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

[peter]

(02-27-2015, 11:03 PM)'Roflcopters' Wrote: Peter, I don't think anyone has ever asked you this question over the years but i just wanted to know if you had a favorite tiger from the past or present (captive/wild).. I'm very curious 

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Or this one:

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The forest I see has a tiger. One like him:

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Sumatran tigers are forest animals. They blend like no other big cat and they are not there when you actually see them. Elusive animals. Although smaller than other subspecies, they are not as small as you think. Sumatran tiger skulls have inflated bullae, because they use their ears extensively. In a forest, you got to have great ears.

Java tigers have the best designed skulls. The forehead is very vaulted, whereas the mandibula is more concave than in other subspecies. The vaults generates a lot of power at the tip of the canines, but also offer protection against a blunt force. Java skulls could have been the example for the engineers who developed the T-34 tank, probably the best tank of WWII (according to German generals). 

Indian tigers have the classic design. Close to the maximum size the species can reach, they found the best combination between athleticism and strength. Although I'm amazed at the large and heavy-skulled Kazirangha tigers, a tiger like Raja in his prime is closer to the typical tiger for me:

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Amur tigers are walking the edge. Today's Amur tigers adapted to overcome tough conditions, distance and competition, which resulted in an impossible combination of length to preserve energy, durability to endure violent weather changes and strength to overcome resistance quickly.

What we see today, however, is a result of a very recent adaption. An adaption to poverty. A century and a half ago, in the 'Sea of forest' south-west of Primorye, conditions allowed for animals at times similar in weight to the largest shot by Dunbar Brander in Central India. Today, a male of 500 pounds has yet to be weighed, but captive Amur tigers show what the basic design was. The average for captive adult males is close to that mark.

The most striking feature of Amur tigers, in my opinion, isn't size, but attitude, best expressed in the face and behaviour. I've seen it time and again in captive animals. Amur tigers are tough tigers, even in captivity:

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The best photograph I saw is this one. It shows a forest, tough conditions and a big cat matching them. It also shows what the result of poaching really means. There will never be a better one:

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Many assume tigers are typical forest animals, but I have my doubts. In Pleistocene Asia, a few million years ago, they inhabited both elevated as well as low-lying and forested regions. A few centuries ago, according to J.F. Brandt (1856), tigers still inhabited very different regions. As the largest were recorded at the edges of their range in the southwest (northwest India and Nepal) and the northeast (Manchuria and Primorye), one has to assume slightly elevated regions with park like conditions could be most suited. 

Sumatran tigers developed in forests for many thousands of years. Maybe this is the reason they, as J.H. Mazak and Groves proposed, are different from mainland and Java tigers. If they are different, the reason is the forest. They are the biggest cats a dense tropical forest could accomodate, I think.

In dense forest, prey size isn't crucial for big cat size. It's the ability to get to the right place without being heard and seen and get a decent reward. Leopards are real good at it. Sumatran tigers are today's leopards in Sumatra. They show a lot of variation in size. In times of need, some hunt frogs, but others go for large herbivores. The one with the widest reach has the best chance in a forest that has both small and large animals. For tigers, it's about large animals. Sumatra has plenty of them, so the tiger was more suited in the end. They could be old world tigers, but they also are new world leopards.  Reply