Modern weights and measurements on wild tigers

[SpinoRex]

(04-02-2022, 12:11 AM)GuateGojira Wrote:

(07-25-2021, 12:41 PM)Khan85 Wrote: I received Dr. Ullas Karanth's book, "Hulirayana Akashavani" (translation - Tiger Radio-collaring)

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Unfortunately, the book is in Kannada language which is a regional language spoken in Southern India (where Dr. Karanth is from) so I am having a difficult time trying to translate. 
I'll keep posting as I find new information worth sharing. 

 #1. Capture of T-04 aka Mara

pp. 101 to 105

The clock cared - 9.07 A.M. That is, within five minutes of my departure, the tiger caught prey. The tiger is likely not to go that far. Thus the traders did not need to chase the tiger. Chinnappa asked the team to be quiet. Although I only saw the tiger a few times, my aim was correct

I was sure it had reached the base. The trailmen took out the syringe which had been ripped from the tiger's thigh. The syringe was empty. This proved that the drug was inside the tiger's body. Now we have to find the tiger. There is a life - threatening danger when researchers search for a darted tiger. None of my team members here have such anxiety. We need to find the tiger now. Under the direction of Chinnappan, team members sought out the traces of the tiger. A trail of thick bedding and hardwood in the dryer can detect! But neither the Chinnappan's trailblazer, there is a leaf litter, a finger tiger in the dust - so that all the signs that are incomprehensible to the rest are clearly visible to them. Anesthesia can cause the tiger's hind legs to lose control of the body. Tiger gets to the ground without being able to move on the front legs. We checked whether the mud had crossed the road towards the tiger toll, or if it had crossed back into the forest. Suddenly, there was a shout. Raju is shocked that something tragic has happened before he can convince us that he is Raju voice came from the forest - "Tiger tangle sir!" Everybody rushed to the sound of the tiger, sitting on a tree and observing the movements of the tiger. This is not the same as Raju Hederupa, who never went back. The first time I anesthetized a tiger in Nagarahole.

Sunquist was with us then. Our team members were only twenty meters away when they and I and Chinnappa were testing the tiger. Despite repeated calls, even though the summoner repeatedly called that there is no danger, they did not come close ! Despite being anesthetized, the tiger did not appear to be fully immobilized. When it landed, its orange eyes were full and staring. The illusion must be born now and then to leave. Anesthetic is a ' dissociative anesthetic ' so that the tiger is inactive but does not look dull and the eye is wide open. The tiger rolls over its tongue. None of my trafficking shepherds would come near the darted tiger. I, Sunquist, Chinnappa and Subbayya are the only ones who have been involved in tiger care. Subbayya is a disciplined planter who, like the cowboy of British times, is a believer in Chinnappan. But none of our twelve remaining members of the faith came near the tiger! At the base there was only the co operation of a strong - willed, tiger mustache guard. Once the tiger is anesthetized and sleeps, there will be a hundred jobs. The body of the tiger must be kept water cooled. The chest, spray, body measure, weight this tiger wound treatment ... " Come and do nothing"... Came ten thousand feet before us, and one step of them came nearer to death. Twelve people flew in all directions ! The young tree bends down and touches the ground like a rainbow , and the sight of the five young men gazing blankly at the sight of where they came from is a spectacular sight ! This story of Zindu reminded him that all the traders were laughing and joking about their own charm. The excitement of the tiger now had lightened the burden of everyone's body. But the work is not over here. We needed work to be done. Since the tiger is our fourth capture, everybody is well convinced of their specific task. Everybody got into skittering. It was a huge male tiger, which Chinnappan named ' Mara'. Mara is the Kannada name for the love goddess Sundararanga Manmatha. But I remember the explanation given by Chinnappan for the name 'Mara'. " When I was a young boy, there was a sturdy two - year - old in our village, Mara was his name. When I saw this tiger, I wrote down the size of his tiger body on the information form, with the head and body length being 189 cm, Tail length 100 cm, Total 289 cm . Similarly for the head , chest circumference , etc.

How can a I lift the weight of a tiger ? We have to weigh Mara. We must use all our manpower for this. All our team members are farmers. We layed the tiger on a net made of thin nylon fishbone. The net was wrapped around the tiger, leaving only the tail tapping out. The hangar was fastened with a plastic rope, and the end of the rope was fastened to a large stinging bracket. We fastened the two ends of the sash to a thick wooden rope and hung the rope into the rings. All at once, the people raised their hands and raised the tiger one inch from the ground! Mara is a massive tiger who weighs 250 kilograms. When the tiger didn't wake up throughout the day, it is not advisable to let the sun go down and cool it again. Nanjappa gave Mara another anesthetic. Mara's mouth opened and I examined his teeth. Each tiger's teeth tell a history of its life. Tigers less than eleven months have milk teeth. These teeth are not as sturdy as bay teeth. As they grow older, their hard teeth come. Milk teeth fall out. By the age of 18 months, tigers have sturdy teeth. During the first few years of tiger puberty, its teeth are very sharp. Pinkish tint to fine white teeth. The tiger who are very old, have lost, eroded and severely shredded teeth. Fighting with others also cause a tooth fracture. Gradually the yellow moss accumulates on the tooth and turns brown. If we capture a young tiger, its neck will not reach full maturity. 

