ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris)

[peter]

(03-14-2020, 02:09 PM)johnny rex Wrote: What is the maximum prey size (e.g. weight, physical dimensions, etc.) that a single male lion or tiger can take alone without being in groups? Up to the size of a buffalo bull?

Tigers and rhinos

A few decades ago, I often taped documentaries. I still have these videos and the summaries I wrote. In two videos, rhinos were hunted by male tigers. I saw one on a forum later. It had been broadcasted on a Russian channel (the comment was in Russian) and parts of the documentary had been moved to AVA. The footage was from Nepal or northern India. It showed a male tiger following a rhino and her calf. In order to get rid of the tiger, mom decided to move to a river island. The tiger followed. A few days later, the adult female was on her own. She had defended her calf right to the end and nearly lost her life doing so. The second video was less clear, but the people interviewed were sure tigers hunted adult rhinos every now and then.   

Some of those who spent a lot of years in what used to be British India wrote about their experiences later. They too thought tigers hunted adult rhinos and elephants occasionally. It starts with calves. When a tiger is experienced, he moves to adolescents and young adults. I wasn't surprised to read later adult rhinos had been killed by tigers. 

Most posters seem to have doubts about tigers hunting rhinos, but there are reliable reports about rhinos killed by tigers in recent years. Nearly all rhinos killed were youngsters and adult females, but some tigers seem to hunt adult male rhinos every now and then. This photograph was posted not so long ago. It shows a male tiger and a male rhino killed in a fight. Happened in November 2017:

*This image is copyright of its original author

 

Tigers and elephants

I've read so many books in which tigers and elephants feature, that I wouldn't know where to start. Apart from books, there are magazins like The Field, The Indian Forester and The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. In each of them, you can find letters from members about interactions between tigers and elephants. Most of these were published in the period 1890-1950, but I also have reports about recent incidents. 

The book below was discussed in the tiger extinction thread some years ago. It has different stories in which male tigers and male tuskers feature. Male tigers following herds quite often hunted calves and youngsters, but they also attacked adults defending youngsters. Not every attack resulted in a dead elephant, but quite a few elephants were injured.  

Adult females never left the herd on their own to engage a tiger following the herd, but some males visiting the herd occassionally, and tuskers in particular, did. Some of these males harrassed and 'hunted' tigers interested in elephants. They knew about their habits and waited for an opportunity to attack. At times, they were injured while trying, but they also succeeded every now and then. 

Those who know captive tigers agree they have a dislike for certain animals. In captivity, a dislike can develop into a fued. I'm not sure about their wild relatives, but my guess is they're nopt that different. Based on what I read, I'd say male elephants could compare in this department. When these two get involved, anything can happen.    

Never ever underestimate a wild male elephant driven by anger. Kenneth Anderson and others who hunted 'roques' agreed they're intelligent. move as silent as a big cat and know how to hunt an animal they dislike. For them, a human is no different from an animal. 

Here's the title page of the book, a reprint. My advice is to buy it when you can:             

*This image is copyright of its original author

Tigers and wild buffalos

Tigers and gaurs often feature in books, articles and posts. Tigers and wild buffalos, however, is a different story. In the tiger extinction thread, a few books written by Bengt Berg were discussed. In one of these, the 'Killer of Man' features. This male tiger from Bhutan was known for the way he killed wild buffalos. He wasn't after youngsters or females, but only hunted large bulls. 

The largest tiger Berg ever shot was 9.7 'between pegs' and 565 pounds. The 'Killer of Man', however, was in a different league. He could have shot this giant on different occasions, but wanted him to pass on his genes. Berg was a real hunter, that is. 

This specialist hunting large male buffalos never was involved in a battle. He rose underneath and in front of the giant, got a hold on the throat and the horns, used his grip to turn the head sideways and downward, planted the horns in the ground and heard the vertebrae of the neck crack while moving to the tail to start dinner. How to use weight in your advantage, lesson one. 

Berg saw the results time and again. His accurate descriptions made it clear the tiger rose in front of the buffalo, toppled him over and used his strength to twist the neck, in this way using the weight of the falling buffalo to his advantage. It wasn't a result of coincidence, that is. I've seen it on two occasions in old documentaries. In both cases, the neck was broken in this way. It wasn't the skill that made the Bhutan tiger famous. It was his strength to completely twist the head of a very heavy animal in such a way, that the horns were planted in the ground each and every time. Berg never saw any signs of a struggle.

Here's a wild buffalo (photograph from one of the books of Berg):

*This image is copyright of its original author

The neck of this buffalo was broken:

*This image is copyright of its original author

   

Now imagine a large bull with his horns sticking into the ground, his neck broken by a cat less than a third his weight.   
    
Tigers and bears

Most posters are fascinated by large animals killed by much smaller specialists like big cats, but only few seem to appreciate a tiger able to kill a robust and agile animal like a bear. Strange, as even a smallish adult brown bear is a powerful animal well capable of killing a male tiger. 

Some male Amur tigers hunt female brown bears every now and then. It is an ability that isn't really appreciated. 

Remember the video of Matkasur and the female sloth bear less than half his weight? I've seen a number of videos of Matkasur from up close. He's a splendid male tiger similar in size to an average male Amur tiger or better. In spite of that, he wasn't able to kill a very modestly-sized female sloth bear, whereas Russian specialists not seldom kill female brown bears twice her weight.  

Although he intended to discourage her at first, the engagement turned serious at some stage. The video shows Matkasur wasted a lot of energy struggling an animal he could have convinced in another way. He was, after all, a prime male tiger more than twice her weight.

The video underlines the conclusion that sloth bears are not easy to kill, even when they're only half the weight of a tiger. When the bear is over 220 pounds, a quick bite to the back of the skull isn't going to produce a quick result. Not unless the tiger is a specialist. The tiger often has no other option but to face the bear, meaning the fight can be dangerous. Bears, more robust than tigers, can take a lot of damage. This isn't true for tigers. If there's one thing a professional hunter wants to avoid, it's extra weight. It has a flipside. If the tiger is injured in a fight, he'll pay. If a bear is injured, he'll visit another tiger kill. 

These tiger kills, by the way, are the reason Amur tigers learn about bears the hard way. If they survive their first fights, chances are they'll continue in the bear department. When they gain experience, tigers progress from youngsters to adults. Adult females, that is. Adult male brown bears are not hunted, as too risky. Males up to 4-5 years of age, however, have been killed by specialists. In Russia, Amur tigers occasionally hunt male Himalayan black bears, but I've yet to read a reliable report about an adult male Himalayan bear killed by a tiger in India, Nepal, Myanmar and Vietnam. 

In some seasons and regions (in the Russian Far East), bears are an important food item. More important than red deer, for example. Some posters argued the results of research confirming bears are an important source of food were a result by smallish samples and the presence of bear specialists, but Miquelle and others recently concluded they could have been wrong regarding tigers and bears in the Russian Far East.

Amur tigers, for obvious reasons, are not as large and heavy as half a century ago. Males averaged about 389 pounds in a document published in 2005. But the table was polluted to a degree and the conditions in the Russian Far East are improving. The number of tigers is increasing and I've seen quite a few recent pictures and videos of large male Amur tigers in very good health. My guess is those interested in tigers and bears could be in for a few surprises in the near future. Reply