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

[GuateGojira]

Just a few points to remember and/or to take in count:
 
1. The un-adjusted weight for Nepalese male tigers is of 235 kg, the figure of 221 kg is already adjusted by 14 kg, which was the average food intake of those tigers.
 
2. I have not read entirely the book of Hewett, but as far I know he doesn’t used baits for its tigers. In the story of the hunt of the 570 lb (259 kg) tiger, he just describe that they prepare a macan and the specimen arrived and was shoot, no baits are mentioned. It is correct to say that Hewett’s records don’t need to be adjusted? I think it is, but you (Peter) surely know more on his book.
 
3. There are several measurements of tigers in west-south India and they all match those of tigers in India and Nepal. The difference is in weight, I know of 7 males actually weighed from 1900 to 1995 and none of them surpassed 227 kg. It seems that these tigers are somewhat lighter than those of the Terai arc.
 
4. The size of the Bachelor of Powalgarh is, in fact, practically unreliable. Why??? Well, because total length in great cats is very deceptive to estimate the real size. Yes, that huge tiger measured about 310 cm between pegs, BUT how many is “body” and how many is “tail”??? We must remember the record of 302.3 cm of Brander, this tigers was “short” by any standard, but in fact, its head-body was of 221 cm, which is the record for any big cat ever captured-hunted in the wild!!! I think that the Bachelor was similar in size than the huge male tiger of Brander, but its tail was probably short, after all, the picture of the tiger is immense and surpass that of the Sauraha male by much.
 
5. Apart from the 590 lb (c.268 kg) tiger reported by Colonel Singh in his book “One man and a thousand tigers” from 1959, there is another 600 lb (272 kg) tiger hunted in the same region (Gwalior). Check this out:
 

*This image is copyright of its original author

The record is from 1914, but seems to be a reliable, and although the animal was measured "over the curves", we can estimate if at c.332 cm, which is the maximum reliably recorded for a tiger, between pegs.
 
This is the picture of the 590 lb (c.269 kg) and 349 cm (329 cm between pegs) tiger record from Singh:
 

*This image is copyright of its original author

There is no doubt that most Bengal tigers weight between 200 to 230 kg, but large males weight between 250 to 270 kg and exceptionally large specimens reached 290 -300 kg, like for example, the record of 705 lb (320 kg) male tiger from Smythies.
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