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

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TIGERS IN NORTHERN INDIA AND NEPAL - PART XIV


Nepal (males)


a - A.E. Smythies ('Big game shooting in Nepal', Calcutta, 1942)

The remarks on Nepal tigresses in the previous post can be repeated for Nepal male tigers: as everything we need to know was discussed before, we can move to the tables right away.

There are 2 tables. This post has the first of them.

All male tigers shot between 14-01-1933 and 16-02-1939 are in tables XV (01-27) and XVI (28-52). From left to right: No. - Page - Date - Location - Length (total length measured 'over curves ' in feet and inches) - Cm. (total length 'over curves' in cm.) - Age - Remarks - Camp.

 
Table XV:

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b - Remarks on table XV

1 - Tiger 03, at 10.9 'over curves', was the largest the Maharajah of Nepal ever shot. He wasn't the only one of 10.9, but, at 705 lbs. or 319,79 kg, he was the biggest. How was he weighed? No details known. Was he baited? It seems best to just quote the part written about this tiger:

" ... No less than nine kills had been reported from different places around camp, a plethora on a marching day when all the elephants were employed in moving camp. General Kaiser organised a ring only 500 yards away from camp, on the further side of the Rapti, and successfully enclosed a tiger. This proved to be yet another enormous fighting tiger, who on being wounded 'sprang with one terrible bound towards the howdah, but his progress was stopped in mid-air by a shot from the Maharajah'. A superb and realistic painting of this scene hangs to-day in the great Durbar Hall in Kathmandu, which is reproduced in plate 23 in this book. This was the largest tiger His Highness has ever shot, 10 feet 9 inches, and probably one of the half dozen largest that ever have been shot since correct measurements started ... " (pp. 88).

So was the tiger baited? Yes. All, or nearly all, tigers shot by the Maharajah of Nepal and his guests were baited. For more information, read the first posts on tigers in northern India and Nepal. Was the tiger fully gorged? Not likely. A gorged tiger retreats after he is saturated. He no doubt will demonstrate when surrounded by elephants, but based on everything I read on gorged tigers I think it is very unlikely the tiger would have been capable of anything. This giant, however, " ... sprang with one terrible bound towards the howdah, but his progress was stopped in mid-air ... ". Not your typical gorged tiger.  

Some time ago, I posted on a tiger of similar length and weight shot in Central India in the 19th century. This tiger, a confirmed cattle-lifter, was hunted by a forest officer not long after a meal. In the heat of the day, he was hardly capable of walking, let alone launch an attack. He was an easy shot. The forest officer estimated him at over 700 pounds and described him as a 'perfect mountain of fat'.

How much can a large male tiger described as 'gorged' eat? Corbett was quite impressed by the capability of some of the tigers he shot, but he didn't provide details. The Maharajah of Cooch Behar did. His 'gorged' male tigers were 59 lbs. heavier than an average male. The 7 'gorged' males of which he provided details compared in all respects to an average male. Maybe a very big tiger can get to 77 lbs. in one sitting, as one tried, but that tiger most certainly wouldn't be able to jump at an elephant.

What would the weight of the 705 lbs. Nepal tiger have been when he would have been empty? My take is to deduct about 45 lbs. This is about the average amount of meat a male tiger would digest in one sitting in most cases. I really wonder if he would have been capable of the feat described by Smythies with 45 lbs. of meat in his stomach, but it could be possible. Based on that assumption, he could have been about 660 lbs. empty. In order to exclude gossip, rumours and dismissals, I propose 635-660 lbs. empty.

Any chance of backing this conclusion? Reliable information provided by a biologist? Yes. Two Nepal male tigers bottomed a 600-pound scale a few decades ago. I have no details about the one weighed by Dinerstein, but the Sauraha male was 10.2 'over curves' when he had been radio-collared and was darted again. Quite a bit shorter than the 10.9 giant shot in 1933. We have to add that the Sauraha tiger had a long tail.

But 660 surely is way out of reach for any wild male tiger, no matter how large? I agree. The Cooch Behar sample says that even 500 empty is real big, let alone 550 or well over that mark. On the other hand. Tigers over 600 lbs. have been recorded by biologists twice and there's no question that some exceeded 700 in the recent past in central, southwestern and northern India. I have more than one example I consider reliable. All of these heavyweights, of course, were gorged.

The 705-lbs. Nepal tiger was shot in a region where tigers were not often molested in a time there were 10 tigers for every one today. He could have been about 10.3 - 10.5 in a straight line and 650 lbs. empty.    

2 - Tiger 09 was something to behold: " ... The next day ..., the Maharajah shot a tiger, measuring 9 feet 4 inches, which was almost white with black stripes and he was delighted to get this rare specimen ... " (pp. 92).

3 - Tigers 12 and 13 were shot in the same ring. The tigress in the ring " ... charged an elephant, ... , and, breaking the circle, made good her escape ... " (pp. 58). The 2 males were shot. In total length, they were well below average. Young adults competing for a female or immature brothers not yet on their own?

4 - Tiger 15 was filmed: " ... Three guests accompanied the Maharajah on the shoot to-day - Sir Frederick O'Connor, Mr. Verney and Mr. Musselwhite the film operator. They had a day to remember! A single tiger was first found, a fighting beast who provided some fine film before he was finnaly killed. He measured 9 feet 9 inches ... " (pp. 60).

5 - Tigers 16 and 17 were shot in a ring that had 5 tigers (2 females, 2 males and a large cub). All of them were shot very close to each other. Most unusual. My guess is the males were not adults, but immatures still with their mother.

6 - Tiger 21 was on his own when he was shot. It took 2 hours to beat him out of the dense undergrowth and " ... an exciting film was taken of the episode ... " (pp. 125). Judging from his total length, he most probably was immature.

7 - Tiger 27, also shot near the Rapti river, was described as " ... the second biggest tiger ... ever shot, an enormous heavy brute measuring 10 feet 9 inches ... " (pp. 133).   

8 - The range in size, like in tigresses, is remarkable. It has to be noted, however, that at least 7 males (tigers 12, 13, 16, 17, 21, 25 and 26) were suspect for good reasons. They were included in the table, but I have serious doubts as to their age and status. The reason is that adult male tigers, apart from a few exceptions, avoid other adult males. Spacing is an important mechanism in adults.

The rings, as was discussed before, were not wider than about 1 mile or a little over, meaning the male tigers had to be very close to each other well before the ring was closed. Most unusual. The only reasonable explanation is that the tigers shot most probably were related. Another reason to assume they were immature was that all of them were well below par in total length.

9 - This is plate 22 with the enormous 705 lbs. Chitawan tiger discussed in b1. It most probably is based on a photograph. I don't see a gorged tiger, but I admit he is laying on his belly:

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