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Tiger Predation
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A good video of the whole incident
Arpit Parekh We started our morning at Kanha Tiger Reserve by entering through the Khatia Gate. As we drove deeper into the forest, we came across some fresh pugmarks of a male Tiger, which had walked on the forest track a few moments before, and we immediately started scanning the forest on either side of the track to see if we could catch a glimpse of the cat. As the forest opened up into a small grassland patch, we came across the huge male Tiger, popularly known as Yuvraj, calmly sitting in the grass. We immediately started photographing the Tiger, but the Tiger continued glaring across the grassland, taking little heed of the our vehicle which has arrived on another peaceful scene. Never in my wildest dream could I have imagined what we witnessed next. After about 10 minutes of posing for us, the Tiger got up and crossed the grassland and moved into the bushes, where a herd of Gaurs had vanished into just moments earlier. (Gaur is the largest wild cattle species in the world, with males often touching 1,000 kgs in weight.) The Tiger walked calmly across the grassland, his body language in no way suggesting that he was stalking the Gaur. But the Tiger was indeed stalking, as he came out from the other side of the bushes, amidst the chaos created by all the Gaur simultaneously running out from the bushes, grasping tightly on the neck of a sub-adult female Gaur. This was a rare natural history moment we were witnessing. The huge bull Gaur from the herd came in charging at the Tiger, but owing to their poor eyesight, ended up scooping the female Gaur in the air. The agile Tiger not only evaded the bull Gaur’s attack, but caught hold of the female Gaur again before she could regain composure. The female Gaur struggled for a few more, very long minutes, whilst the bull Gaur tried to nudge her, hoping to coax her to stand and fight. But his attempts were in vain, as the female Gaur eventually breathes her last and succumbed to the Tiger’s ‘deadly’ grip. Tiger usually prefer to hunt in dense bushes and woodlands, as their steps help them blend in and their agility helps them maneuver through the thickets. So witnessing a hunt in the open like this is definitely an uncommon moment of natural history that I was able to capture! 
@Apex Titan :
I'm not allowed to participate at the "On the edge of extinction" tiger thread (Why ? Only booked to the eminent specialists of the forum, I imagine...), thus I'm answering you here through the John Goodrich's text whose the link was given by @Pckts at #2609. .. In order to be truly objective you can also quote this part of the text: " There were numerous reports of tigers preying on both brown bears and Asiatic black bears, but the relationship, it seems, was not that simple; there were also reports of bears killing tigers. As the years progressed and we tracked both bears and tigers, the picture of a complex relationship emerged. The largest brown bears — and we recorded bears with weights up to 800 lbs in the area — would usurp kills from tigers and even track them from kill to kill (meeting those bears when searching for tiger kills is another story for another day!). In one case, tracks in the snow told the story of a tigress and bear reluctantly sharing a red deer the tigress had killed. The tracks suggested some bluffing and blustering on the part of both species, but no actual fighting. Rather, it seemed when the tiger had eaten its fill for the day, the bear was able to scare it off, but when the tigress returned hungry and the bear’s stomach was full, the bear would yield to the cat. Once, my colleague Ivan came home from tracking a tigress and told the story of how it spent the better part of a day trying unsuccessfully to pull a black bear with cubs from her winter den. " I just deduct that Amur tiger is the doubtless apex predator of the taiga, being even able to kill a large brown bear which on the other hand are able to steal a tigress's prey. Thus not a 100% completely one-sided fight outcome... More interesting, I think, is the upheaval among the predators of this biotop provoked by the tiger population recovering its ancient level. That confirming this undeniable tiger's status.  (05-27-2022, 02:59 AM)Spalea Wrote: @Apex Titan : I posted the link to Goodrich's article in my post. Didn't you see it? Anyways ... The text also states this: "There were numerous reports of tigers preying on both brown bears and Asiatic black bears." I could have also highlighted that part of the text, but I didn't. Note, those cases of brown bears killing tigers in disputes are very old, outdated cases from the last century. In fact some posters think that those cases are unreliable and unauthentic because there are no modern day equivalent (over 30 years of scientific field research) to those cases. Which I also find strange, although I wouldn't say its safe to completely dismiss those cases, as they are reported in scientific literature. But scientific research shows, that cases of brown bears killing tigers are extremely rare and has barely happened. Whats very peculiar is that although Amur tigers are still regularly hunting bears to this day (2022) there's not a single reliable case of a brown bear killing any tiger, despite being often attacked by tigers. This is odd. Why did only some cases occur way back in the last century?, but in the last 30+ years of extensive scientific field research and studies, biologists have never found a single reliable case of a brown bear killing a tiger? Who knows. What amazed me though about Goodrich's account, is that the tiger, with only 3 canines, was able to swiftly kill a large, similar-sized brown bear in an instant with such ease. Even as a tiger enthusiast myself, I never thought that was possible, especially when you see the sheer mass, robustness and thickness of a large brown bears neck area. Thats incredible. Just goes to show the terrifying power, weaponry and killing skill of a tiger. Quote:I just deduct that Amur tiger is the doubtless apex predator of the taiga, being even able to kill a large brown bear which on the other hand are able to steal a tigress's prey. Thus not a 100% completely one-sided fight outcome... I agree. Quote:More interesting, I think, is the upheaval among the predators of this biotop provoked by the tiger population recovering its ancient level. That confirming this undeniable tiger's status. Yes, tigers are extremely aggressive and intolerant towards any competition. Bears and wolves suffer in regions that have Amur tigers. 
Rare footage of Royal Bengal tiger killing an Indian Bison Gaur.
