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

[peter]

TIGERS AND CROCS

A week ago, a new member asked about tigers and crocs. In my pm, I referred to the incident described by Burton (1933) and the incidents discussed on different forums. I promised I would try to find more. From now on, I will post on tigers and crocs when I find something. In most cases, the information is from books.

This post has two incidents. The first one happened just before World War Two in Johore (Malaysia). I found it in Locke ('Tigers of Terengganu'). A tiger and a croc were found dead near a river. From the description Locke gave, I concluded the croc got hold of the tiger in or, more likely, near the bank of a river. Although the grip was a good one, it wasn't good enough. The tiger apparently was able to turn the tables to an extent and seriously injure the croc.

The question is how it was done. I remember more incidents and in those in which the croc killed the tiger, the croc struck once. In most cases, the skull was targeted. As the tiger in Johore was killed, my guess is the first bite was lethal. The question is how the tiger was able to kill the croc assuming he wasn't able to use his skull. I don't think the tiger was able to get to the vertebrae of the neck. The only other way to kill a croc is to rip the belly and injure a major blood vessel. Just speculating here. 

As the incident happened in Johore, my guess is the croc probably was a saltwater crocodile: 
 

*This image is copyright of its original author

The second incident happened in India and was filmed. Valmik Thapar, who featured in a BBC-documentary about Ranthambore tigers, said he heard about an incident in which a croc was killed by a tiger. The tiger turned out to be a tigress and she apparently had had some experience with crocs.

Big cats have to learn how to fight a croc. The trick is to refrain from striking out with the paws. When the croc is able to get hold of the paw or a leg and starts his specialty (the 'death-roll'), the cat is doomed in that he or she will be seriously injured, if not lose the leg. When the tiger survives the death-roll, the most likely result will be a serious injury. As this means the cat won't be able to hunt, the most likely result will be starvation.

The best strategy is to turn to croc on his back, as this will expose his belly. When the croc is too heavy, the neck has to be targeted. It wouldn't be easy to kill a croc in this way, because it is difficult to penetrate the skin and damage the vertebrae. Tigress 'Machli' apparently knew how to do it. The croc, a large mugger, was killed. They say it measured 13-14 feet, but I never saw a report on the mugger. Anyone able to find the video is invited to post it. This photograph is from the video: 

*This image is copyright of its original author

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