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.
(11-10-2018, 06:53 PM)Sanju Wrote: This thread should be about the coexistence between Pleistocene-Wanhesin tigers/ modern Holocene tigers like Amur/Bengal/Indochinese/Caspian tiger and Pleistocene species like ancient that is more primitive lion like Panthera leo/ Panthera vereshchagini or Beringian Cave Lion/Panthera Spelaea/modern Holocene lions like Asiatic lion(Panthera leo persica/leo) and European lion(Panthera leo europea/leo) in Pleistocene and Holocene Asia and South-eastern Europe.
These coexisted for over 50000-30000 of years preferring different habitats in the same ecoregion and it is the coexistence reason for the implementation of Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project to Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno and Rajasthan’s Sita, Khumbalgarh. Pack animals-Solitary animals coexist like Tiger-Dhole, Lion-Dhole in the past, Lion-Hyena(spotted/striped), Lion-African wild dog, Brown Bear-Wolf etc.., are some of the examples of recent times and tons of these examples are there since life origin. Animals particularly, Big cats are intelligent, they avoid fighting at all costs which leads to injuries and sometimes death directly or indirectly. They are extremely territorial. For Whom? for their own species. It's an Intra-specific aspect. They do this to ensure the mating rights and territorial dominance of their own species and competition for resources which are limited. Any animal species particularly predators see other predatorial species as threat/prey/competitor for resources. So, the superior one eliminates the inferior when given chance and the inferior one avoids confrontation or conflict/fight with the superior at all costs and controls competition by killing the juveniles as the other side does. when threatened for life or it's off-spring or feeding on killings, the inferior one leaves when there is an escape but when there is no escape fight is inevitable but this scenario is almost impossible in wild. inferior ones that are sick or injured or juveniles on either side to minimize the competition. animals are not killing or fighting machines they know their life value which is important to continue their own species. yes, competitive exclusion or extinction may happen of an inferior species in inter-specific competition in a particular region partially or entirely but that is in the case of solitary-solitary type conflict or competition in the same niche in the ecosystem. Tiger-Lion not even live in the same habitat of the same region even if sometimes overlapped the Lion pride and Tiger don't dare to fight and one of them back off or flee based on the situation. The direct evidence are the millions of examples of coexistence and Lion and Tiger coexisted in small part of Europe and much Asia. This is the truth and not my opinion but wildlife institute of India, NTCA, Wildlife fund trust and tons and tons of wildlife bodies or organizations at the national and international level, nature conservationists, experts, modern biologists and scientists, researchers and books. tiger didn't play literally any I mean any role in lion isolation to Gir it is the depleting mixed dry open deciduous forests, grasslands and killing spree of a psychopath ape of both the keystone species of the same environment that is Lion and Cheetah of grasslands are killed by humans which lead in decreasing their population and last in extinction. Only, Indian Wolf remain as a keystone species for very little Indian grassland ecosystems. It lead to collapsing the grassland ecosystem and the entire grasslands which are their habitats and gave no chance to recover due to their lack of habitats and then again human occupied most of that land. After that, since project Tiger 1973 the vacant gap in the collapsed ecosystem is occupied by Flora and Fauna of the forest ecosystem and the Tiger and Leopard are keystone species which protected and restored the forest ecosystem and spreading forests in place of grasslands and finally by start of this century the grassland ecosystem is the least and horribly decreasing environment in India, placing the grasslands ecosystem Flora and Fauna much extinct and many endangered like our herbivores like black buck, chausingha, chinkara and many though they can survive in both type of ecosystems, the tertiary predator is required for only one ecosystem for the stability. that's why the lion and cheetah reintroduction are proposed to restore all things to right. But, that is not going to happen because of political knots like corruption and money of Narendra Modi and his gang. Even though, even now!!!!!! too India has the capability to save Asiatic Cheetah and Lion from extinction in about ten years but filthy politicians are busy in killing them.
Lion and tiger don't fight for fun unlike in captivity, where the animals are starved and got no way to escape and avoid the fight but to fight until death. It's totally, 100% different in the wild. Both succeeded to live together for thousands of years until 18 or 19th-century human killed and separated them.
Opinions are welcomed in this thread...
Well, it is difficult to see any reason, why these animals wouldn´t be able to live in same areas. balance would be easy to find if enough prey. People create often strange scenarios, but if there is enough prey, these animals should have no problem to co-exist.
Tiger-Lion Coexistence in Eurasia between Middle Pleistocene and Holocene Epochs
