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

[peter]

First a question. I assume you are aware of the fact two tigers were discussed in the last posts? The man-eater shot near the Godavary River in December 1912 (the 9.9 tiger of 416 lbs.) and the 9.1 tiger shot in February 1924 northern India? Yes? Ok. Just checking.

As for the 9.9 Godavary River tiger of 416 lbs. I have no idea how he was weighed. If you have two scales of 300 and 200 lbs. and the tiger bottoms the largest scale, different methods can be used to get to a result. I could describe a few, but Burton didn't say how he did it. I assume he had good reasons. What I know is he had two scales, of which the 300 lbs. scale was tested before and after use. It was accurate.

One more thing. Mistakes and cheating just wasn't done in those days, especially when it was about India and tigers and officers were involved. I've read countless debates and the one thing that stuck was cheating wasn't even considered. The reason was honour. Even a minor mistake could mean loss of face and curtains. I've posted time and again about the debates on methods, tapes, accuracy and sportsmanship in magazins and newspapers. In nearly every old book, there is a chapter on methods, measurements, accuracy and records. It really wasn't about that, but about the rules of conduct. This is the reason I prefer them old boys over all others when it is about measurements, methods, accuracy and records.  

Most posters, educated amateurs and biologists, however, dismiss old records are unreliable crap. They only trust records of today's biologists. But nearly all debates about big cat size on forums are about (the interpretation of) records of today's biologists. This should tell you something.

Let's take Packer. He knows so much about lions, that he's only able to communicate about them with the Lion Spirit. For him, knowledge is about the spiritual dimension. If he was to write a book about lions, it would be about that. Packer will probably die studying lions in Africa, but he has no clue as to methods and measurements. The reason is he is just not that interested. But the boys in India were, back then. It nearly was a matter of life and death for them.

If Burton says the Godavary tiger he shot in December 1912 was 9.9 'between pegs' and 416 lbs., than that's more than good enough for me.  Reply