There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
(04-04-2022, 05:57 PM)SpinoRex Wrote: 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.
This is another example of you trying to twist the information. Dr Karanth is just using figures from the litterature and depending of his source, he change the low value from 15 to 20 kg, although he keep the figure of 35 kg as the maximum, you can check it in the chapter about tigers from the book of 2013 "Mammals of South Asia".
It is almoust imposible for a tiger to consume 35 kg in less than 12 hours (which is the maximum time that a tiger can stay with a bait before its capture), that is a figure for 24 hours and is the maximum ever recorded. Again, check that Dr Karanth did not study the consumption of tigers or measured intake, he used the figures from Dr Sunquist from Chitwan NP and those from Dr Schaller at Kanha NP, and we already know those figures (I can put them again here). In fact, Dr Sunquist (2014) summarize that information very well using only the range values:
*This image is copyright of its original author
Now you can see the figures from 24 hours and that figure of 34 is an exceptional one too. This figure do not apply to bait comsuptions, as tigers were disturbed and did not ate they full when they were captured. Also, do not forget about what Dr Chundawat found, theonly one that actually weighed the stomach content of a large tiger, remember that they believed that was between 25-30 kg but at the end it was 19 kg.
So, the stomach content of the Nagarahole tigers was probably lower than the figure of 30 kg used.