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Tiger Predation
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 (04-16-2020, 10:48 PM)Rage2277 Wrote:Is it me or T1 looks huge in this photo.  (04-16-2020, 11:36 PM)SuSpicious Wrote:Makes the Gaur Carcass look small, I'm sure it's a flattering angle but still a big cat for sure.(04-16-2020, 10:48 PM)Rage2277 Wrote:Is it me or T1 looks huge in this photo. 
The Prey of the tiger in the Indian subcontinent:
As you know, I like to make comparative images that not only shows the relative size of the species with a human, but also between other species and most of all, the real measurements of the animal. I focused in India, as I love its fauna, and I made several comparative images since 2015. Recently, about 2018 and 2019 I tried to make new set of comparative images updating the information but I lost all my information. However until this year I reconstructed much of my database and I also have new information about several species. The results are the new large images that I made where I described the full set of subspecies/populations of lions and tigers with real measurements, no estimations like many popular books. Following this idea, I made the first comparative image of the main prey species of the tiger in the Indian subcontinent. I read several studies and books but very few have long terms studies, most of the dietary studies are just about 1 or maybe 2 years at the most. I decided to focus in 5 parks in India and Nepal: Kanha, Chitwan, Nagarahole, Ranthambore and Panna. From those areas, several experts made long term studies, Kanha is special because even when the study was just a little over 1 year, it is the first true scientific study and its value is incredible and can't be ignored. People like Schaller, Sunquist, Seindensticker, Karanth, Thapar and Chundawat, amoung others, make great investigations and observations in the field, providing the modern profile of the real tiger in the wild. Following the studies in this great area and also those from McDougal and Sankhala, I found that the main prey species in India are several deer species and wild boar and also, when present gaur and nilgai. Also the langur is present in a relativelly important percentage, although is not predated in relation of its abundance. Other species is the porcupine of India, but although is somewhat present in some samples, it is not important as a prey and a recent study of Kumar (2016) suggest that predation in this species is more like an habit for survival than a choice per se. At the end, nine species were choosed as the main prey of the tiger in the Indian subcontinent: Chital, Sambar, Wild boar, Hog deer, Muntjac, Gaur, Barasingha, Nilgai and Langur. There are many other species, including Dhole, but as they importance is minimum, where not included. Now, here is the comparative image with the 9 main species, while the first three are the most important overall, the others were placed in that form for space issues:  *This image is copyright of its original author The measurements that you see are real ones, not estimations, except for the Barasingha and Nilgai "head-body" length, as there is no information and I used the figures of Blandford and Brander which we can guess came from real animals. Also, as you can see, I made some changes in the information, updating or expanding the sample and focusing in Indian specimens, so the body measurements of the Chital from Hawaii and those of the Nilgai from Texas (USA) were excluded. Now, here are a few remarks about the species: 1 - Chital: The most important prey item in India and Nepal, all the studies conclude that. The measurements of the specimesn from Hawaii where excluded and I used only those from India and Nepal. However I leave the weights so we can compare those from Hawaii and those from the Indian subcontinent. It is interesing to mention that according with the study of Dr Chundawat in his book og 2018, the overpopulation of chitals is not good for other species, he explained that when there is a large population of chitals, tigers predate on them thanks to its great availability and big density, however when the prey population grow because of that, they start to select the bigger preys like sambar or barasingha, however while the chital population can recover incredibly fast, those of sambar and barasingha can't so he explained that tiger conservation and its habitat can't focus only in the recorver of the chital, but they must take in count the other larger species, specially because of the fact that tigers select more the bigger species independently of they density, which means that tigers will kill chital based in the availability but if they can they will activelly search for the biggest prey available. 