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

[Apex Titan]

Quote:Although Gotvansky repeatedly found remains of Himalayan black bears eaten by tigers, Anyuisky tigers, in spite of their size, do not seem to be prolific bear hunters. They most probably thrive on wild boars. In the summer of 2021, Gotvansky saw bears everywhere and all of them were in good condition. The reason was plenty of food. 

For tigers, the situation was different. The reason was the National Park had only few wild pigs left (a result of a disease) and most of them were large males. Not an easy prey for any tiger. The Anyuisky male tigers, including the 4 monsters mentioned above, didn't respond by starting epic battles with monster male brown bears and monster male wild boars, but entered nordic long distance walking events. Many of them were away for long periods of time.  

One thing is for sure. Anyuisky male tigers didn't grow into monsters by hunting monster brown bears and monster wild boars in times of need. Like most of us, they responded with budget cuts and trips to greener pastures.    

Do tigers in Bolshekhtsirsky behave in a similar way as the monster tigers in Anyuisky when faced wih pressure? The answer is they don't. At least, females with cubs don't. That is to say, 'Zlata' didn't. In the 2022 winter, Gotvansky and inspector Lukin found prints of large wild boars. All of them were left by adults. The tigress, without her cubs, followed them. She killed one and waited for her cubs. The reports I read suggest her previous litter also made it to independance.

The tiger 'Beast' hunted both large wild boars and bears:

"His successful hunt was observed twice: first, a giant cat crushed a large wild boar and savored the carcass for a couple of days, then a Himalayan bear became its prey, which, by the way, is not uncommon in the diet of a striped predator."

https://todaykhv.ru/news/society/29772/?...um=desktop

"Researchers say - the beast is in a well-fed form. So, judging by the decoding of the tracks, they hide the red deer, roe deer. Moreover, the difficult period - winter - the tigers survived successfully, and soon their food chain will expand again: bears, raccoon dogs, badgers will wake up."

https://todaykhv.ru/news/society/33420/?...id=3249480

Large wild boars are hunted by tigers in all areas and regions, and large male boars are frequently taken. I'm gonna make a post about tiger predation on large male Ussuri wild boars. I have no doubt that a large wild boar is a formidable, immensely powerful and tough animal to take on, but tigers, including youngsters and females know how to handle them well.

I also saw a documentary on Amur tigers, in which it was stated that the tigress 'Katya' easily takes down 500 lb wild boar, nearly twice her own weight.

@peter  Do you remember the name of the documentary you saw, in which Russian hunters found the head of an enormous male wild boar lying in a fresh pool of blood, that was killed by a young adult tigress?

Ussuri wild boar in Anyuisky National Park:

*This image is copyright of its original author

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