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

[peter]

We have to add that brown bears pose a threat to cubs and immature tigers in eastern Russia. 

Last year, a number of young tigers were released from a new rehab centre. The region in which they were released had few, if any, adult tigers, but bears are way more numerous and difficult to avoid. The young tigers wore collars, enabling biologists to monitor their progress. They did well, but the boars they killed apparently attracted bears. Although they were able to avoid them most of the time, there was at least one confrontation. Male tiger Boris, when still younger than 2 years of age, killed a 3-year old brown bear last year, but a fight can go both ways.  

Heptner and Sludskij described an incident in which a young male Amur tiger was killed by a brown bear near Chabarowsk in 1956. The drawing N.N. Kondakov was based on a photograph taken by Krivopusk:  

*This image is copyright of its original author

Below is a scan in which the incident is described. Here's a brief translation:

Judging from the traces in the snow, a tigress with a large male cub killed a wild boar and then moved on. When he was on his own, the young tiger was challenged by a brown bear interested in his boar. There was a fight, in which the bear was victorious. After killing the tiger, the bear ate the wild boar. When he had finished the boar, he started on the tiger. When consuming him, the bear was disturbed by humans and left:    

*This image is copyright of its original author

  
 

The age of the young tiger was a bit unclear. Heptner and Sludskij wrote he was about 3 years of age, but V. Mazak thought he was a bit younger. As it is known young Amur tigers leave their mother when they are about 18 months of age, chances are the young male was less then 2 years old when he fought the bear. There are other studies suggesting young tigers could have stayed with their mother until well over 2 years of age some decades ago, but the study published by, amongst others, L. Kerley, is the most recent one. Reply