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

[Greatearth]

Size of the Bengal tigers.
sanjay Rishi
Modern weights and measurements on wild tigers in post #6

A friend of mine said that he is leading tiger tracker in Ranthambore. However, his answer was that Ustad was never measured. He also think Ustad was not Ranthambore's biggest tiger from his opinion. Wikipedia seems to be wrong. He said that journalists ask questions, then officials just answer. So we don't know what is actual measurements of Ustad. Don't trust too much information from the newspaper. He thinks tigers in central India like Raiyakasa, Dadiyal, Chota Munna, Jai, Umarpani, Bamera son are bigger than tigers in western India (Ranthambore) like Fateh and Kumbha. When I spoke to other photographers, they said they didn't really seen any size difference. We will never know unless someone measured them besides tigers in Sundarbans are definitely the smallest.
Is it because of arid area, semi-desert habitat, genetic bottleneck, and less numbers of large prey animals such as Gaur, water buffalo, ... and other large animals? Large herbivores like sambar deer and nilgai are still exist in Ranthambore as well. Male tigers in Ranthambore definitely seems to be smaller heavy body and built compare to tigers from northern and central India. My other friend thinks northern Bengal tigers seem to be heavier since they have thicker coat than other parts of India.

My belief is that Bengal tigers from northern and central India are all similar in size beside minor difference by individual. Also, there are just more numbers of heavier and bigger tigers in northern India, especially in Assam and Terai. However, it depends by individual. Western and southern India seems to be next, but I am sure there was big tigers that can match size with very large tigers in Terai and Assam in these areas. Reply