The Tiger

It may surprise people to know that one of the world's great white hunters turned tiger conservation specialist, Jim Corbett, after which a tiger reserve has been named, said that, "Tigers, except when wounded or when man-eaters, are on the whole very good-tempered. Occasionally a tiger will object to too close an approach to its cubs or to a kill that it is guarding. The objection invariably takes the form of growling, and if this does not prove effective it is followed by short rushes accompanied by terrifying roars. If these warnings are disregarded, the blame for any injury inflicted rests with the intruder." Image in the public domain. The healthy tiger is a reluctant attacker of people. It wants to avoid people. They have the ability to kill people quite easily but the surprise to many is that they rarely do so. Radio collared tigers had been found about 10 m from a trail were hundreds of people walk. They have been seen next to a river in which tourist boats pass w...

NEWS AND VIEWS -ATTICA ZOOLOGICAL PARK, ATHENS GREECE: This is an astonishing variation on the classic cat dumping story. We know that not uncommonly people abandon their unwanted pet cats by dumping them outside cat rescue centres or sometimes, far more callously, in a rubbish dump somewhere, anywhere. In this instance, ABC News report that medics are fighting to save the life of a 3-month-old female white tiger cub after she was found in an appalling state in a rubbish bin outside the Attica Zoological Park by a cleaner on February 28, 2023. The rubbish bin is in a parking lot. White tiger cub abandoned outside Greek zoo in Athens. Image: Attica Zoological Park. The zoo's founder is dumbfounded. Jean-Jacques Leseur said: "It is the first time ever we had such an animal dumped outside our zoo. I mean, we had a number of cases of animals dumped, but usually these are abandoned pets; puppies, kittens, tortoises but a tiger? Never." Law enforcement is trying to identify the...

Tiger scent marking a tree. Scent is a way tigers recognise each other. Tigers do recognise each other and they probably achieve this by identifying other tigers by: appearance and scent (odour) sounds Appearance Each tiger has unique markings including the marking on the face. Human can identify tigers by their coat markings but we are unsure if tigers can do it. It seems reasonably plausible that they can. Scent Tiger scent mark like all cats wild and domestic. The scent sprayed on objects is as good as a calling card stating the name and address (in human terms). It is clear that tigers recognise other tigers by the scent that they deposit on objects. Also, the scent will be on tigers as it emanates from scent producing glands at various locations on their body as is the case for domestic cats. Scent glands for the domestic cat: Sounds Well, neither the internet (as a source of information) nor my excellent reference book state that tigers can recognise the sounds of other tigers su...

Siberian tiger caught in a camera trap in the far north of China. This is a Google Map showing the location where this Siberian tiger was captured by a remote camera trap device. These cameras are left alone and activated by movement. The name of the location as reported in online news media is confusing as there appears to be different versions of the same name of the names are wrong. For sure, though, this large tiger was spotted in a mountain range called 'Greater Hinggan Mountains' in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Xiao Hinggan Ling as shown in the map is an individual mountain as I understand it. In any event the location is in the extreme north-east of China and a place where the experts believed that the tiger was extinct. They've been proved wrong. As is the case with all tiger populations, there has been a massive diminishing of numbers since the turn of the 20th century. Some subspecies of tiger have become extinct in the wild.  The Siberian tiger is...

This is a triple comparison focusing on the paw size of a regular domestic cat. The adult tiger paw is genuinely enormous. Its size emphasises the size of the tiger. The Siberian tiger species is the world's biggest cat. I have a feeling that the paw we see in the photo is that of a Siberian tiger. Picture comparing domestic cat paw size with tiger paw size and human hand (male). Image: MikeB The strength of the tiger is very apparent in this photograph. Physically tigers are very powerful. They are burly animals supremely well equipped to single-handedly capture and subdue very large prey animals. Their strength is legendary being able to drag large prey animals across rough ground and even uphill over considerable distances to cache the animal before consuming it. The skull is large and foreshortened. This increases the bite force at the tips of the amazing set of canine teeth. The neck is short and the shoulders are broad. The forelimbs are massive, ideal for grappling with pre...

NEWS AND VIEWS - VIRGINIA, USA: Carole Baskin, the founder and chief executive of Big Cat Rescue (BCR) always detested the private zoo, big cat kings of America who she accused of abusing and exploiting big cats for commercial gain. There were a number of them. I use the past tense.  4 ‘Tiger Kings’ in America have now been charged with animal cruelty . Doc Antle and pet leopard. Image: Netflix. Since Carole Baskin, in effect, put Joe Exotic behind bars for a long stretch because of his attempts to have her murdered, she has reigned supreme as the antithesis and antidote of America's private zoo exploiters. She is going to sell up (or has sold) Big Cat Rescue and do other work with the proceeds to help wildlife welfare and conservation. Her mission at Big Cat Rescue is over. She has achieved her goals. For a long time, she was picking up the pieces of individuals such as Joe Exotic and other private zoo owners who also abused big cats and who were unable to look after them properly...

