Book Review

[Dr Panthera]

Book Review: The Face of The Tiger  Dr.Charles McDougal
This book is a classic work on the ecology of Bengal tigers in Nepal and some areas in India.
Dr.McDougal studied tigers in Chitwan between 1961 and 1977 , he presents his observations and analysis as well as comparisons with the findings of Schaller in his excellent book "The Deer and The Tiger" , as well as reviewing the information from the hunting literature.
These two books by Schaller and McDougal transformed our knowledge of Panthera tigris tigris from hunters tales to biologist-documented facts.
The book describes tigers, their habitat, their main prey, their home range, the demographics of Chitwan tigers, mating, bringing up the cubs, tiger social behavior, and conflict with man. Most of the information was either ground breaking or elaborated on existing findings.
Some points of interest:
* McDougal is right in considering tigers in the Nepalese and Indian Terai ( and their cousins in Bhutan, Assam, and Tibet) to be ecologically distinct from those farther south in the sub-continent, the Ganges and Brahmaputra valleys that separate these tigers have long been cultivated and densely populated by man.
* He shows the difference in habitat between Chitwan ( dense vegetation, water year round ) and the dry forests of central India ( Kanha ) and the differences in behavior in tigers from both areas.
* He studied the tiger feeding ecology showing Chitwan tigers to prey most frequently on chital, sambar, hog deer, and wild boar. He compares his findings with those with Schaller's from Kahna where chital , sambar, barasingha, and gaur accounted for most of food.
McDougal found that Chitwan tigers hunt gaur very rarely due to difference in habitat, he also cites difference in habitat as the reason why tigers do not depend on antelopes (Nilgai, black buck, chowsingha, chinkara ) in different areas in the sub-continent.
* He observed three rhino calf kills in four and a half years, as insignificant percentage of prey as it is, one calf must have weighed close to 1000 LBS which provided sizeable meals to the male and female tigers that ate it.
* McDougal considers 77 LBs to be the most a tiger can eat in a single meal. Feast of famine lifestyle.
* He considers interactions with leopards and dholes to be minimal and states that sloth bears, pythons, and mugger crocodiles are not major competitors to tigers.
* He shows that territorial fights in Chitwan are the exception not the rule as competing tigers avoid each other in space and time through marking
* He estimates mortality of cubs in the first two years at 50% stating that a good number dies when the cubs are less than two months old and have not emerged from the den, infanticidal males, leopards, jackals, dholes and wolves where present, fire, drowning, extreme weather, starvation, and disease all threaten cubs.
* McDougal provides important data about the growth rate of Bengal tigers:
Males: around 100LBS at six months, 160-190 LBS at one year, 260-290 LBS at two years, 400-450 LBS fully grown
Females: around 70 LBS at six months, 125 to 155 LBS at one year, 210-230 LBS at two years, 300 LBS fully grown
* Male cubs are more adventurous than their sisters, they learn how to hunt quicker, and leave their mothers at an earlier age.
* A sub-adult male had a porcupine quill embedded in his shoulder, he starved, dropping to 105 LBS at his death ( a sub-adult of the same length shot by Hewett was 236 LBS so that shows the sorry state he was in)
* Tigers are essentially solitary but they are not unsociable, associations between adults and cubs, and adults among themselves can be observed for a brief time when conditions are favorable ( e.g.large kills) , McDougal describes an incident where a tigress with her two grown cubs male and female, were at a bait with an adult male that was consorting with her, and a second adult tigress with minimal aggression.
* The good "table manners" of tigers : on 59 occasions two or more tigers were present at a kill, only on six times two animals ate at the same time , never were two adults eating simultaneously , on these six times the adult ate at the rump ( the choicest spot) and the sub-adult ate from the forequarters. ( Schaller describes two tigresses eating a buffalo with tension and aggressive displays)
* multiple tigers were seen on 40 occasions out of 836...the tiger is a lonely hunter.
A great read indeed. Reply