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

peter Offline
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( This post was last modified: 04-29-2018, 07:47 AM by peter )

A FEW TIGER SKULLS

a - The Munster zoo male Amur tiger

In september 2013, a 56-year old keeper was killed by a male Amur tiger in the Munster zoo (western part of Germany). As other keepers were able to lure the tiger away from the poor man, he wasn't shot. The tiger died of old age about 3 years later.

Here's the tiger when he was about 10 years of age:


*This image is copyright of its original author


And here's the taxidermist with his skull in 2017:    


*This image is copyright of its original author


The skull seems to be of average size, but the undamaged upper canines, although not well developed, are very long. Skulls of Amur tigers, and those of males in particular, often are big gun platforms.

b - Tiger and jaguar skull

Found this photograph on a blog. The writer had bought the skulls from a taxidermist in Germany. I didn't find any details, but it's very likely that the owners were born and bred in captivity:  


*This image is copyright of its original author
 

I compared jaguar skulls to those of tigers and lions. In my opinion, they're much closer to lion skulls all the way. The largest are similar in length to the skull of an average male Sumatran tiger, but they often lack in elevation, rostrum width, zygomatic width, upper canine length (and diameter), robustness and weight.

Male Pantanal jaguars are not as heavy as male Sumatran tigers (averages), but there's not much difference between the largest individuals in both species.  

c - Paris natural history museum

Although the labels lack information, my guess is the skulls belonged to wild tigers. If so, chances are they were shot in French Indochina before 1954. All three skulls have a very vaulted profile and a short, rounded face: 


*This image is copyright of its original author


A century ago, Panthera tigris corbetti was more or less common in most of southeast Asia. Male tigers in Tonkin in the extreme north and Johore in the southern part of Malaysia seldom exceeded 8.8 (264,16 cm.) in total length (measured 'between pegs'), but males shot in the northwestern part of Burma, the western part of Thailand and the northern part of Malaysia (Perak) often compared to an average male Indian tiger. Not as heavy perhaps, but about similar in total length (8.10-9.4 'between pegs'). The longest shot in Perak taped 9.6 (289,56 cm.) and 9.8 (294,64 cm.) measured 'between pegs'.

Tigers in Annam (an elevated and well-stocked region in the northern part of the former South Vietnam) were known for their size. Americans often visited that region to hunt tigers in the period 1920-1940. The largest tiger shot by W. Baze in Vietnam was 260 kg. (575 pounds) and 338 cm. (just over 11.1) in total length measured 'over curves'. Although he had a very long tail (118 cm.), he still measured 220 cm. in head and body.

This was in the days that Asia still had many thousands of tigers. Today, the situation isn't good. Laos and Cambodja still have a few tigers, but they were poached to extinction in Vietnam. In Malaysia and Thailand, tigers are protected, but Burma is a very different story.

These tigers were poached in Thailand not so long ago. Depressing photographs like this one are all too often seen:


*This image is copyright of its original author


According V. Mazak (1983), Panthera tigris corbetti was about average in size. Males ranged between 8.4-9.0 (254,00-274,32 cm.) in total length measured 'between pegs', at times up to 9.4 (284,48 cm.). 

Based on what I have, I'd say he was a bit conservative. Panthera tigris corbetti ranged over a very large area. The result was individual variation.

Tigers shot in Johore were smaller than average. But the Sultan of Johore shot different males well exceeding 9.0 (274,32 cm.) in total length measured 'between pegs'. One of them had a skull over 360 mm. in greatest total length. It still tops the official list. But what do we know?
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Messages In This Thread
RE: ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris) - peter - 04-29-2018, 07:13 AM
Demythologizing T16 - tigerluver - 04-12-2020, 11:44 AM
Tiger Data Bank - Apollo - 07-28-2014, 09:54 PM
RE: Tiger Data Bank - Apollo - 07-28-2014, 10:02 PM
RE: Tiger Data Bank - Apollo - 07-29-2014, 12:56 AM
RE: Tiger Data Bank - peter - 07-29-2014, 07:05 AM
Tiger recycling bin - Roflcopters - 09-04-2014, 01:36 AM
RE: Tiger recycling bin - Pckts - 09-04-2014, 02:22 AM
RE: Tiger recycling bin - Roflcopters - 09-05-2014, 01:01 AM
RE: Tiger Data Bank - Apollo - 11-15-2014, 10:07 PM
RE: Tiger Data Bank - Apollo - 11-15-2014, 10:57 PM
RE: Tiger Data Bank - Apollo - 11-15-2014, 11:33 PM
RE: Tiger Data Bank - Apollo - 02-19-2015, 11:25 PM
RE: Tiger Data Bank - GuateGojira - 02-23-2015, 11:36 AM
Status of tigers in India - Shardul - 12-20-2015, 03:23 PM
RE: Tiger Directory - Diamir2 - 10-03-2016, 04:27 AM
RE: Tiger Directory - peter - 10-03-2016, 06:22 AM
Genetics of all tiger subspecies - parvez - 07-15-2017, 01:08 PM
RE: Tiger Predation - peter - 11-11-2017, 08:08 AM
RE: Man-eaters - Wolverine - 12-03-2017, 11:30 AM
RE: Man-eaters - peter - 12-04-2017, 09:44 AM
RE: Tigers of Central India - Wolverine - 04-13-2018, 01:17 AM
RE: Tigers of Central India - qstxyz - 04-13-2018, 08:34 PM
RE: Size comparisons - peter - 07-16-2019, 05:28 AM
RE: Amur Tigers - peter - 05-20-2021, 07:13 AM
RE: Amur Tigers - Nyers - 05-21-2021, 08:02 PM
RE: Amur Tigers - peter - 05-22-2021, 08:09 AM
RE: Amur Tigers - GuateGojira - 04-06-2022, 12:59 AM
RE: Amur Tigers - tigerluver - 04-06-2022, 01:08 AM
RE: Amur Tigers - tigerluver - 04-06-2022, 09:08 AM
RE: Amur Tigers - tigerluver - 04-06-2022, 11:30 PM
RE: Amur Tigers - peter - 04-08-2022, 07:27 AM



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