Tiger Predation

[Pckts]

(07-22-2022, 06:53 PM)Spalea Wrote: @Apex Titan 

Very intereseting post you linked: https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/arti...ogin=false

Nevertheless, even I don't want to contest the tiger's superiority in terms of strength, fangs length and robustness, I just want to notice that in every aspect you consider, lion "closely followed" the tiger, or are just "sligthly less extrem". In short, the tiger doesn't crush the competition among big felines.


As concerns the length:

" The tiger has the largest canines of the analysed felids (Table 1; average 50.8 mm), followed closely by the lion (49.9 mm), the jaguar (41.6 mm), the leopard (34.4 mm), the clouded leopard (32.8 mm), and the snow leopard and puma (both 28.6 mm). The tiger has far larger (P < 0.001) canines than any other felid, save the lion ([i]P = 0.997), and the lion likewise. The jaguar has far larger (P < 0.001) canines than the leopard, clouded leopard, snow leopard, and puma. The leopard has significantly larger canines than the snow leopard (P[/i] = 0.018) and the puma (P < 0.000), but similar to those of the considerably smaller clouded leopard (P = 0.936). Although distinctly longer on average, the canines of the clouded leopard are insignificantly larger than those of the puma (P = 0.091) and the snow leopard (P = 0.299) and the averages in the two latter species are virtually identical (P > 0.999). "

50,8 mm - 49,9 mm = 0,81 mm ! Not perceived by the naked eyes ...

and P = 0,997 i.e. 3 thousandth. Wouah, lions are submerged ! When you are bitten by a lion or by a tiger you don't feel any difference at all.


As concerns the bending canines strengths:

" Canine bending strengths in the simple model (eqns 4 and 5) are strongly size-dependent, and are highest in the tiger, followed by the lion and then the jaguar (Table 6). The leopard and puma have approximately the same bending strengths followed by the snow leopard, and the clouded leopard has the lowest bending strengths. However, the actual strength of the canines will depend on the loads exerted upon them by the jaw adductors. Incorporation of bite forces often changes the interspecific relationships significantly from conclusions drawn when using the simple model (Christiansen & Adolfssen, 2005). The average bite forces at the canine tips computed by Christiansen (2007) are 499.6 N for the puma (n = 10), 344.2 N for the clouded leopard (n = 12), 1198.6 N for the lion (n = 10), 879.5 N for the jaguar (n = 9), 558.6 N for the leopard (n = 8), 1234.3 N for the tiger (n = 14), and 363.0 N for the snow leopard (n = 9). "

" Normalizing the bending strengths for estimated bite forces changes the pattern slightly. The tiger still appears to have the strongest canines of all species in bending about both planes (Fig. 6), but its canine strength is only consistently significantly higher than those of the clouded leopard and the leopard (Table 8). The tiger has stronger canines than the puma in bending about the lateromedial plane, whereas the two are often nonsignificantly different in bending about the anteroposterior plane. Only towards the apex does the bending strength of the tiger's canine significantly exceed that of the snow leopard in the lateromedial plane. The bending strengths in both planes are higher in the tiger than in the lion (Fig. 6), albeit nonsignificantly so (Table 8), and the more robust canines of the tiger are evidently somewhat compromised by its very high bite force. The bending strengths along the leopard canine are rather similar to those of the lion, snow leopard, and puma. Despite the bending strength of the seemingly massive teeth of the jaguar most often being above those of the other species, except the tiger (Fig. 6), its bending strengths in both planes are nonsignificantly different from those of the other pantherines and the puma (Table 8). Overall, only the clouded leopard stands out, having markedly weaker canines, and, with the exception of this species, the big cats have broadly comparable canine bending strengths compared to estimated bite forces. "

In conclusion:

" The tiger is the largest and most powerful extant felid. In warm parts of Asia, various deer are the most important prey (Schaller, 1967; Sunquist, 1981; Sunquist & Sunquist, 2002), and, in Russia, it is wild pigs (Sus scrofa) and red deer (Cervus elaphus) (Miquelle et al., 1996). Tigers mainly employ two killing techniques, largely based on prey size (Mazák, 1981; Sunquist & Sunquist, 2002). Smaller prey, up to approximately one half of the tiger's body mass, are frequently killed with a powerful nape bite, often causing severe damage to the cervicals (Sunquist, 1981; Seidensticker & McGougal, 1993), and large prey are dispatched with a throat bite. The above appears congruent with the tiger's very high bite force (Christiansen & Adolfssen, 2005; Wroe et al., 2005; Christiansen, 2007) and very large and strong canines. Overall, the lion appears slightly less extreme in both respects, and this could be owing to it preying on the same size-classes of animals in groups, rather than individually. "

Sligthly doesn't mean appreciably, roughly and so on.

Generally speaking although the differences are slight to the naked eye they are noticeable. The same can be said about skulls in general, there are subtle differences that anyone with some knowledge on the topic can see but to the laymen they’ll not be able notice. When it comes to canines, Tigers will have a thicker root than lions, Lions taper off when they get towards the top of the root. The purpose of this is unknown but my guess would have to do with a reinforcement to the longer canine.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Lion (left) Pantanal jag (middle) tiger (right) Reply