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.
02-08-2015, 11:36 PM( This post was last modified: 02-08-2015, 11:45 PM by WaveRiders )
Apollo
To measure the amount of food taken from a carcass implicates the operation causes “to disturb a kill” (either natural kill or bait kill). So the figures of 14,0 kg and the others of table 27 (the figures related to the average amount of food ingested by “unsexed” tigers from day 0 to day 1, from day 1 to day 2, etc,) in the document by Sunquist (1981), and in general, refer to “disturbed kills”. Or you think you can weigh the carcass without disturbing the tiger?
Then there are other figures (56 kg, 57 kg, 41kg, etc,) referring to 3 days of undisturbed kills.
From Sunquist (1981) pag. 76
"RESULTS.—Estimates of the amount of food that can be eaten by a single tiger are shown in Table 27. The average quantity consumed in one day may be TOO LOW since most of this information was from animals that were disturbed at bait sites."
Also bear in mind that Sunquist elsewhere suggests that those figures (14,0, etc,) in Sunquist (1981) have been computed on the basis of examination of very mostly female tigers feeding habits only. So the incidence of the 2 adult males and the 1 subadult male that I accounted within the sample of 7 tigers is conservative as I weighed each contribution by each individual and his/her weight in getting the figures of 12.1 kg for females and 18,0 kg for males as averages.
In any case I suggest the very most of the daily food intake is generally eaten during the night.