Who is the "king" of tigers? - Bengal or Amur

[GuateGojira]

The size of the Sundarbans tigers:

Here is the comparison between the Sundarbans tigers and the mainland tigers:

*This image is copyright of its original author

As we can see, the difference is dramatic mostly in the weight, while in the body size, Sundarbans tigers are no smaller than the Indochinese tigers. In fact, if we see the only two weights from 1933, those figures are not so low, in comparison with other tiger populations, however, this seems something in the past, as modern tiger in the area are decreasing. One male captured in 2008 weighed 150 kg and is the heaviest, but the next one, captured in 2010 weighed only 115 kg. However, there is the problem that all the specimens captured since 2006 are in bad to very bad conditions, were found near villages hunting farm animals and some of them were even unable to hunt. One male of 98 kg was captured after it killed a goat, which means that this already small weight could even include some stomach content! The only specimen that was classified as in good condition was an old female of 12 years old that weighed 80 kg.

So, the problem is how representative are these weights for the entire population. Are all these tigers in such a bad conditions? Tigers in the area are breading, which means that at least some territorial specimens most be in best condition, check this images, specially the first one, check the size compared with the man at the top of the cage:

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

These animals, although small, don't look so thin or in bad shape as the captured specimens in the list. However, at least that some specimen could be captured in they natural environment, we will be unable to know if this is the "normal" situation, physically speaking. Let's remember that the largest prey available in this area is the chital deer of 50 kg and the wild boar, slightly smaller.

For comparison purposes, if we calculate and average weight "overall" of the modern Bengal tigers (including Sundarbans) we get an average figure of 200 kg (n=21) for males and 123 kg (n=34) for females. Reply