2 - Sambar: The ideal prey for the tiger, and is predated independently of its density. This is the second prey item in the entire area. I joined the body measurements of the specimens of India and Nepal as the diference between them is almost inexistent. However I decided to separate the weights as based in the records it seems that the Sambar from Nepal are the heaviest ones with a record for a male of 380 kg. It is important to mention that the body measurements from the Sambars in India were made "between pegs" and those from Nepal probably "along the back" but the diference is, again, minimum, so probably they followed a straight line on the specimens and did not presed the tape. 3 - Wild boar: The measuremesnt and the weights are the same, no change in the information, I just changed the image and reduced the size as the other was somewhat exagerated. It is interesting that while the wild boar is an important prey species for tigers, they are suceptibled to deseases and they die in great numbers, that will explain why the early samples from Kanha and Chitwan showed lower predilection for this species. This is also reflected in the Russian Far East and specially in the Caspian region. It seems that tigers "love" boars. 4 - Hanuman langur: This is more like a "chocolate" for tigers, they are small and will be consumed in just one sit in a couple of hours. There are represented with a good percentage in the samples of scats but as they are way more available than the amount consumed, it seems that is not a main prey item in the sence that tigers can't survive with just langurs. They are important in number, but are not preferable prey. 5 - Muntjac: This small species is selected by tigers in any place that they live. Again, like the langur, they are important because of numbers, but tigers can't live and reproduce only with this species. 6 - Gaur: By far, the largest prey that a tiger can take single-handle with the biggest hunted bulls been up to 1,000 kg (Karanth, 2013). The gaur is predate by tigers wherever they live, but it depends also of the density. For example in Chitwan NP, Nepal, there was no predation recorded and Sunquist (1981) said that the size of the gaur make it invulnerable, but latter in he and his wife fiona in the chapter 10 "Ecology constraints on Predation by Large Felids" of the book "Carnivore Behavio, Ecology and Evolution" of 1989 they said that the lack of predatio was because the density of gaur was very few during the study period. The same happen in Pech where two studies showed diferent results, the old one had 0 predation on gaur while the next one some years latter showed predation of tiger over gaur. Gaur is perfect prey for tigers but is killed in accordance with its relative abundance in the prey community. In the gaur weight sample, I excluded a figure of 770 kg from Sunquist & Sunqusit (2002; about the case of the tiger that dragged the gaur carcass) as it is not a real figure (Perry, 1965) and I included a weight reported by Brander (1927). The measurements were all taken "between pegs". 7 - Hog deer: This is an important prey ittem for tigers in Chitwan NP and Nagarahole NP. It size is close to the average weight of the female chital deer and it is not as fast as the last one. 8 - Barasingha: This is the second largest deer in India, after the sambar, and a very important prey item for tigers, at least in the past. Barasingha is extirpated for most of India and Nepal and now there are only a few spots like Kanha and Kaziranga. However, if it were more samples probably it will be the forth most important prey item after chital, sambar and boar. Lack of data forced me to included two captive females in the weight section, so probably, like in the sambar, the females in the wild will be heavier than those in captivity. 9 - Nilgai: The last, but not the least, nilgai is certainly an important but unnusual prey item for tigers. Why? Well, tigers and nilgais do not share territories very often as this antelope, the largest of Asia, live in open and dry habitat (like the Asian lion) which is not tiger territory. However in two places, Ranthambore and Panna, the nilgai is a very important prey item and because of its size, it could be one of the main prey items if the territorios overlaped more. Thapar observed a very interesting interactino of several tigers over a nilgai kill in Ranthambore. Now, normally people in forums quote the table of prey items in Sunquist et al. (1999):  *This image is copyright of its original author However, when I check the original data in the original documents, the information did not match, so I prefer to use the original sources, like most of the books that I saw, so here are the original sources for the parks selected for this study: * Kanha - Schaller (1967):  *This image is copyright of its original author * Chitwan - Sunquist (1981) - first study in the 1970's:  *This image is copyright of its original author * Chitwan - Bhandari et al. (2017) - new study from 2014:  *This image is copyright of its original author * Nagarahole - Karanth & Sunquist (1995):  *This image is copyright of its original author * Ranthambore - Bagchi et al. (2003), also Thapar's observations in several decades:  *This image is copyright of its original author * Panna - Chundawat (2018):  *This image is copyright of its original author So this is the information about the most important prey species for the tiger in the Indian subcontinent, save it for future references and you can use the image for future comparisons. Greetings and cheers. 
