Tiger Predation

[Dr Panthera]

(11-27-2015, 04:11 PM)Shardul Wrote: Only 3 of the 11 places you listed actually have wild elephant populations. This is similar to your comment on how gaurs constitute a low percentage in the tiger's diet, without ever considering that gaurs are mostly absent in the areas where most tiger research occurs.

All the research and data can be very misleading when taken out of context.

Absolutely, and for sure the abundance of both predator and prey in a given area and their encounters will determine the interactions between them, nowadays the world population of gaur ( less than 25000) , Banteng ( less than 8000 ) , and wild water buffalo ( less than 4000) means that their distribution is patchy and their importance as a component in tiger feeding ecology is less than what it was a hundred or two hundred years ago.
Jacob's index shows the preference of a predator for a particular prey according to availability and expected encounter rates and if we are discussing gaur then it is most common and preferred in the west Ghats ( Bandipur and Nagarahole ) whereas Sambar for example is highly selected in most of areas.
Tigers as intelligent and successful predators will always select a prey that is: available (no need to spend a lot of energy locating it) , large enough to provide several meals (to be energetically profitable), fairly easy to subdue and kill, and not likely to pose serious risk of injury and hence you see the importance of cervids and wild boar throughout the tiger range and bovids in certain areas like the west Ghats and the western forest complex in Thailand. Reply