Lions and Tigers in India

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(11-16-2018, 08:29 PM)Rishi Wrote:

(11-16-2018, 03:47 PM)Rage2277 Wrote: i think tigers can survive in grassland, scrubland & desert habitats just as well as lions..anywhere lions can survive tigers can and vice versa if there is suitable prey they should do fine @Rishi 

Given how Caspian tigers habitat was fragmented & limited selectively to riverine valleys, swamps, mountain ranges etc. i severely doubt that. 
Indian tigers didn't make it beyond the western thorn forests either, Ranthambore's tigers aren't even moving into Kailadevi Sanctuary because it's not forested enough ...you should be able to find them in my last post.

Once all of IndoGangetic floodplain looked like Kaziranga & 4000 years of deciphered literature in North India were all lion lion lion lion... & exactly opposite in the tribal culture of Central Indian forests, who barely registered them. (Wrote about it a few posts ago, so not dragging it either.)

Central India, but they occupied the similarly vegetated parts of Central Asia.

*This image is copyright of its original author

On top of they had to compete with each other in the past!
Although they did coexist in bushy scrubs (West) & elephant grass (North), at parts of their ranges, it's only availability of cover in those areas that let tigers hold ground against lions. Whereas lions couldn't really penetrate into the tiger territory.

For example, the following image is less than half the pride, that has one more adult male & several females somewhere else... And that's in Gir, where larger prides break up due to prey size & density, unlike up north with grasslands teeming with buffalos, nilgai, sambars & swamp deers back in the days.

*This image is copyright of its original author

But it's quite easy to survive for tigers in forested hills or dense tall grasslands of valleys. As long as you avoided the main unit & they couldn't effectively oust you but your presence remain a constant threat. You manage to take out one of the pride males & the whole pride might scatter.  People will write songs about them, but you'll outlive them after a royal hunt.

However, in open country tiger's survival chances seem very bleak, the moment lions get on the stage. You'd get pushed around like nomadic lion or smaller prides are. Especially with limited hunting ground & water resources, their presence will be concentrated in certain key areas, which you won't be able to hold on to!
Your 50 kg weight advantage will become a 150kg disadvantage when his brother arrives.

I know it's just a speculative rant, but do think on it practically. I've given it quite some thought & this make the most sense to me.

I think, that people focus too much about predator vs predator hypotheses. There is no problem in Africa between leopards and lions (and of course same in Asia where are tigers and leopards). Some individuals die time to time, but that´s marginal. Tigers have different kind of coloring than lions and it seems to work better on forest and long grass etc. Lion then again has coloring which works better in open terrain. Also hunting in prides mostly helps. It is obvious, that tiger can´t challenge lion pride or it is eliminated quickly, but I am pretty sure, that it isn´t main reason why tigers aren´t hunting in open terrain so much. When thinking conservation of tigers, lions are not so important issue and vice versa. 

How to avoid confrontations with humans and domestic animals and finding areas with enough prey are main issues. If/when tigers and lions meet, they handle those situations just fine, no need for anyone to worry about it, those confrontations aren´t threat to either species. Same thing with every animal, key is how to protect wild animals from humans, not from each others :) Reply