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

[peter]

TIGERS IN NORTHERN INDIA AND NEPAL - PART IX


Northern India


a - The difference between a measurement taken 'over curves ' in northern India and one taken in northeastern India

The information on northern India is from Sir John Hewett's book 'Jungle trails in northern India', which was published in 1938. It was reprinted by Natraj Publishers in 2008. I have the reprint.

Hewett was an administrator in British India with a passion for big game hunting. Although tigers in particular feature in his book, it also has interesting information on the social structures and cultures traditions of the day of the Raj. Hewett is one of the few who wrote about wolf children:

" ... It was the custom in those days to pay a visit now and then to the Orphanage at Secundra near Agra to see the wolf-boy there. In his book 'Jungle life in India' (1880), Mr. V. Ball of the Geological Survey of India, describes the visit which he paid in August 1874, three years before I first went to Agra, to see this same wolf-boy. He remarks, with obvious truth, that the majority of people seem to be unable to discuss the question of wolf-children without prejudice.

In those days the reports given to police stations of the district that wolves had taken children away were frequent. The Jumna and its tributary, the Chambal, have enormous areas of ravines, the habitat of wolves, and one of my less pleasant duties was to arrange for the payment of criminal tribes known as Kanjars and Sansias, of rewards for the destruction of wolves. These wild men showed great ingenuity in doctoring jackals' heads to imitate those of wolves and, though I often detected fraud, I should be sorry to say that I always did. But to return to Mr. Ball. The report of the superintendant of the Secundra Orphanage in 1872 that a boy of about ten had been burned out of a den in the company of wolves had attracted Mr. Ball's notice. In reply to his inquiries, the Superintendant wrote that they had had two such boys. One, who had been brought in from the Mainpuri district in March 1872, always remained very wild and died after a few months. The other, stated by the superintendant to be thirteen or fourteen years old in 1872, had been in the orphanage for six years and was the one Mr. Ball saw in 1874 ... " (pp. 15-16).  

I posted the entire part on wolf children in a seperate thread (go to 'Miscellaneous'). I know most of you are not that interested, but I would advice to read it anyhow.  

To return to tigers.

Although it lacked the details typical for the book of the Maharajah of Cooch Behar (referring to information on body dimensions), Hewett´s book, in my opinion, easily compares. It too has a wealth of information. The chapter 'Statistics of lengths and weights of tigers'  in particular is interesting. Hewett took his time explaining how tigers were measured and he also was able to compare the two methods most used in northern India in those days ('over curves' and 'between pegs').

I could quote the most interesting parts, but decided to keep it short. This is the part to remember, I think:

" ... I have found when the actual measurement of tigers has been done by myself, or under my personal observation, often by Mr. Hodgart of the Museum staff at Calcutta, that the measurement by the two systems has differed from two to as much as five inches, the smaller measurement being always of course when taken between pegs.

For this reason, and because, if the measurement over the curve is made with the extreme care it demands, it must, in my judgement, give an accurate measurement of tigers killed in the present day, while it provides the only means of comparison with the records of sportsmen of past generations ..., I have preferred to use it as the record for all the tigers that I have seen killed; and I have a record for every one of them carefully measured and set down at the time ... " (pp. 68).

As clear as it gets.

One more quote to remember. After discussing a number of records, Hewett wrote:

" ... These measurements were, I believe, all taken over the curves, and correspond very closely to those taken by Dunbar-Brander and others, allowing for two or three inches of difference, between pegs ... " (pp. 70).

In other words.

In northern India, they took their time measuring a tiger. The differences between both methods most used ('over curves' and 'between pegs') were limited to 2-5 inches (pp. 68). In Hewett's opinion, the difference was 2-3 inches in most cases (males). In Cooch Behar, as was discussed before (see table VI in post 866), the average difference between both methods was 5,45 inches in 10 adult males. This means the method used ('over curves') was applied in different ways in both regions. 

The conclusion is that a tiger of, say, 9.8  'over curves' was about 9.2-9.3 'between pegs' in northeastern India and, most probably, about 9.5-9.6 'between pegs' in northern India: a difference of 2-3 inches . In females, the difference would have been a bit less pronounced (1-2 inches).

All clear? Reply