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

[Wolverine]

(10-18-2018, 08:58 PM)peter Wrote: Himalayan male bears average 130-140 kg., but individual variation is pronounced. Large males can reach 180-200 kg., if not more. Males of that size do not fear tigers and apparently are able to hunt as well.

Himalayan black bears despite being smaller in size than brown bears have sharper claws because they spend more than 50% of their time on the trees and are excellent climbers.


Cases of aggressive scavenging displayed by some brown bears towards tigers in the Russian Far East could help us to understand better the behavior of the ancient short faced bear Arctodus simus towards other large predators in prehistoric North America - like smilodon, American lion and dire wolves.  There is hyphotesys that this gigantic prehistoric bear weighting up to 1,1 tons actually was habituated scavenger and existed "on the shoulders" of other predators regularly displacing them from their kills due to its intimidating size and strength. Probably American paleontologists should study trophical realations between the brown bears and the tigers in the Russian Ussuriland to understand better what was happening in plains of prehistoric North America.
We also don't know why some brown bears scavenge the kills of Amur tigers while other bears (probably majority) do not do this.

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Yes, interactions between the bears and wolf packs are not less interesting than tiger-bear relations, unfourtunately there is no so big interest towards wolves in this forum. Last week @Rage2277 posted a few fresh documentary cases showing that wolf packs had recently killed several American black bears in Ontario and other places, despite this is hardly to be believed. A few wonderful films were also shot by NatGeoWild in Finland about brown bear-wolf relations. Maybe Shadow could tell us (in wolf threat) where exactly in Finland were shot this films and why Finland is so suitable place for filming of big predators. Reply