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

[peter]

ALL

This post has answers to a number of questions in PM's I got in the last months.   

a - Posting frequency

a1 - Over the years, I collected a lot of information. Although I knew what was where, the significant increase in the department of information often resulted in problems. In the end, I had no option but to decide for a reorganisation. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm close. It took me more than a year.

a2 - Most of you know I'm not involved in 'copy and paste'. Writing a post in your own words takes time. Not seldom, a post written in this way has to be reread and edited a number of times. Also remember that preparing a series on a specific item takes quite a bit of time. 

a3 - I've been interested in big cats in general and tigers in particular for a long time. Not long after I started posting, I was contacted by people interested in big cats in some way. Answering questions takes time. As most of those with questions are (semi-)professionals, I decided to answer them in a professional way. Meaning it developed into a kind of business. The forum I started with Sanjay will profit as well.      

What I'm saying is my time is limited. I like posting a lot, but I'll have to take a break every now and then. 

b - Books

There are many ways to get to good information about wild big cats. Reading is one of them. I try to read as many recent publications as possible, but also like old books a lot. Naturalists, forest officers and hunters do not quite compare to field biologists working in Sumatra, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, Nepal, India, China and Russia today, but in a way it's quite close. The reason is they too spent many years in wild country.   

A century ago, many of them saw things we can hardly imagine. Yet they happened every now and then. Quite a few biologists, equipped with tools like collars, have expressed doubts about observations of hunters, but it's quite possible big cats behaved in a different way when the human population hadn't yet exploded. All big cats are thinking animals able to adapt their behaviour over time. Also remember that individuals that didn't adapt (referring to man-eaters and cattle-hunters) were taken out most of the time. It no doubt had an effect.

Anyhow. In this thread, I will discuss as many modern publications as possible. Every now and then, however, a book written a long time ago will feature. A friend recently found 'Big Game Hunting in Manchuria' (English translation, 1936). It will be discussed in a few weeks.  

c - The relation between 'heel width' and weight in wild Amur tigers

There is a discussion about the size (weight) of wild Amur tigers in another thread. As the discussion could be of interest of readers interested in tigers, I proposed to continue in this thread. 

Wild Amur tigers are still captured, measured and weighed every now and then, but not as often as 10-20 years ago. I haven't seen recent publications with information on the size of wild Amur tigers. Those interested in tigers only have a few videos and photographs. Some photographs show large individuals, but we have no clue as to what 'large' is. 

There are different ways to get to guesstimates. Bear biologists concluded there's a strong relation between skull width and weight (a), and chest girth and weight (b) in brown bears. Heel width, also known as 'pad size', also is a good indicator of weight in brown bears ©. My guess is it isn't very different in tigers.

For this reason, my proposal is to post information about the relation between 'heel width' and weight in wild Amur tigers. If we have enough, Tigerluver, who moved a number of posts to this thread, will be able to get to an equation.

d - One more thing

The extinction threads were moved to this section for a reason. The aim of these threads is good information. All members can post, but remember moderation is more strict than in the other sections. If you've questions, contact a mod. Reply