 = 32 kg, just about the same number used to adjust the males T-01 T-03 and T-04, which is "30 kg".
 
I send an email do Dr Karanth, trying to not sound to “interested” in the weight, and here is his answer:

*This image is copyright of its original author

 
It is confirmed, it is the same tigress and the weight, although a "round number", it is accurate. So, is this 145 kg figure the weight of the tigress “adjusted” or it’s another weight recorded in the five years when she was captured many times to change her radiocollar? For the moment, I don’t have a clear answer to this. In his other paper “The Tiger: Power and Fragility” Dr Karanth mentions Sundari again, this time with a weight of 150 kg:
“As the 150 kilogram lethal projectile hurtled towards them, the gaur scattered into the heavy shrubbery which lay on their side of the clearing.”
Source: http://savingwildtigers.org/karanth.html

It seems that 145 kg and 150 kg are just the round number of a real figure: 177 - 30 = 147 kg "empty".
 
The point is that if we see her size (161 cm head-body and 248 cm total length) she doesn’t look any exceptional in size, the largest Nepalese tigress T-101 measured 274 cm and weighed 164 kg while the long T-107 measured 282 cm but weighed “only” 148 kg. Based on this, Sundari should be (or most be) a very robust tigress. Here are some pictures of her to give us an idea of her proportions.

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

 
With the presented data, what do you think, is she the giant of 177 kg that we think, or is she a c.147 kg “empty” tigress, famous for its 5 years giving very important data to Dr Karanth in the paradise that is now Nagarahole?
 
Your turn guys. [img]images/smilies/huh.gif[/img]
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