Dholes (Cuon alpinus)

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(01-20-2019, 10:50 AM)Wolverine Wrote: So, @Jimmy what actually is going on in this video. Its clear that dholes don't "hunt" the tiger. But nevertheless its clear its going something amazing. In seconds 42-49 is clearly visible how 2 dogs approach the tiger from behind. Feeling this,  tiger turn around sharply face to face with the dogs and they run back. But if tiger didn't turn around probably the dholes would bite him on hind legs... This a classical case of harassment and intimidation, while the purpose of this behavior is not very clear.

In order to understand what is going on we have to read some text from the book "NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MAMALIA OF INDIA AND CEYLON" (1877) of the famous British naturalist and hunter Robert Sterndale:

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

So, as we see @GuateGojira is quite right that in that video dholes DRIVE AWAY the tiger. Obviously such a behavior to drive a big animal is typical for the dholes. These smallish devilish dogs are capable to push the tiger out of some area they don't want the tiger to be by harassing and intimidating the giant cat. Its same as you are walking on the street and few small dogs are constantly following closely your petals so you have constantly to turn around and check are these creatures trying to bite you or not. Does dholes create in the tiger impression they want to bite him from behind or they really want to bite him is another question. 

The reason dholes want to drive a tiger out of some area could be that they have pups in this area or some other not very clear reasons, in same way as write  Sterndale they could displace tiger or leopard by constant harassment.


Robert Sterndale is kind of godfather of Rudyard Kipling. Exactly from his books and more especially from the book "SEONEE, OR CAMP LIFE ON THE SATPURA RANGE; A TALE OF INDIAN ADVENTURE"  Kypling got his knowledge of the Indian jungles. The term "Seonee cave" where Mawgli find his refuge with wolf family is taken from Sterndals book and many other details. 

Kipling, the genious with pipe and spectacles:

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@peter , if you want to read the book Seonee, it can be find here in PDF:

https://archive.org/details/cu31924079586685/page/n53

"Natural history of Mammalia of India and Ceylon" from Sterndale could be found here:

https://archive.org/details/naturalhisto...r/page/240

That book of Sterndale was interesting finding and it was nice to get a chance to read how he wrote. Not only to see his name in some reference list. I found it interesting when he mentioned, that locals in all parts of India were telling in same way about dholes and leopards/tigers. Also how he describes dhole behavior with tigers fits to what we can see in recordings today, they are cautious, but also clearly even today they do irritate tigers, so word harass is justified (imo). Reply