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

[GuateGojira]

(11-27-2018, 11:05 PM)peter Wrote: 1 - THE AVERAGE SIZE OF ADULT FEMALE BROWN BEARS IN THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST
 
Recent research says that experienced, often older (referring to Schleyer's observation - see my previous post), male Amur tigers hunt brown bears up to the size of an adult female. Anything known on the size of adult female brown bears in the Russian Far East?

This table (from a recently published document) was posted by Guate a week ago. It says that adult female brown bears today average 145 kg. (321 pounds):

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author 
2 - INDIVIDUAL VARIATION IN ADULT FEMALE BROWN BEARS IN THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST

A decade ago or so, I saw a table with weights of adult male and female brown bears in the Russian Far East. Adult male brown bears averaged 264 kg. (about 580 pounds), whereas adult female brown bears averaged 189 kg. (420 pounds). Compared to the table above, the average of adult males is a bit lower, whereas female brown bears are almost 100 pounds heavier. How explain? 

The table above, regarding the average weight of brown bears, is based on recent research of biologists, whereas the other table could have been based on bears shot by trophy hunters. As trophy hunters tend to select the largest individuals, tables based on their records should be taken with some care. 

The Russian Far East has many thousands brown bears. If we add that individual variation is pronounced in large mammals like brown bears, one never quite knows what to make of averages. Based on what was published, however, I do not doubt that a large female brown bear can severely outweight an average adult male Amur tiger.

In AVA, a Chinese poster with access to good information (KTKC, if I remember correctly) said female brown bears well exceeding 700 pounds had been shot not so long ago in the northeastern part of China. I've also seen reliable reports about exceptional females shot in the Russian Far East. Poster WaveRiders recently said he has seen skulls of very large female brown bears.

A few remarks:

About the table, this is from the document "Tooth breakage in tigers: cause for conflict?" published in 2012 by Dr Goodrich an others, and correspond to the chapter 11 from the monograph "Diseases and parasites of wildlife in Siberia and the Russian Far East".

Sadly the figures do not have the sample size and the range of the weights, but at least this give us an idea of the average weight of the large mammals from the Russia Far East. To make a comparison, the modern Amur tigers have an average weight of 190 kg for males and 120 for females.

Although full of incorrect ideas, insults and a huge grudge against tigers, sometimes to post of Warsaw have interesting information, for example this article: https://vladnews.ru/ev/vl/1360/53407/medvedi_batareykah

The article is in Russian, but with the help of Google translator, I got a good idea of what the article says. It seams that it was writen by Evgeny Suvorov, a journalist and author from Terney, Primorye region, and that had colaborated with scientists in scientific article.

The relevant part is this:

"Всего за восемь лет радиомаячки были надеты на шеи более четырех десятков медведей двух видов. Особенно активно косолапые стали попадаться в петли, когда ученые начали раскладывать возле ловушек пахучую приманку, к примеру, порченое мясо или рыбу. Правда, были отдельные умники, поедавшие всю приманку, но при этом умело обходившие все петли. Рекордсменами по весу оказались бурые самец - более 350 кг и самка - 222 кг. Среди гималайцев самым тяжелым оказался самец весом в 205 кг, а самочка - 101 кг. Есть у меченых медведей и рекордсмены по возрасту. Некоторым животным уже перевалило за 20 лет."

With Google translator:

"In just eight years, radio beacons were put on the necks of more than four dozen bears of two kinds. Clumsy dogs began to fall particularly actively into the loops when scientists began to lay out an odorous bait near the traps, for example, spoiled meat or fish. True, there were some clever men who ate the whole bait, but at the same time skillfully bypassed all the loops. The brown weight male was the record breaker by weight - more than 350 kg and the female - 222 kg. Among the Himalayans, the heaviest was a male weighing 205 kg, and a female — 101 kg. There are marked bears and champions by age. Some animals have already passed for 20 years."

Acording with these, more than four dozen (over 48?) bears has been captured, from both species, the heavies brown bear is of over 350 kg and the heaviest female is 222 kg. Now, lets compare them with the data reported by Dr Kucherenko colected in the decade of 1970:

*This image is copyright of its original author

It seems that the male bears are heavier in these days, but the females are lighter. The proposal of @peter (hunters normally select the largest specimens) seems reliable for females, but that will not explain why the male bears are heavier now. Other explanation will be that bears have a great fluctuation in its weights, so it will be necesary to know in what time of the year those bears were captured (specially the largest ones), and I suspect that the article of Mr Suvorov have the answer, but will I leave this part to others (too busy to investigate today).

I think that this information is going to be usefull for those that are participating in the debate of tiger-bear relationship, by the way, those bears are actually been weighed:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Greetings to all. Reply