Modern weights and measurements on wild tigers

[Kingtheropod]

(12-02-2016, 02:05 AM)Ngala Wrote: Tiger which terrorised people around Ghunghuti range caught
PTI
November 22, 2016 | UPDATED 00:00 IST

Bhopal, Nov 21 (PTI) A tiger with a trident-like mark which had created panic in Ghunghuti forest range has been caught and put in an enclosure at Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Umaria district.

"Our officials captured the animal yesterday from Ghunghuti range," Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Jitendra Agrawal told PTI.

The tiger, weighing around 280 kg, was today put in Beherha enclosure of BTR, he added.

People living in Ghunghuti range blamed the tiger, identified by a trident-like mark, for six-seven deaths in the area in the last two years, Agrawal said.

It was possible that some other wild animal might have killed these persons, he added.

A month ago, one person was killed, and people again suspected that this tiger was responsible.

"So we had put up 32 cameras and deployed men on elephants to catch it. Finally we caught the tiger yesterday," Agrawal added. PTI LAL MAS KRK AAR JMF

Different journal, same article: Tiger which terrorised people around Ghunghuti range caught

Great find Ngala!

If this is in fact a weighing, this makes this the largest tiger ever weighed in modern records! After a large number of big weights in modern reports we have found, I am now convinced that Bengal tigers average about 500 lbs (225 kg) in modern time. Oddly, for some reason, in historical records, the average is closer to 200 kg. Why is that you may ask? It could be because many specimens in historical records were incorrectly labelled adults, it could even be reasons that I have noted in past threads. Another reason could be that all the big tigers in India today have outcompeted all the smaller males and only the big males are breeding, for example, T-3 weighing 240 kg, is the father of all the tigers in Panna, and as a result, the offspring will inherit his size. The opposite appears to have happened with the Siberian population, which is more heavily inbred.

In populations, genetic change is more likely to occur in small populations, and because the tiger population is so small, that may explain why both Indian tiger and Siberian tigers have apparently changed so much. Siberian tigers averaged 475 lbs historically, and are now about 400-420 lb. The opposite is the case for Indians, which have over twice the population size. The average for historical Bengals is 440 lbs, and today it appears to be around 500 lb.

The likely reason is the phenomenon known as genetic drift...

http://anthro.palomar.edu/synthetic/synth_5.htm Reply