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

[peter]

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I bought this book through a friend in the USA. When it was delivered, I noticed it had been sent from New Zealand (...). Anyhow. The book was written by someone who managed a tea estate in Assam in the days of the British Raj. What did he see almost a century ago in a region now renowned for its tigers?

Well, Nicholls saw plenty of tigers. Most of the time, he watched them from a machan. In some cases, he was obliged to shoot them. Most of the 28 he shot were cattle-lifters, but quite a number also hunted humans. He never succeeded in killing a man-eater, but one of the large males who had killed a bullock was 9.8 straight:   

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Nicholls included a few photographs of man-eaters shot by others:
 

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Apparently, some of the large male cattle-lifters were weighed at the tea estate, where scales would have been common. In his book, Nicholls wrote that big males have tremendous strength. Some were close to 600 pounds:

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In the books I got last winter, I read more than once about interactions between tigers and pythons. Apparently, pythons attacked tigers at times. In most cases, the attack happened near a tree. The tree served as a kind of anchor for the pythons. Some succeeded in killing a (often young) tiger, but others, like the one mentioned below, in spite of their great size (Indian pythons can grow to 18 feet or slightly over), paid with their life:
     

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Nicholls, during his many travels, noticed tigers often followed herds of elephants. Almost all were large males who specialized on young elephants. Like many others in the region, Nicholls was surprised at the number of calfs killed: 

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*This image is copyright of its original author

Wild pigs often visited the estates in Assam. They caused a lot of damage and some of the solitary old males were dangerous. Nicholls described how a killer-boar was shot. It wasn't easy by any means.

The boar below, at 276 lbs., was a large one. It wasn't the killer.
    

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Wild pigs in north-west and central India were larger. I read a letter in the JBNHS about a wild boar of 350 lbs. The one who wrote the letter thought it was the heaviest he had heard of, but he was wrong.

Wiele's very large tiger (see the previous post) killed a gaur close to Wiele's camp. Wiele heard about it and sat up over it in the evening. It was then he noticed the gaur had been confiscated by a very large male wild boar. When the giant tiger returned to his gaur, he saw it had been moved to a little bamboo forest. When he approached his kill, he was met by the wild boar guarding the gaur. Wiele saw parts (it was dark) of the terrible fight between both. It was undecided in that neither was able to kill the other, but one could say the boar was the winner because the tiger wasn't able to get to the gaur.

Wiele didn't provide details about the tiger, but he wrote it was the largest he had ever seen. He was as fit as they come, but in spite of that he was unable to win the fight. Maybe the boar was as agile and courageous as he was, but I think it's likely the boar was similar in weight. I never heard of wild boars of 400 pounds and over in India, but, as the next post will prove, they were there.

So how about Nicholls' book? It wasn't as informative as I thought, but it had authentic information on tigers and their habits in Assam. The part on pythons and tigers was interesting. Nicholls confirmed Assam tigers were large animals. He also confirmed most man-eaters were females. The reason they, at some stage, often had no option but to hunt humans was, however, explained by Hicks. I intend to do a few more posts on Hicks, as he is the one who really studied tigers for a very long time. Most of his conclusions, I think, stand to this day. Reply