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

[Rishi]

(01-07-2018, 05:28 AM)Greatearth Wrote: Looks like these Bengal tigers are well adapted in steep Himalayan mountains in Bhutan. They don't look massive and robust body like Wagdoh, Madla, and other tigers from India...

...It is fair that studying ecology and morphology of the Bengal tiger from Himalayan mountains in Bhutan could understand some stuffs for the other tiger subspecies lived in steep mountain areas like the Caspian tiger and South China tiger.

That means you haven't seen them all...That problem can be solved. Skim through this thread, it's short:

Tigers of High Himalayas.

Some of them live less than 50kms away from the lowlands of Assam & Duars, exchanging genes with each other, thanks to the whole region being an unfragmented forest block. 

Buxa tigers move range to foothills of Bhutan border.

Bhutan tiger sighted in Neora Valley.

Quote:Is there any reliable interactions between these croc and tiger? All I know is one female tiger was killed by saltwater crocodile after 4 hours battle or something.

100 years ago, the Bengal tiger in coastal areas of Tamilnadu, Andhrapradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Bangladesh and western Burma definitely faced with these animal since saltie habitat was also very wide spread (saltwater crocodile was once ranged Seychelles islands of Africa to western Oceania).
Someone in wildfact wrote interaction result between these two apex predators were the tigers usually dominated the saltwater crocodiles in past...

...I guess tiger could take down saltwater crocodile, but Sundarbans tiger is smaller than tigers from other parts of India and Nepal.

Tiger/crocodile fatalities caused by each other are very low ( Most bodies are usually found, washed downstream by the tides & dumped on the banks of wider rivers, as most bouts take place near water). The last such incident was recorded in 2011, and before that another incident two years ago in 2009.

I'm not a fan of picking a few random incidents & using them to "prove" something as law. So, here are my two cents...

Tigers dominate on the land & crocs in the water, but they do their best to avoid each other. 

From what i've inferred from reading hundreds of stories & tales on Sundarban's backdrop, most tigers are somewhat afraid of crocodiles.
Mostly because they are completely vulnerable to them every time they cross streams.Young, inexperienced individuals probably make mistakes leaving traumatic memory & scars.

Crocodiles get attacked on the land, out of spite, otherwise both leave the other alone. 

On their size/weight relative to their mainland cousins, i will make a detailed post shortly in the The Sundarban Tigers thread. Reply