ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris)

[peter]

In those days, photography was very different from now. The equipment was heavy and not easy to transport. I recently read a book of C.H. Stockley ('Stalking in the Himalayas and Northern India' - Indian reprint).

The book was first published in 1936. Stockley wrote it wasn't easy to move his equipment as a result of the tough conditions he faced. His book has many photographs of wild animals, of which quite many were, to put it mildly, somewhat blurred. The main reason was it was too difficult to get the equipment installed at the right time and place.     

My guess is Dunbar Brander didn't carry equipment when he was travelling. If a tiger was photographed, he probably was taken back to camp to be weighed and photographed. As the 9.11 tiger wasn't weighed, my guess is he wasn't moved to camp. This means chances are wasn't photographed. My guess, therefore, is this was another tiger.

I agree it is a muscular animal, but so were many in Central-India. Those with experience all agreed Central-Indian tigers were heavy, short-tailed and stocky as a rule. For some confirmation, go to the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. There are plenty of letters on average-sized and heavy Central-India tigers. Remember the table of Captain Hunt in the JBNHS? It had 6 big male tigers, of which the longest was 9.3 'between pegs' only. Reply