 (04-17-2020, 06:54 AM)GuateGojira Wrote: The Prey of the tiger in the Indian subcontinent: Guate, this is fantastic work once again! You desereve more than just a "like" as this is absolutly fantastic. I must request to have this done with prey of lions, jaguars and leopards as well. Again brilliant! (04-18-2020, 01:06 AM)Pantherinae Wrote: Guate, this is fantastic work once again! You desereve more than just a "like" as this is absolutly fantastic. Thank you for your words my friend, I really appreciate it. About the prey of lions, I allready have the data of the zebras, wildebeest and African buffalo, but I lack that of the other prey. I will like to found which are the main preys of the lion in Africa (not India), is they are less than 9 (for space issues) will be perfect! For jaguars it will be a little more dificuld, as data from animals in America is scanty, but I can tell you that the only impresive herbivores (in size) in the habitat of the jaguar are the tapir, the pecari and some deer species (just two surpass the 100 kg), all the others are very small, well if you think that a capibara is small.  For leopards I think that it will be redundant, as they predate in the same prey of tigers and lions, with the only diference that they choose young specimens. Let's see what I can do, but if someone can help me at least founding the main prey of lions and jaguars, it will be perfect.  (04-18-2020, 03:55 AM)GuateGojira Wrote:(04-18-2020, 01:06 AM)Pantherinae Wrote: Guate, this is fantastic work once again! You desereve more than just a "like" as this is absolutly fantastic. Hi Guate, excellent work as always. For jaguars you should factor in Zebu cattle as part of their diets in places like Pantanal and Llanos, we have records of females predating on Brahman bull as an example, like this one  *This image is copyright of its original author https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Jaguar-cubs-feeding-on-a-bull-killed-by-their-mother-on-a-Pantanal-ranch-Photo-by-Jaguar_fig3_228831792} Bull Brahman appears to be the largest species registered that jaguars have preyed upon and are a major portion of their diets in these wetlands, but we also have photographic data of a Colombian jaguaress in Llanos who killed a 70 kg anaconda As well as data of predation on black caiman:  *This image is copyright of its original author The one measured black caiman killed by a jaguar was 3.8 meters in length In June 1999, we found a male M. niger 3.8 m TL that apparently had recently been killed by a jaguar. Based on the paw marks around the site, the caiman had been attacked by the jaguar while on a thick mat of floating vegetation in a canal located along the margin of Lago Mamiraua ´ Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232691313_Depredation_by_Jaguars_on_Caimans_and_Importance_of_Reptiles_in_the_Diet_of_Jaguar (04-18-2020, 04:36 AM)OncaAtrox Wrote:(04-18-2020, 03:55 AM)GuateGojira Wrote:(04-18-2020, 01:06 AM)Pantherinae Wrote: Guate, this is fantastic work once again! You desereve more than just a "like" as this is absolutly fantastic. Thank you, again, for the information, I really appreciate it. However, is important to take in count that I am not using all the prey, or the largest prey, but the common prey, the normall prey that dominate the predation of the predators. In this case, before to include the big reptiles and the zebu (which is feral, correct?) we must know how common are those animals in the jaguar diet. Other problem is that, like with the tiger, I focused in those from the Indian subcontinent, but I ignored the diet of tigers in the Russian Far East. So is the same for lions and jaguar. We will need to focus on especific regions, for example, the diet and common prey for jaguars in Central America is not the same as those from Venezuela or those from Brazil (especifically from El Pantanal). So we will need to focus in an area dn work with the animals of that area. With the lions is the same, is not the same prey base and preffered prey for lions in East Africa than those from Kruger, or those from Etosha and Kalahari. So we need to focus in what lion population we are going to work. Yes, I know that there is lot of work on this, but this is how we get good information for all. 
