Modern weights and measurements on wild tigers

[GuateGojira]

On the tigers of Sariska:

I have saw in the last days that this "table" is still on the web:

*This image is copyright of its original author

To be honest, that was not even a table, but a paragraph that I wrote in AVA, as far I remember. Someone took an screeshot and that is all. The point is that the information is the table is very outdated, like some names that are incorrect and the highly disputed weight of 170 kg for the male ST-4. I will not recoment to use it anymore.

I will like to make a new summary of the information that I have:

Tiger ID:	Sex:	Weight(kg):	Release date:	Source:	Remarks:
ST-1 (T-10)	M	220	26/08/2008	Sinha, 2008	About 3.5 years old, know as "Darra male".
ST-2 (T-01)	F	170	04/07/2008	Sinha, 2008	About 3 years old, know as "Bachhi - Lakrda - Babli".
ST-3 (T-18)	F	143	26/02/2009	Sinha, 2009	About 3.5 years old.
ST-4 (T-12)	M	170-~200(?)	20/07/2010	Sinha, 2010	About 6 years old, known as "Tikkoo bhaiyya".
ST-5 (T-44)	F	135	28/07/2010	Sebastian, 2010	About 2.5 years old

The sources are just for the weights and in some cases the date of captures. The remarks and the popular names are from other sources.

Why the differences? Well, first of all the names of the tigress ST-2, as I found that the name "Babli" was in fact applied to these tigress and not her sister ST-3.

Second, the weigh of "170 kg" for male ST-4. There is only one source for that weight, but also there is other source (I lost it, by the way) where it says "over 200 kg". Now some posters that actually saw that tiger say that is not posible that an adult male of about 6 years old may weight such a low figure, and I am agree with that. Here are some pictures that I found in this forum (the first one) and on the web (the second and third ones):

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Certainly was not a long tiger, and it looks about 180-200 kg, taking in count that the second picture is from 2018 when he was at least 14 years old. The third one is when he died in december of 2018 from the wounds of a fight, some others says that for negligence of the officers as the tiger did not eat in the days when he was in captivity. So I discarted the weight of 170 kg as unreliable. Compare it with the tiger "Dakre" or T-102 from Chitwan NP, Nepal, that weighed 200 kg:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Now, the complain that the weight of 170 kg is too high for a tigress of just over 3 years old is also valid, as that weight is the equivalent of 272 kg for a male tiger, is up to the extream for a mature prime adult. So, this make me to question the reliability of these figures, even if are confirmed by the news papers like "The Hindu". I still remember the case of an Amur tiger that was labeled as "250 kg" in a web publication, latter I contacted the reporter and he told me that was the correct figure, however digging more I contacted the veterinarian that worked with the tiger and he told me that it was of just 185 kg!!!

Sadly, at diference of the scientists of Russia and Thailand, those from India are not very willing to share the information of the size/weight of its captured animals, and although some figures seems correct, those from the specimens ST-2 and ST-4 are disputed. I still used the weight of ST-2 in my last table, but I think that I will reconsider it, specially for the age issue.

Other cases like this are the weights of 185 kg for "Gabbar" and 85 kg for "Choti Tara" from Tadoba-Andari, which were confirmed by email to some poster here, but in the case of the female, it looks obviously incorrect. 

The tigress "Chuchchi" or T-115 from Chitwan NP, Nepal, weighed 98 kg when she died at 15.5 years old in an emaciated state and was killed by a male tiger of over 3 years old, so if the figure of 85 kg is real for "Choti Tara", this was when she was probably still a subadult, not an adult.

Compare with this subadult tigress named "Cinderella" which weighed 94 kg at about 2 years old:

*This image is copyright of its original author

She was still a cub when she weighed 94 kg, more than the allegated weight of "85 kg" for "Choti Tara".

I think that we need to be very carefull with the weights in the news reports and like "Dr Panthera" said, many of those figures or those shared in Facebook are not entirely confirmed or some details are missed.

Like a conclution, for the moment, the weights of ST-1, ST-3 and ST-5 seems reliable and match with they ages, the one of ST-2 is disputed and that of ST-4 is definitelly not reliable. Maybe someone here can contact people that was involved in those captures and try to clarify the issue. I tried, but for the moment I don't have any answer.


Greetings to all. Reply