Sunquist had shown us the radio collar and cut it into two pieces and the rivets between the other two strips. As a young tiger grows, so does its neck circumference. Gradually the rhythm of the ringed eel will gradually rust and the leather bar will decay.

However, Mara wasn't fully grown, his teeth were white, sharply powered. Not a tooth was broken. By the time he reached the age of three to four, I had reasoned that he would need a large collar to wear. Rivette was adjusted to fit around Mara's neck. While the radio collar should be tied to the tiger's neck, the animal should not in any way be unpleasant, and should not interfere with other natural activities such as eating and swallowing. I saw the collar tucked between a slit. The radio antenna, which is the collar of the tiger, and the signals are embedded in the back of the collar. The radio transmitter is placed inside a pistol metal container with waterproof resin on the outside. We don't want to lose the collar due to the fact that the tigers like water! The mark 'T - 04' has been marked with special black ink, on Mara . It is the mark of Mara being the fourth of the tigers we captured in Nagarahole.

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(Mara was repeatedly captured in camera traps)

After reading this, it doesn't seem like Mara had eaten anything before being weighed. As Dr. Karanth wrote, the tiger took the bait less than 5 minutes after they left, and as soon as they were informed, they returned to dart the tiger who went on a marathon while half sedated.

Excelent information, thank you for sharing it.

Now, there is an important point here. All of us know that the information on the Nagarahole tigers came from Sunquist & Sunquist (2002), and they quote the thesis of Dr Karanth from 1993 as the main reference: PREDATOR-PREY RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THE LARGE MAMMALS OF NAGARAHOLE NATIONAL PARK (INDIA).

However, when I found the full thesis available in the web, there is no information about the captured tigers, no weight or measurements, so I think that the figures published came from a personal communication between Dr Sunquist and Dr Karanth.

However, now that we have the transcription of what the original book says, it is clear that the tiger T-04 was not gorged, nor even had the time to eat something of the bait, here is a picture of him captured:

*This image is copyright of its original author

We can see that it doesn't look fat or gorged at all. So we can conclude that the adjustment of 35 kg is too much and that taking in count that he killed the bait and captured in less than a few hours, certainly just a few kg should be adjusted in the best case. Schaller (1975) estimated that an adult lion may take 20 min per kg when eat, but also he says that a tiger rarely eat more than one hour before to stop and rest (Schaller, 1967), so we can estimate that tiger T-4, in the worst of the cases, could have an stomach content of about 6 kg, if the entire operation for capture took more than 2 hours, which I found to ulikely as they were already for the capture when they were informed of the bait kill. But if the entire operation took only one hour before the capture, which is more likely, that stomach content could be no more than 3-4 kg, and this assuming that the tiger started to eat inmmediatelly after it killed the bait, which again, is not what the tigers do (they drag the prey, they lick it and start remouving the hair and after that they start eating, maybe after 15-20 min of this process).

In this case, I don't think that the figure of 215 kg is the correct one for this tiger, and while we do know that male T-01 was gorged (based in the pictures), this is not the case of male T-04 so I will use the figure of 250 kg for this tiger, with minimum, almoust empty, stomach content.

We will need to see the case of male T-03, the bigger one, wich based in Sunquist & Sunquist (2002) it was of 227 kg but that originally weighed 257 kg.

(I am right now in a conversation with Dr Sunquist)

Sorry but in all honesty what does that even mean? From the pictures he looks definitely gorged / fully fed. He evidently had a meal recently and additionally ate something from the bait although not much as you said (5-10 kg)

Just to clear up some confusion. The male of 240 kg mentioned by karanth was actually the 230 kg male from the book. In Karanth (2003) it was stated that males eat in their first meal 20-35 kg, which obviously refer to the collared males.

Also that would mean that Karanth actually substracted 20, 30 and 35 kg for tigers that were empty, which is weird and obviously a false view.

Karanth basically substracted the estimated stomach content based on their bellies. So the book actually just indicates that he had a meal recently and ate from the bait as well.

@"Khan85" Also regarding your 280 kg Tiger. I saw the full conversation where he said "he had a meal recently". So making up misleading interpretations wont make you look better. These weight ranges as he said where those from YV Jhala! Jhala wasn't sure about his biggest tiger and gave rounded numbers (280-290, 285, 280). So he has to be contacted although he doesnt seem to answer anymore and therefore I suggest to wait for a long time before asking him again. Reply