 *This image is copyright of its original author The Royal Bengal tiger can be seen grabbing the bison by its neck in Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh. (Screengrab/Pankaj Khelkar) A guide from the Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh recorded a rare video of a Royal Bengal Tiger going for the kill. The video is from the Kisli zone in the national park and was recorded on Monday at 12 pm in the afternoon. The video shows the tiger pouncing on the injured Indian Bison Gaur while another massively huge bison tries to save it from the tiger’s clutches. However, the other bison ends up hurting the injured one from its herd in the process. Tiger T-67 can be seen in the video grabbing the injured bison by its neck. The Indian Bisons are immensely huge and strong animals. It is very difficult to take down a fully grown gaur. Hence, predators usually go for either sick or injured animals or young calves. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/footage-royal-bengal-tiger-indian-bison-gaur-watch-1927841-2022-03-21 This doesn't mean tiger's can't go after the biggest gaur which they are capable of. *This image is copyright of its original author Tiger cooling off after killing a Gaur https://www.reddit.com/r/HardcoreNature/comments/py24rp/tiger_cooling_off_after_killing_a_gaur/  *This image is copyright of its original author https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/8220118 May I know what is the biggest animal a tiger is capable of killing? Thanks in advance. The tiger killing an adult gaur is impressive considering that bovine is such a large animal. Minute 8:38, Dale Miquelle stating that tigers in India and Russia tend to prefer prey that are about the same size as themselves, medium deer and wild boar being the most common prey. Female Ussuri brown bears can be the same weight as a male Siberian tiger so it is still impressive and some tigers like Dale prefer female brown bears. (06-05-2022, 04:30 PM)GreenGrolar Wrote: Rare footage of Royal Bengal tiger killing an Indian Bison Gaur. You see this statement: "Hence, predators usually go for either sick or injured animals or young calves." This is a baseless assumption that isn't backed up by any data or scientific studies on tiger predatory behaviour. Thats the problem with articles like that, some authors will report misinformation and make statements that are clearly wrong. Scientific studies on tiger predation on gaur show the exact opposite. Tigers frequently hunt and kill adult bull gaur and most bull gaurs killed by tigers are healthy animals in good condition. In fact, according to studies, even the smaller Indo-chinese tigers from Thailand routinely kill large adult gaur and banteng, including the bulls. The small Javan tigers weighing only 120-140 kg routinely preyed on adult banteng, and killed bulls weighing up to 825 kg. Karanth and Sunquists studies confirmed that tigers even kill the largest bull gaurs weighing at least 1000 kg. They found several of these huge bulls killed by tigers. Other renowned tiger biologists and ecologists like Dr Seidenstecker and Charles McDougal also reported that tigers hunt and kill the largest bull gaurs weighing over a tonne. Their studies (like all tiger predation studies) showed that tigers always prefer the largest prey animals. According to Seidenstecker and McDougal's study, they also found that Bengal tigers were also going out of their way to prey on the largest wild boars weighing up to 500 lbs! Despite a full-grown adult gaurs immense size, tigers usually have no problems in taking them down. Some predators like wolves for example, when hunting adult bison, will usually target the old, sick or weakened animals. But this is not the case with tigers hunting prey. Tigers generally target healthy animals even of large, dangerous prey like adult gaur, bears and wild boar. I can post the data, studies and sources if you want? I have plenty of good information on this. Quote:May I know what is the biggest animal a tiger is capable of killing? Thanks in advance. The tiger killing an adult gaur is impressive considering that bovine is such a large animal. The biggest animals that have been confirmed to have been killed by a tiger, are adult elephants and adult rhino. Although these cases are not common, it has and does happen. The largest common prey item regularly killed by tigers are adult bull gaurs and wild water buffalo bulls. Huge bulls weighing over a tonne have been killed by tigers. Adult rhinos are on the tigers menu: "Tiger attacks on rhinos are not unheard of. Bengal tigers are known to prey on rhino calves and in some cases even adult rhinos make an appearance on the menu. Indian rhinos are listed as 'Vulnerable' on the IUCN Red List, while tigers are classified as 'Endangered'." https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-w...er-attack/ Quote:Minute 8:38, Dale Miquelle stating that tigers in India and Russia tend to prefer prey that are about the same size as themselves, medium deer and wild boar being the most common prey. Female Ussuri brown bears can be the same weight as a male Siberian tiger so it is still impressive and some tigers like Dale prefer female brown bears. Also note, Dima (Dale) was described to be a "huge tiger" or large male tiger by the biologists. His picture clearly showed that he was a large tiger. The large female brown bear that was easily killed by him, was described to be "nearly his own size" and in the Siberian Tiger Project news report: "each weighing nearly as much as he does." Goodrich also described the killed brown bear sow as a "valuable prize" for a hunter. So Dima hunted and killed huge female brown bears. He also killed a large male black bear which fed him for 5 days.  *This image is copyright of its original author Here's some information on the Amur tigers predatory behaviour and habits. Amur tigers prefer ungulates whose size equal or exceed its own. But in summer and autumn, when bears are available for tigers to hunt, both the Himalayan black bear and brown bear make up a significant portion of the tigers diet:  *This image is copyright of its original author https://neaspec.org/sites/default/files/...%9d%b4.pdf   *This image is copyright of its original author Natraj with his gaur kill may 2022 credits to Harshad Bhurke
 (06-20-2022, 10:33 PM)Ashutosh Wrote: @Pckts, except rhinos don’t have claws. You can see on it’s right leg, three claw marks. You can see marks running horizontal and vertical, that's not synonymous with a tiger attack. Not only that, there don't appear to be puncture marks nor a pattern of multiple areas with parallel running claw marks. Rhino's notoriously attack the hindquarters and their mouth's contain sharp teeth they use to fight and run off challengers. Good example right here https://www.facebook.com/Chitwanjunglegu...320721187/  *This image is copyright of its original author
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