behind the big cat's and bear's, who is the top predator?

[Dr Panthera]

(11-04-2015, 10:51 PM)GGuateGojira Wrote:

(11-02-2015, 12:17 PM)GrizzlyClaws Wrote: I do remember the prey ratio for a tiger is 5:1 which means a 200 kg tiger can kill a 1000 kg buffalo as the absolute largest prey.

Do you have any scientific paper to sustain such claim?

In fact, it is now a well known fact that tigers normally kill large gaurs when they coexist. In the study at Nagarahole NP, Karanth & Sunquist (1995) fount that tigers prefer young gaur (58.8%) as they are easier and more vulnerable, but they also kill full grow adult males of up to 1,000 kg (14.6%), specially if they are alone (female gaur represent 22.6% and yearling male and female represent 2.0% respectively). The average weight of the gaur killed by tigers is of 287 kg, and 65% of the specimens hunted are in good conditions, 24% in fair and 11% in poor conditions (Karanth & Sunquist, 1995)

This type of hunts is more common in areas with higher gaur density as the tigers are able to locate them more easily. In the first years of 2000, Pench tigers do not hunted gaur because they lived at very low densities, so it was very difficult to found a gaur, but latter studies showed that when the gaur population rises, tigers predate them readily. The same happened in Nepal, where Sunquist (1981) believed that tigers do not predated on gaur because of its size, but McDougal (1977) clearly stated that the gaur population in Chitwan is very small and all of them lived in the hill areas where the tigers do not hunt, so that is why there is no gaur kills/scats in Chitwan studies.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Finally, the principal studies that show that tigers do kill large gaurs of up to 1,000 kg are those of Dr Karanth, which have actually saw and weighed large male gaurs that had been killed by tigers ( not scavenged, actually killed by the great cat, with punctures in they necks and claw marks over all the body).

This is from the book "Mammals of South Asia" Vol. 1 (2013), in the chapter of the tiger:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Finally, Dr Karanth in his book " A view from the Machan" make the clear statement:

*This image is copyright of its original author

So, five times its own size, a ratio of 5.1, is 100% correct.

Data on wild water buffaloes depredation is scanty and as far I know, there are no scientific studies in the area where they coexist, ej. Kaziranga.

Guate do you have a link for the detailed Karanth and Sunquist study? I am interested in comparing scats data and kill data in tiger predation on gaur, as you know scat analysis overestimates small prey and kills analysis overestimates large prey, and most of what is known comes from scat analysis since observing tiger kills is difficult in most of their habitat. Reply