Maximum size of prey that a single male lion or tiger can kill

[GuateGojira]

(03-16-2020, 11:03 PM)Ashutosh Wrote: @GuateGojira, the rarity of tiger vs rhino is because of humans. Other than Kaziranga and Chitwan and to a stretch, Orang, there really aren’t places in the wild with significant population of either to kind of emphasise the dynamic between the two species.

For example, till 1908, the Javan rhino or lesser one horned rhino were found in Sunderbans and they made up a part of the diet of Sunderbans tigers. Now, both the tiger and rhino are significantly smaller (not as some exaggerate, but a significant percentage) in the mainland as compared to Sunderbans, but, the dynamic was that of prey and predator. 

Dudhwa barely has any rhinos, but you still hear of cases of tiger attacks like the one @Rishi posted yesterday. 

We might never fully understand what the dynamic between these two species was for thousands of years, but, with rhinos now being moved out to spaces also occupied by tigers, we get to see how species adapt and form a new dynamic.

That is a very valid point. We don't know the relation between these species in the past and now there are very few places where tigers and rhinos actually live in the same area. Even then, must experts believe that the tigers-lions do not normally hunt these large animals, as they are too large and the incredible amount of energy used to hunt them is too much. Besides, even in the cases of gaurs, tiger do not eat them completelly, so there is no sence to kill a huge rhino, to risk the life and to get a big meal that at the end is not going to be used entirely.

So, my conclution is that there are verified cases of tigers hunting adult rhinos in the Indian subcontinent, but in comparison to other species, those cases are still rare. I think that a tiger will have better changes to hunt an adult gaur than to hunt and adult rhino, not just because of the size, but also because of the prey density. Reply