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

[GuateGojira]

(04-29-2020, 05:38 AM)Ashutosh Wrote: @GuateGojira, doesn’t the Chundawat case prove that they actually can eat 25-30 kilos in a sitting. Think about it. A tiger finishes up eating at night, about 6 hours the next morning, it throws up 19 kilos of content. You yourself said that total digestion in some cats takes 6 hours implying that the tiger digested some content while throwing up the rest (not accounting for the content that was absorbed) essentially concluding that there was more than 19 kilos in its stomach possibly in the 25-30 kilos range that Chundawat claimed.

Dr Chundawat did not claimed anything, it was just an estimation with the staff in the park. Also, remember that contrary to normal perception, tigers do not eat constantly the full 6 hours, in fact, the time at the bait may be less, depeding of what hour the tiger killed the animal.

Based in the case of Chitwan, the baits were put in the evening (between 6 to 7 pm) and the kills were not made just one hour after, but normally in the night (sometimes even after 12 am, as tigers hunt more in the night) and the tiger eat about 1 hour and rest, leave the place and take water and after that brake it eats again. That is why the average food intake in a day is between 14 to 19 kg in Nepal. So there is no reason to think that Panna tigers eat a different amount.

Other error is to think that the tiger ate the 20-30 kg in one sitting, or in just 6 hours. The issue is that the figures of up to 34 kg are for one entire day, a period of 24 hours, in the case of the Nepalese tigers (Tamang, 1982). Normally, when the tiger is captured it is disturbed at the baits and they do not eat in full, but just partially, that is why the average figure is about half of the full amount that a tiger can eat. So, although Dr Chundawat do not provide any other detail, the only thing that we can know is that the amount of that tiger, that was captured in the morning (normal time of captures are after 6 am, when the killed bait is located and when all the capture process is ready), was of 19 kg in the belly and if there was other amount, or if it was already allready absorbed is just speculation. However, as tigers eat in intervals, it will be very weird to imply that the tiger did absorved something or maybe, if the animal eat something more during the breaks between meals.

An example where we can apply this case is the hunt of a tiger in Rajasthan made by Colonel Kesri Singh. The tiger was bated in the morning, but the kill lasted the entire day until dawn when they finally killed the tiger. In that period the tiger was persecuted and he did not manage to eat anything, so whatever the amount that ate was, the tiger by that time was empty belly and all the amount of food was probably absorved.

So yes, tigers can eat up to 30 kg, but normally, in discturbed baits and with less than 12 hours at the kill, they will eat much less. M-91 was with a full belly in that moment, but the belly was of less than 20 kg and he could eat probably more if it was not disturbed. Reply