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

[Brehm]

By reading this article from the big cat news section (credits to pckts), i found this.

The first recorded case of a royal bengal tiger killing an himalayan black bear in bhutan, according to the article.

Probably only a juvenile of maximum 3 years, but still a predation on a black bear from a bengal tiger:


“It’s a confirmed kill by a royal Bengal tiger, since there are canine puncture marks on the bear’s throat and spine, as well as tiger claw marks lacerating the bears face and tiger pug marks in the area,” said Phub Tshering, the JDNP park beat officer, who discovered the carcass. He said that there were also signs of struggle between the bear and the tiger with rhododendrons bushes uprooted and claw marks on trees.

“Usually the Himalayan black bear is a powerful foe for any tiger and they avoid each other, but here the bear seems to be a juvenile at 2-3 years and hence did not have the muscle and fighting abilities it gets by the time it reaches its adult age of 5 years,” said Dr Sonam Wangyel, the chief forestry officer and wildlife biologist. He said that it was likely that the two animals met accidentally.

In a height of 4000m -where the kill occured- there shouldnt be plentiful prey variety, so could tigers entering those areas probably become more like their amur brothers behaviour wise in attacking black bears? Also the potential occurence of tigers, black bears, leopards and snow leopards together in the same places makes this a very exciting developement. Tigers and bears will surely dominate, leopards will do ok, but i hope the snow leopards find their niche as well and are able to coexist with the other predators.

Sorry if it was already posted elsewhere, in that case my post can be deleted. Reply