B2 and Other Great Tiger Pics from India

[Pckts]

(07-20-2020, 08:10 AM)Ashutosh Wrote: @Pckts, Dudhwa has a prey base not at par with Kanha, but are Kanha tigers bigger? I take your point but it’s not JUST based on that. My inkling is based upon the size of females in Panna. Some of them easily match females of Kanha, outsize them even.

As for Pannalal and Bheem, you are comparing a young Pannalal to probably one of the biggest tiger in Central India in his prime (if not the biggest). I am not saying he would have ever matched the likes of Bheem, but, to establish yourself in Bandhavgarh at a young age is decent. If anything, that augurs very well that a few years since reintroduction, a young male can go into an environment like Bandhavgarh and make it there.

@GreenForest, Umarpani male was born to a huge tigress and an average sized male (Munna was exceptional for his size though). And, he was the least impressive of his litter, with his sister almost matching her huge mother and his brother outsizing him. I don’t think his siblings made it, but, imagine Umarpani male as the least impressive member of a litter!!! Dominant genes will come through, they always do. It may take some time, though.

As for T3, tigers don’t peak in size at age 10, 6-8 is their peak. At Pench, he was just another average sized male (200 kilos is below average actually, compare it to a 2 year old MB2 who was 195 kilos), but a 240 kilo T3 would probably be one of the 3 biggest males in Pench (along with Handsome Male and Raiyakassa). This is just a personal opinion, but, I am not sure he would have reached that weight had he been at Pench.

Dudhwa may not have the prey base to compare to Kanha but they do have a large prey base and with the reintroduction of Rhino as well as Elephant, they still have plenty of large prey available. And like Kanha, they also have Barasingha as well. 
Dudhwa is also cool with lots of water, something that also contributes to larger cats.



Pannalal was only seen for a short period of time, I'm not sure how much establishing he actually did but as young Tigers, Mr. X and Mahaman both carved out territory in Bandhavgarh and same with B2 or Bamera. Even Bheem came on strong as a youngster and ousted Jobhi and Bamera.
Maybe Pannalal still had some growing to do but he was pretty large so I'm not sure how much more he is actually going to grow in frame and from the videos I've seen of him, he was certainly a heavy cat but didn't look especially large in frame. 

In regards to the Biggest males in Pench, 100% Tarzan was the largest, Handsome looks very large as well but I'd wager on Muktar being larger than he. Both Ryakassi and BMW were both similar in size but much smaller than Sangam male from Kanha for comparison.
I got to see Handsome's son and daughters, all were about 2 years old and very robust, healthy cats but didn't look to be extraordinary in their size, the male was probably around 180kg so I'd imagine he gets up to 220kg at full strength. It's a shame he's not seen now, he was a Handsome just like his dad. Reply