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

[GuateGojira]

Thanks for your reply Peter, I really appreciate it. Just a few replays here:

1. The plate looks more like a colored picture than a simple draw. The details are too perfect, so I guess that in fact, it is a photograph. What I still ask to you is the scan of the page where it is mentioned the weight of 705 lb, that is because I normally kept all the images of the records, with special care on the original sources. In this case, I will add that page in my database, together with the plate. I will like to know if the other posters also believe that that "draw" in the plate is probably a colored "photograph" or not; for me, it is just too perfect.

2. I was not "harsh" with Mazák, but I confess that maybe I was a little dramatic. [img]images/smilies/tongue.gif[/img]  However, I think is fair to say that the way he constructed that table of 1981 have a lot of problems. In the beginning, I have no problem in accept it, but now that I know that he used the references that he wanted, despite the claim that "no hunting sources" was used, and that he included captive specimens (the worst mistake in the table), I found that the table is very problematic. In fact, even the skulls are problematic, like I say before, why he don't investigated a little more on the large skulls from Nepal and India? those are as large or even slightly larger than those of Manchuria. I still think he is reliable in many ways, but in comparison between Bengal and Amur tigers, I can't take him like the last word.

3. I respect your point of view, in the issue that it is a fallacy to think most tigers shot by well-known hunters in immense shooting parties (5.000-10.000 staff) were baited. Maybe you are right, and based in the discussion with Waveriders and others, it seems that the food intake could be lower than we think. However, the descriptions that I have read about this hunting parties in Nepal, always mention that the tigers were baited, so that directs me to think that all tigers hunted in Nepal seems baited, but probably not gorged. However, as I am very conservative (despite some others claims), I tried to found an explanation about the huge weight of that tiger, and the bait issue seems very plausible. Now, your statements about giant tigers in the past are very plausible too, specially with so many reports that can't be ignored just like that.

One final interesting fact, is that this giant tiger of 705 lb was hunted in the Chitwan region, in the same place where the Sauraha male and his relatives lived some time latter. It is possible (or maybe just a wild guess) that the genes of those giant tigers, somehow, lived and were carried by the famous T-105 male and that will explain why there are at least 4 males, captured by scientists, that weighed over 600 lb in that particular area.

Peter say: "Twelve foot tigers? Only on 'forums', most zoologists would say. There are no skulls suggesting there could have been 11 feet tigers, let alone 12 feet. I have a question for them. Which biologist visited India and talked to those in the know? Who visited all parks and museums and talked to rangers, biologists and hunters? Who visited museums in eastern Russia and northern China and measured skulls? Central Asia then?"

I am 100% agree with that. I will like to see people like Yamaguchi measuring some large Bengal tiger skulls in India and Nepal, before reporting his "conclusions".
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