Man-eaters

[peter]

MAN-EATING TIGERS ON SAUGUR ISLAND IN THE 18th CENTURY

This letter, written in 1920 by Brig.-Gen. R.G. Burton, was in the JBNHS (Vol. 27). I read it a long time ago, but it stayed with me. There are two reasons. One is the attitude of the tigers involved and two is the large size of one of them. This is of some importance, as it shows at least some Sunderban tigers were larger than they are today.


a - December 1792

The man who wrote the letter Burton referred to was able to get to a good description of the incident. The tiger was described as " ... immense ... ", with a head " ... as large as an ox's ... " and he rushed into the jungle with poor Monro with " ... as much ease as I could lift a kitten ... ".

Also notice the last sentence on the tigress who made her appearence, " ... almost raging mad ... ", who remained on the sand as long as long as " ... the distance would allow me to see her ... ".

A typical man-eater or something else?

Tigers mate all year round, but there is a peak in winter, even in the south. The incident happened in December and immediately after they had shot the tiger and started rowing, a tigress, apparently aware of what had happened, made her appearance. My guess is the tigers had been courting near the beach. When they saw the boat coming in the morning, they had left the sand.

After hours of disturbance and a lot of shooting (the men hunted deer for most of the day), the male tiger decided to attack and he did so in a very intimidating way, ignoring the blazing fire, 4 europeans and 8-10 natives. The deafening roar, the horror of the attack and the other details, in my opinion, point towards intimidation foremost. It was more of a statement, I think.

I read about similar accounts more than once and most wroters thought male tigers are much more aggressive when they are courting. When humans are killed and taken, however, they also are often eaten. In some cases, it was the start of a career. Kenneth Anderson described one case.  

A typical man-eater would have struck without sound as soon as possible and retreated right away. But I also admit I've read more accounts of male tigers attacking a group of men with vigour and retreating quickly with their victim. The male could have had experience, that is, especially because it is known that Saugur Island was visited by merchant ships quite often in those days.

       
b - October 1787

A small vessel needing more time than expected to reach her destination ran out of food and water. A group of 6 Europeans rowed to Saugur Island and decided to stay the night. They camped in the ruins of an old pagoda, with 2 men keeping watch. In spite of the watch and the fire, one of the two was carried off by a tiger. It happened in a flash. Next morning, at some distance, they found his partly eaten body, " ... shockingly mangled ... ".

This incident points towards an experienced man-eater, probably a male. I remember a documentary about a man-eater in the Sunderbans. A group of men who had just lost one of their number to a tiger was followed when they tried to find his remains. They said the tiger has come out of nowhere and attacked him with such force, that both hit a tree. The tiger, anticipating the collision, used the tree to push himself in the direction he had elected before the attack and disappeared with the man in his jaws.

Some incidents witnessed in Indonesia were very similar. Hoogerwerf recorded one in Udjong Kulon in eastern Java (one man was taken from a group before the others realized what was happening), but the one I remember most is the incident described in a book written by a well-known Dutch hunter in Sumatra.

He was on his way in a modern car just before the Second World War. His destination was a place where a tiger terrorized a village. In a remote place, still many miles from the village, the car broke down. While the driver was fixing the problem and the hunter was watching him from a few yards distance, a tiger came out of the jungle. He rushed towards the driver, took him in his jaws and jumped into the forest at the other side of the road. It happened in seconds and the hunter was completely surprised. Next day, he returned with dogs, local hunters and plenty of guns. They searched the forest until dusk, but never found a trace of the driver.    

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