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

[peter]

(02-28-2024, 10:07 PM)parvez Wrote: Interesting to hear. Thanks @TheHyenid76

Agreed, Parvez. 

Good find, Hyena. If there's anyone able to find additional info, it's you. Don't keep us waiting. 

SKULLS

As you may remember, I'm working on a series of tables. The reason is an interesting article about the skull differences between tigers in mainland Asia: 'Phenotypic plasticity determines differences between the skulls of tigers from mainland Asia', Cooper (DM), Yamaguchi (N), MacDonald (DW), Nanova (OG), Yudin (VG), Dugmore (AJ) and Kitchener (AC), Royal Society Open Science, 2022. 

Those involved in the article think the main difference between skulls of (wild male) Amur tigers and skulls of other tiger subspecies in mainland Asia (referring to the size and shape of the sagittal crest in particular) is a result of climate: Eastern Russia has long and harsh winters, meaning Amur tigers are forced to eat frozen meat for up to six months every year. Interesting hypothesis, but can it be confirmed?  

The article has a large dataset (172 skulls from 14 natural history museums), enabling those interested to get to over the details of all of them. It took a lot of time to get to a few tables and conclusions. When the job was finished, I went over the information I have in order to get to a few additional tables. All this to get to an opinion. And that's what it will be, as the dataset, although impressive, represents only a fraction of the skulls present in natural history museums. 

A fraction only? I'm afraid so. Biologists involved in skulls, papers and articles often focus on a few well-known natural history museums. There are, however, many and most of them have a few tiger skulls. That's still apart from private collectors. Not all of them have a large collection, but the ones I saw do. 

Another thing to consider is large skulls not seldom suddenly disappear from natural history museums, so what do we really know? 

AUDIOBOOKS

Apart from investing time in skulls and tables, I like to read. Or listen. Audiobooks are relatively new. I often listen when working on a post. Although I like all his books, 'Man-eaters of Kumaon' of Jim Corbett still tops my list. Here's a few links:  

Link to - 'The Man-Eater of Muktesar' : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy9XRmT0B2k&t=19s
Link to - 'The Bachelor of Powalgarh' : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8LY08iLGdo&t=853s
Link to - 'Man-Eaters of Kumaon' : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOQqiec8gSE&t=63s

YouTube also has audio versions of some of the books of Kenneth Anderson:

Link to - 'The maned Tiger of Chordi' : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPk_jNGiA0g 
Link to - 'The Mauler of Rajnagara' : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvDcGPezwus&t=26s
Link to - 'Kenneth Anderson, My Dad' : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw8y0Mec558

In the last video, Donald Anderson talks about his father Kenneth. Donald, as you may remember (he was discussed in a few posts some years ago), featured in some of the books written by his father. The man who posted the video, Joshua Matthew, wrote a book about Donald Anderson. It was discussed some years ago (this thread).  

Joshua Matthew posted a number of videos on YouTube. In most of them, Kenneth and his son Donald, directly or indirectly (as well a those who knew both of them), feature. My advice is to watch them. Reply