Modern weights and measurements on wild tigers

[Dr Panthera]

(06-15-2017, 02:42 AM)Pckts Wrote: There is nothing small about the reserves in C. India, that's for sure. Pench and Kanha are absolutely massive with corridors still used by Tigers today and Tadoba is large as well, not nearly as gigantic as the other two I mentioned, especially Kanha. The density of people are in Nagpur, Mumbai or Delhi, the reserves have villages but they hardly make a dent in the massiveness of green vegetation in the reserves I mentioned above.

I do agree that most individuals would usually be territory holders but that doesn't mean much. In Kanha for instance, we only really know of a few individuals in who go back and forth from Kanha, Kisli and Mukki, but there are many zones and areas that have hardly no sightings and individuals that are rarely seen. But the density there is just as much, if not more. Just the terrain is different, within Kanha, the Sarhi zone is much more hilly than Kisli or Mukki for instance but yet the only male I spotted in Kanha was there and he is a male that is hardly ever seen. Tadoba has a large buffer area and a lot of zones go unexplored. It really depends on the sightings at the time, the forest is too large, any biologist must go off of what the guide says and they only know based off of talking to one another. So at any given time one zone may be a popular choice for sightings but that doesn't mean you get any sort of idea what density of tiger is there.

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Biologists have also underestimated dosages as well, I'm not sure how accurate dosage estimations are to actual body weights. I also highly doubt that any biologist/veterinarian  can make educated weight estimates based off fleeting glimpses of a tiger. You don't get to see tigers for long periods of time, the few that actually give you "road shows" are very rare.

The entire surface area of all Indian tiger reserves is less than 41,000 square kilometers ( roughly twice the size of Kruger , time and a half the size of the Serengeti eco-system, and smaller than Selous )...most of these reserves are smaller than 1000 square kilometers so no we can not say they are large areas.
In conservation biology we need a population of 250 breeding adults ( at least 500 tigers total ) to ensure the survivability of the population and not even a single reserve provides that therefore, working on tiger corridors to link tiger populations in near-by reserves is crucial ( a sub-Himalayan landscape, a central Indian landscape, a southern Indian landscape , and finally the Sundarban where tiger habitat is relatively well connected) this can ensure the gene flow and protect the species against epidemics and local extinction.

Territorial males have access to the females and to the highest concentration of prey, good resources improve health and condition so yes these tigers are likely to be superior to the sub-adults, young adults, and post-prime tigers that are pushed to fringe habitat where there is less prey and more importantly more conflict with man , these 'stressed animals' are less likely to rival their healthier , more fortunate territorial conspecifics.

Biologists tend to over dose tigers with sedatives since it was a recommendation by Smith et al. to over-dose than under-dose, as a pharmacist and a biologist I strongly disagree with that, a fatal dose of these medications ( through respiratory collapse ) is not much larger than the effective dose , a dose for an estimated 180-200 kg cat is sufficient most of the time and if it is not, a supplemental dose can be given to the semi-drowsy animal ( this was successfully done with tigers in India and Russia, and with lions in Africa).

And you are absolutely right tracking a solitary forest dwelling cat like the tiger is hard work but camera trap data helps with estimating density and population dynamics studies. Reply