Tiger Predation

[Ashutosh]

Two stories of tiger predation gone wrong from Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary.

In first instance, a two year old tigress succumbed to her injuries taking on a gaur. The wildlife official said “Last month, we allowed a two year old tigress to die from grievous injuries she had suffered from a clash with an Indian Gaur”.

The second instance is a fascinating instance of tiger behaviour. Two ten month old male cubs decided to hunt porcupine for themselves. In the process, they were subjected to more than 30 quills piercing them and one of them was rendered immobile as he was unable to pick out two quills from his foot.

The Pench Tiger Reserve director said “ The Tipeshwar cub was moving with another male sibling while their mother and a female sibling were moving separately in nearby hills. The two cubs apparently tried to hunt porcupines and ended up getting stuck with quills. They managed to remove most of the quills - we counted over 30 from the spot. However, this particular cub couldn’t manage to extricate two quills stuck in it’s foot, and hence was unable to move”.

The forest officials didn’t want to intervene and decided to wait after spotting it on December 12th.

He further added “ All the while, the other male remained in it’s company, and both were starving. So, we decided to intervene. After shooing away the other cub away, we tranquilized the immobile one and removed the quills from it’s foot. After it regained consciousness, we gave it meat. We also gave some pieces to the other cub which was loitering around. After monitoring it for 24 hours, we released it into the wild”.

Two fascinating behaviour traits come out from this. One is the loyalty of the sibling and the other being the parenting style of the mother who is somehow putting her cubs to a test at such a young age. Reply