Modern weights and measurements on wild tigers

[GuateGojira]

On the sense of smell:

Yes, I know that I told @Pckts that I am not going to follow the debate, BUT I have the information at hand, so why not finish this thing right now?

The sense of smell of the cats is acute, but not as good as dogs and bears, and that include the great cats like the tiger. This is what I said, but Pckts says that the accounts of some hunters like Brander says that tigers had "bad" sense of smell, or no sense at al! However, checking the information available from accurate observations of experts in the field, the evidence shows that tigers not only have good sense of smell, but that they can (rarely) use it to hunt.

I am going to put the images of the sources, no need to explain as they are self-explanatory.

1 - Schaller:

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

2 - Karanth:

*This image is copyright of its original author

3 - Sunquist:

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

4 - Thapar:

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

5 - McDougal:

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6 - Richard Perry - well in this one there is a full chapter of 17 pages discussing this point with several reports, and this is the conclution:

*This image is copyright of its original author

7 - Seidensticker - this event shows that while the tiger normally use the hearing and sight to hunt, in some situations it may use its nose too.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Conclution:

Like I said the beggining of all this, tigers like any other cat, had good sence of smell, no better than  a dog, but good enough. Also, they use it mostly for communication purposes, and only rarely for hunting, but that doesn't meant that its bad, as it may be 30 times better than ours, like this source (Seidensticker and Lumpkin) suggest with the lions:

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

And about the claim of Sankhala that the tiger urine do not smell at all, well we have this video of Nigel Marven smelling the tiger urine and confirming the reports of all the modern experts (check minute 38):

Sorry, the video is in Russian, but those that saw the original video remember when he said that smell like musk.

Hope this clarify, once for all, the power and usage of the sence of smell in tigers (and cats overall).

EDIT: More information about the topic.

I found this other study, which is based in the sense of smell from R.L. Brahmachary and J. Dutta (in the book "Tigers of the World" from 1987). I put only the two first pages that are related with the point of discussion.

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

I think that this all this information, there is no need to debate anymore. We now know the information about the sense of smell available for tigers. Reply