To ALL. I made a correction in the comparative image of the prey of the tigers here, I am sorry. Let me explain.
I was making an comparative image about the maximum size of the Bengal tiger and the maximum size of the Indian gaur, and I found that the image of the gaur do not have the "average sized" specimen but the "maximum sized" specimen. So I made the correction, you can see the difernece and save the new image. Now, if you want to see the "maximum sized" specimens, go to this link: https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-maximum...ill?page=6   *This image is copyright of its original author drsatishbabu-Surviving tiger attack It was a warm summer morning safari in Kabini, suddenly we here people in the other vehical mentioning about tiger attack, After a brief search we saw a herd of elephants grazing and what we could see was like a new born calf been protected in the middle of the herd, on closer look we were terrified to see the canine marks of tiger on calfs head and scratches on its trunk and body It was amazing to see calf surviving the attack, the herds protection and mother nudging the calf towards LIFE 
@Pckts, great video. Look at the size of that tiger!
@Rage2277, is that incident from Kabini because there is male tiger who was rumoured to have done so before as well. What is baffling is how it did it even get a clear sight to attack the baby elephant as the mother elephant is never away plus they travel in huge herds and it’s not like tigers attack in groups where the mother is distracted while one sneaks on the calf (or maybe it was a mating pair who attacked it). On a personal note, really hope the baby elephant pulls through because restoring elephant numbers is so much harder than tiger numbers and every such calf counts considering the fact that it will take another 2 years for the mother to give birth again. (04-23-2020, 06:07 AM)Ashutosh Wrote: @Pckts, great video. Look at the size of that tiger! yea it's in from kabini i remember someone mentioning a tiger attacked a calf too..it probably wondered off doing some exploration,i imagine the tiger must have been stalking the herd for some time waiting for such an opportunity  *This image is copyright of its original author Manoj Naldurgkar-Gangaram a male from kolsa. .TATR. ..with feast..today we witnessed power n pull of Male tiger....what a moment ..Heartfull thanks to dear Sujit Gadewar for your camera courtesy n Dr.Shambharkar..without you it won't happened. — with Jayant Parkhi, Abhishek Deshmukh, Hemant Tomar, Prashant Vishwanath, Sujit Gadewar, Ranveer Singh Gautam and Palash Marudkar. 2015 
A research on tiger’s prey species in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary reveals that the main preys are ungulates such as; bantengs, sambar, muntjac, gaur and wild pig. And most of them are adults (Simcharoen, 2000). Whereas, some of them are also the prey species of leopard, the leopard prefer juvenile or subadult (Simcharoen, 2003).
From the hunting behavior study found that tigers mostly grab and bite their prey on neck until it die. To bite on neck keeps them safe from the prey’s antlers and hooves (Karanth, 1995). After the prey died, the tiger will drag to eat at a safe place. Normally, tiger hunts large prey. The experienced adult tiger hunts carefully and in the case may cause the least injury (Schaller, 1976).
A tiger requires about 54 ungulates each year. Tiger feeds around 18 - 40 kg in each time, starts from hip of the prey. Without interruption, it will take 3 - 6 days to finish (Sunquist, 1981). In India, it is reported that a single female hunts every 8 - 8.5 days. As Schaller (1967) had studied and monitored tigers’ behavior in the wild, he found that from the 12 times of their attempt, only one is successful. *This image is copyright of its original author https://thailand.wcs.org/Wildlife/Tiger-and-Prey.aspx
T126 from Tadoba with a fresh gaur kill (collared son of T7). If anyone can shed more light on who he is, will be appreciated. All I know is he is about 4 years old, had migrated to Navegaon but came back and his neck is not proportional to his body size possibly because of the collar.
Skip to 19:00 on the video. |
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