Tiger-Lion Coexistence in Eurasia between Middle Pleistocene and Holocene Epochs

[Sanju]

(01-01-2019, 09:45 PM)Rage2277 Wrote: karanth said pretty much what i said "their distribution seems to be determined primarily by the availability of large prey rather than by vegetation types" also tigers don't require water any more than lions do..they're not like elephants that need to drink everyday,they get moister from their prey..we know they're both highly adaptable if huge pack hunting carnivores like lions that need alot of meat can live in an area like kgalagadi tigers can easily thrive there being able to tolerate high temperatures themselves @Sanju

I heavily agree with the last sentence in particular @Rage2277 . It is a fact. Apart from that...

Karanth Said that in their habitats, Tigers "prefer prey densities over vegetation to live or establish territories and home ranges". It means... for instance, say, in a forest, prey is abundant in open grassy areas of that ecoregion, then tiger prefers inhabiting in that region even if it has dense jungle environment in other parts of territory to provide hide and well camouflage in the same ecoregion zone coz it didn't has much prey. Even it has best habitat and cover to live, if food is not available it can't live there.

It doesn't mean tiger prefers a desert (low vegetated) to live if that area has 1000's of prey ungulates per sq.km.

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Saw this? this is kutch of Gujarat. It has Asian wild ass. A good prey in good density in Holocene and Pleistocene. But tiger didn't inhabitate there. coz it's body looks like that above^. Almost negligible chance to camouflage and water scarce climate (it can tolerate heat but its not a camel to live without water). and then there is this lion's range...

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The same Kutch, or take desert if you want more intensity...

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even desert environment suits a lion to camouflage where ever you take throughout Africa and west Asia to India.

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Perfect if crouched and excellent camouflaged plain coat without spots or stripes easily blend in environment of tropical arid to semi arid climates and habitats. (eg: Namibian, Palestine and Persian  desert lions etc..,)

That how much Lion camouflage in open plains...
A Tigers stripes are to breakdown outline in their vegetated habitats like grasslands, woodlands, forests, sloped and hilly terrain and jungles with semi arid to non arid areal range. Without vegetation/cover hunting is almost impossible and tiger can't do the leopard stuff of pouncing from tree to hunt (sorry this is plain and desert habitats it don't even has grass, how can we expect trees, lol). The most arid area in the world modern tiger living is Ranthambore with almost semi arid environment. That's all.

It doesn't suit and live in tropical arid low vegetated areas like deserts, plains, steppes etc.., I said all this for you said prefer. solitary lifestyle is also a disadvantage in that type of environments where social behavior is required to increase survival chances in hunting, cub rearing and defense against other pack predators.

Quote:"tiger was tied closely to water sources, prey, and their adjacent tugai habitat of tall riparian vegetation."- https://www.researchgate.net/publication...is_a_tiger

Throughout the evolution of Tiger, it didn't live in Tibetan plateau area coz it has Gobi desert. Tiger evolved as versatile predator throughout Eurasian tropical, temperate regions interlinked with semi arid and non arid regions like wet lands and jungles. It didn't live in Arid regions like lion or particularly cheetah does. open environment ungulates evolved faster as it has less vegetation to obstruct their speed limits when compared to forest associated prey animals and it's carnivores. so tiger has to rely even more on ambush in an area with low vegetation to provide camouflage like open plains.

Quote:Tiger chooses areas near water bodies (like human civilization) and drinks water for every 2-3 days after a full meal after a successful hunt to feed. The tiger occupies a wide range of habitat types, but will usually require sufficient cover, proximity to water, and an abundance of prey. It prefers dense vegetation, for which its camouflage colouring is ideally suited, and where a single predator is not at a disadvantage compared with the multiple cats in a pride. - Miquelle, D. (2001). "Tiger". In MacDonald, D. The Encyclopedia of Mammals (2nd ed)

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Tigers are comfortable in water and frequently bathe

Quote:It is a strong swimmer and often bathes in ponds, lakes and rivers, thus keeping cool in the heat of the day (Hydrophilic).- Sunquist, M.; Sunquist, F. (1991). "Tigers". In Seidensticker, J.; Lumpkin, S. Great Cats.

(pls, don't make this silly by comparing it to camel or elephant, I compared it with the arid cat lion). Tiger and Lion are not the same, they evolved for their environments specially in different phylogenetic lineages.

They both may have evolved further like Tiger in deserted or low vegetated areas like steppes, fully open plains with nil vegetation like kutch and lion evolving into the India and Congo deep jungles in future by changing their coats to camouflage which helps in stealth attacks/ambush or stalk prey of that regions respectively through natural selection. But their range expansion stopped since, late holocene in which human impact started showing on them (literally all animals significantly) by over hunting, climate change and habitat degradation by humans. They may not evolve for that habitats in future too coz first they should be alive till then. They will go extinction and be wiped out in few centuries by humans based on current population losing rate.

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https://books.google.co.in/books?id=T37sFCl43E8C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA825&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

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There were no tigers in lesser Arabian nations coz it has deserts of Arabian peninsula. They only lived in temperate (upper) central Asia and south eastern Europe due to availability of their habitats i.e.., forests and grasslands but didn't spread other areas like lesser Arabian peninsula further from pak's Baluchistan deserts, Tibetan plateau etc.., The same goes for lion, deserts are not much a barrier for lion but jungles (didn't say forest) are their barrier and hence, their further extension into china, south east Asia, eastern India and ghats of South India was restricted due to presence of south east Asian jungles.

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An animals/prey having 2 simple type of eyes (even if color blind/compound eyed) can easily see that big beast (lion) in that greenery due to the unmatched color coat and no spots/striped hide/fur to divide the outline. as an plain habitat related species evolved with more speed to hunt fast game compared to vegetated environment prey. like in the case of tiger, lion has to rely on ambush than chase or speed in an area where it's camouflage does not work in the surrounding greenery coz vegetation offers resistance for high speed chases
Even though massive prey animals live and available  in great densities in places like Deserts and ever green forests, A tiger and lion can't live or most importantly "prefer" in that environments or habitats respectively. they may live in those habitats, tolerate temperatures and climatic conditions but can't hunt their properly to sustain themselves and survive. lion social behavior in this terrain is a draw back as co ordination during hunting fails in this environment. You misunderstood what karanth said. Best wishes
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