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

[Rishi]

(08-31-2018, 12:07 PM)Vegeta San Wrote: So you telling that tiger takes many days to kill a adult gaur? 
No you're wrong at this. It doesn't take much time for a Tiger to kill a healthy adult gaur. The last post of @peter has shown few cases of Tiger killing adult bull wild buffalos instantly.

Quote:But it doesn't take days to kill a gaur! Tiger is not a house cat. That quote from @Wolverine is totally wrong! 

You shouldn't just call someone "totally wrong" like that. 

The cases of quick kills have been recorded, but that doesn't make them the norm. The tiger predation thread is full of hamstringed gaurs with open rumps & untouched throat. Cases of tigers injuring gaurs & finishing them off later are also there.

The fact is that we have till date only one full footage of a tiger hunting a gaur, against probably thousands of lions' bullfalo hunt. That is how less we know what exactly happens. 

IMO we best start collecting what the forest guides & guards have to say. They know more that all the internet combined...

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(09-01-2018, 10:19 AM)Wolverine Wrote: Suprisingly enough maybe there is some true in the story about Shere Khan and his "servant" - Tabaki the jackal, serving as a spy of his master - the tiger. In India are known some special satellite jackals called "kol-bahl" a few words about them are written even in wiki:

"In India, lone jackals expelled from their pack have been known to form commensal relationships with tigers. These solitary jackals, known as [i]kol-bahl[/i], will associate themselves with a particular tiger, trailing it at a safe distance to feed on the big cat's kills. A [i]kol-bahl[/i] will even alert a tiger to prey with a loud "pheal". Tigers have been known to tolerate these jackals, with one report describing how a jackal confidently walked in and out between three tigers walking together."

This jackal is quite a mysterious creature and literaly could serve as a eyes and ears of the tiger. This relationship could become particulary ominous if the tiger turn to be a man-eater. The great British hunter Keneth Anderson in his blood-freezing documentary story "The Call of the Man-eater" describes a case when such a jackal make "reconnaissance" work for the tiger finding out a lonely people close to the villages and informing the tiger about their presence with laud hawling. After half an hour the man-eater usually arrives and kills the victim. If a danger appears the jackal informs the tiger by alarm barking. Keneth Anderson needed several weeks to realise what really is going on. 

@Rishi do you know something more about kol-bahl?

Yes. It often happens. They follow the tigers just like arctic foxes often shadow polar bears.

Actually they have quite a popular duo (like tom & jerry) in Bengali childrens' literature. The shrewd jackal calls the tiger "maternal uncle" & tiger calls him "nephhew". The jackal play tricks on the tiger & so on... I had the whole collection, they were my favourites as a kid. Can't find the book now. Here's few examples, see if it can translate. My platform is bengali compatible, it doesn't...
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