Tiger Predation

[Apex Titan]

(11-08-2024, 08:02 PM)Spalea Wrote: @Apex Titan :

Yes, it was this short video. As for the sentence bear's claws in the tiger's excrement, I was wrong, confusing Serguei Aramiley with Pavel Fomenko. Sorry !

After having checked it, the yours is longer and more complete that mine:

But I would like to ask you a question: if the Amour tiger can be considered as being the only one apex predator targeting even the big male brown bear as preys, these latters should be much more numerous in the same biotop, shouldn't it ? Is there indeed the case ?

Yes, it is indeed the case. The Amur tiger is widely acknowledged and regarded by all biologists, zoologists, rangers, hunters, locals, and natives, as the undisputed apex predator of the Ussuri taiga and bears are common prey for them. Adult brown bears are scientifically classified as a prey species of tigers. In the Amur-Ussuri taiga biotope, there are thousands of bears and their populations significantly outnumber the Amur tiger population. So bears are plentiful for tigers to hunt. Bears are a very important seasonal prey for tigers.

Interestingly, modern scientific studies and recent accounts show that the vast majority of bears hunted and killed by tigers, are adult bears. So tigers primarily target adult bears, and this makes sense, because tigers prefer large prey, and adult bears are large animals which provide the tiger with plenty of meat for 5 - 10 days.

According to biologist Kucherenko's numerous observations, he personally found multiple cases of large brown bears (weighing 200 - 300 kg) killed and eaten by tigers. The tigers lived near these large bear kills for 8 - 10 days until they consumed the bear.

Especially in the summer and autumn months (when non-hibernating bears are accessible for tigers to hunt), male Amur tigers in particular, actively prey on both black and brown bears. Recent cases also confirm that some juvenile tigers and tigresses are quite active bear-hunters too. By regularly hunting bears, Amur tigers regulate the populations of both black and brown bears in the Ussuri regions. In 2022 in the Khabarovsk Krai, the population of bears in the taiga significantly decreased due to tigers.

Olga Krasnykh, who works and lives in the Primorye region, also said that tigers reduce the population of brown bears. In the Sikhote-Alin, tiger predation is the main natural cause of brown bear mortality. So this is the Amur tigers' dominance as the sole apex predator of the Amur-Ussuri taiga biotope. This is why there are much more brown bears living in the Kamchatka peninsula and Sakhalin Island where there are no tigers, compared to Ussuri brown bears living in tiger territories (Primorye & Khabarovsk), because the former subspecies don't have a natural predator, unlike the latter Ussuri subspecies.

The food-chain and ecological pyramid of the Amur-Ussuri taiga: (I never made this food-chain diagram)

*This image is copyright of its original author

Reply