The Tiger

Scientists in China wanted to assess the personality traits of Amur tigers (Siberian tigers), which I think is an interesting concept not tried before as far as I know. They probably struggled to distinguish between different personality traits as described in humans but came up with two types: majestic and steady.  In general terms they found that the majestic tigers were healthier because they had a higher status and had (by the looks of it) first pickings of prey animals. And they mate more often. That last point begs the question as to whether majestic tigers are coveted by tigresses. Do tigresses pick and choose their male mates? It looks that way. Female lions prefer males with dark and great manes for instance. It seems that female wild cats have a method for picking out the healthiest males in order to produce healthy offspring. Tigers described as majestic are healthier than others and have sex more often. Image: MikeB. AI summary This section is a summary of the study as ...

This is a compact infographic explaining why tigers are endangered. It is a broad-brush infographic covering the main issues. India recently announced the success of Project Tiger and said that there are now 3,167 tigers in India which is more than double the 1,411 recorded when the census began in 2006. This is based on a World Wildlife Fund for Nature camera trap count . I remain pessimistic about the future prospects of the Bengal tiger in India because the human population continues to grow. Tigers need a huge amount of space. Individual males need home ranges the size of a city. The reserves are too small to sustain decent-sized tiger populations. And poachers continue to kill tigers for body parts to supply the Chinese 'superstition market' believing that eating tiger flesh and drinking tiger bone wine does them some sort of magical good. It is all BS.

If two tigers meet in the wild, will they fight? Well, the first point to make is that in the wild, each tiger has a territory about as big as a modern city. Male ranges are a lot bigger than females' and male ranges include female ranges . Territorial ownership is marked out by spraying scented urine against trees and scratching the bark with sharp claws. This is a way of tigers preventing meeting up. It's a way of keeping them apart because they realise that fights between rivals can be so damaging even to the winner that it may impair their survival. So male tigers avoid other male tigers and female tigers avoid other female tigers. When a male tiger meets a female even outside the breeding season there is a small friendly greeting using a close call sounding like: fuf-fuf-fuf . But there are two instances under which tigers might fight: times of flux and tension over resources and territory. The most sought-after resources for a male tiger in the wild are female tigers and...

Well, today, we can answer the question in the title with a certain amount of accuracy because the World Wildlife Fund for Nature has recently reported that they have recorded 3,167 tigers in India which is more than double the 1,411 recorded when the census began in 2006. Camera trap counts a tiger. 7-Tiger CT_©Ullas Karanth-WCS This information is fresh in news media today and I am looking at a report in The Times dated Tuesday, April 11, 2023. They used cameras traps which made the recording of tiger numbers more accurate. In the past they used scats i.e. faeces and pug marks (paw prints) to count tigers or estimate their numbers. They know the tigers' habitats. They place 32,500 cameras in these habitats mounted on trees or posts. They take millions of photographs automatically because they are motion sensor activated. The cameras are set up in pairs which allows them to capture both sides of each tiger and record the stripes which are unique like a human fingerprint. In this w...

Another similar question would be how often do tigresses become sexually receptive? And to answer to both questions, on my research, female tigers produce a litter every two years. As a consequence, mating opportunities for male tigers are limited because in areas where there is plenty of prey, tigresses are usually pregnant or accompanied by dependent young. Tiger cubs in captivity. Image: BBC. And during this time, it is a period of anestrous which means a period of sexual quiescence between two periods of sexual activity. She is not receptive to male advances and therefore she may be sexually receptive only once every two years. Further, anestrus can be environmentally induced. In subtropical and tropical parts of the world tigers may mate and give birth at any time of the year. However, in Siberia, Siberian tigers appear to be seasonal breeders. For this species of tiger there may be a seven or eight month anestrous between breeding seasons. When the female tiger comes into heat sh...

  I hope it helps a bit to understand the tiger. Please feel free to comment.

India and Cambodia have a memorandum of understanding on relocating some of India's Bengal tigers to Cambodia where the tiger has been extinct for at least 15 years.  The Independent tells me that: "Cambodia has reportedly identified at least 90 acres of forest land at its Tatai Wildlife Sanctuary in the Cardamom rainforest to welcome tigers from India." 90 acres is way too small an area. Male tigers need up to 150 square kilometers EACH! That is 37,050 acreas!! "For male [Bengal] tigers in Ranthambhore India; the prey concentrations are high and male tigers have territories that range in size from 5 to 150 km2 (2 to 60 mi2)." - Seaworld.org There are 247 acres in one square kilometer . 90 acres cannot satisfactorily accommodate a single male Bengal tiger. The area allocated is a fraction of the home range demanded of one male tiger. Females have a smaller range but there has to be males and females in the relocation plans. And there has to be some large prey a...