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

[Shardul]

@peter,

I would like to point out a few things regarding your post.

1) The Terai arc map posted by Pckts shows the whole TAL, not just from Indian side. Out of the 49,500 km2 total area, 30,000km2 is in India and the rest in Nepal.

2) Kumaon region (extreme west of the Terai, where present Corbett National Park lies) was never a part of Nepal, but the then United provinces under British India.

3) Chitwan is not in the center of Terai, but the extreme east.

4) We only have measurements from Chitwan National park in the whole of Terai. We don't have any scientific data from other parts, including Corbett National Park or any of the other dozen protected areas. So very difficult to form any conclusion.

5) The typical Terai Bhabar ecosystem is characterized by tall elephant grass, alluvial flood plains and swamps, which is also similar to the river floodplain ecosystem, of which Kaziranga is the last remnant (most of the river floodplain ecosystem has been turned into agricultural land because of its high yield), being sustained by the mighty Brahmaputra river. In that sense, Kaziranga and Chtiwan might have similar ecosystems.

6) Nagarahole National park is in southern India, but the tigers there are about as large as those in Chitwan ( avge 217 kg vs 221 kg). It is part of the western ghats landscape and the Bandipur-Nagarahole-Wayanad-Mudumalai complex. Since nagarahole was the place dr karanth based his studies on, we have the data from there, but there is no evidence to suggest that tigers from bandipur or Wyanad are any smaller, since they too belong to the same landscape.

7) The Western ghats are as dense as any forests can get. Yet the tigers, don't seem to be smaller in any way. Once reason could be the presence of swampy grasslands there that is able to support a high density of large prey. After all it's grass that supports the majority of herbivorous creatures. A forest dense in trees but lacking in grass will never support large population of herbivorous creatures, which in turn will have an effect on the carnivores.

8) The hunter records are from an era when the forests were large and gene flow between tigers was healthy. Today, a lot of the populations are isolated, so that might or might not have an effect on the size of present day tigers. Very difficult to tell. Reply