Felids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts

[peter]

Unique photographs. The bear is less than half the weight of the male tiger, but made him think twice. There are more accounts of sloth bears intimidating tigers, but this is the first account of a sloth bear winning a fight with an adult male tiger. This although the tiger had a significant size advantage. Impressive.

I posted a few letters published in the JBNHS in which tigers and sloth bears featured. Billy Arjan Singh wrote about a fight between a tigress and a sloth bear and so did others. Although tigers won most fights, serious encounters seem to be few and far between. The photographs show why.

Himalayan black bears are larger than sloth bears. Corbett heard a fight between a tiger and a Himalayan black bear, both large males. Although the bear was scalped, he won the fight and took the cow. If we add the information about encounters between tigers and Himalayan black bears from the Maharajah of Nepal, the conclusion is that Himalayan black bears do not fear tigers. If anything, they seem dominant in most encounters.

In the bear department, Amur tigers are quite different from other subspecies. They hunt both Himalayan black bears and Ussuri brown bears up to the size of an adult female. Bears are an important source of food. In the southern part of Sichote-Alin, they almost top the list in summer. This although there are plenty of deer and wild pigs.

In the southeastern part of Russia, bears often visit tiger kills. When faced with bears, tigers can defend their kill or hunt again. Not seldom, fights erupt near kill sites. Tigers win most fights. As they eat what they kill, tigers learn to eat bears at a young age. The next step is hunting them. In Russia, therefore, tigers are more experienced regarding bears. They more or less have to in order to survive. In India, the situation is very different. Reply