D. Smith in his work: "The role of dispersal in structuring the Chitwan tiger population" (1993) found that young tigers became independent of their mothers at seventeen to twenty-four months of age. They continued to hunt within the natal range (the home range of their mother effectively).  When do tigers become independent? 17-24 months of age. Image: MikeB This allows them to hone their hunting skills in relative safety. After doing this for a few months the young tigers 'dispersed' (left) from the natal range to find their own range at between 18-24 months of age. Male cubs learn to kill on their own and become independent earlier than females. By 15 months of age males often leave their mother for several days at a time to test independence. Females stay with their mother for longer. RELATED:  Bengal tiger travels 1300 km to find his home range and a mate . A sister and brother, both 18 months old, were watched for their behavior at this stage of their developmen...

Vietnam's tiger conservation efforts has arrived too late with just 5 wild tigers in the country! The video explains why Vietnamese people should think about tiger conservation and refuse to buy tiger glue among other tiger products. Tigers were plentiful in Vietnam. Now there are five in the wild. That's almost as good as saying they are extinct in the wild in Vietnam. The video is good. I like it. But it's too late and the Vietnamese are engaged in a particularly obnoxious kind of speciesism concerning one species: the cat. Their culture allows them to eat domestic cats after a brutal death and yet there is a big push to save the tiger. As I said this is speciesism and it is illogical to me. It is remarkable that so many products are made from tiger body parts many based on unsubstantiated superstition. Killing tigers for body part products is killing them for no reason at all. It is just self-indulgent nonsense. Education for Nature - Vietnam says that the remaining five...

The answer is yes , when possible. I have two sources for that. The first one is probably the best. It comes from my book Wild Cats of the World by Mel and Fiona Sunquist, perhaps the best book on wild cat species you can buy. In their section on "conflict with humans" they state that: "The most significant reduction in human deaths followed the 1987 introduction of inexpensive rubberised masks, which are worn on the back of the head. The authorities reasoned that as tigers normally attack prey from behind, rather than face to face, a mask worn on the back of the head should be a deterrent". Human wearing a face mask on the back of the head for protection against a tiger attack. The photo is by Raghu Rai of Magnum . They conducted an experiment to prove that this was correct. About 2,500 masks were issued to approximately 8,000 workers entering a tiger reserve. The authorities said that "The results were dramatic". In 1987 nobody wearing the masks were ki...

The video says it is all and it is amusing on one level in that it exposes the foolishness of photo-sessions with tigers. I don't know where it was made. It looks like India or somewhere in Asia. Correction : it is Thailand.  The whole thing is rather sick to me. Correction: very sick, sad and pathetic. I feel for the tiger. The tiger used as a prop is sick. The tiger is prodded to animate him, which is also sick.  Please can people stop doing this kind of exploitative behavior? Can humans please stop exploiting tigers and just give them enough space and then leave them alone. For Pete's sake.

They suffocate them after knocking them to the ground with their considerable bulk and the strength in their forelegs. They grab the animal with both their massive front paws. The claws sink into the animal's flesh. They are gripped tightly. The tiger then clamps his/her jaws around the prey's windpipe. The tiger then squeezes the victim's throat and holds on until it is suffocated. Unable to breathe in the vice-like grip they animal passes away quietly and quickly. The tiger will often keep its jaws around the neck for several minutes to make sure it is dead. They've experienced prey surviving and racing off in the past. The tiger pulls its prey into bushes. Tigers have enormous strength and can pull huge prey animals considerable distances over rough terrain. Tigers sometimes kill fellow big felines such as the leopard. The latter avoids the tiger! Legendary tiger strength on show as tiger pulls SUV backwards with its teeth clamped on bumper . Image: in public domain....

The way of life of the tiger is built around hunting. And each tiger lives alone and they hunt alone. In the forests of Asia where nearly all tigers live (except the Siberian tiger in the Far East of Russia) the world's biggest and greatest hunter has no choice but to hunt alone because of the dense vegetation which is their habitat.  Tiger kills a deer. They hunt alone. Image in the public domain. Hunting in a group would not be successful. Apparently, very rarely, they might hunt in a group under certain favourable circumstances but this is essentially a solitary hunter. Their method of killing is to get near as possible to the prey animal using cover from their habitat and their camouflaged coat. They approach prey downwind from the prey animal. This means that their body odour is not carried towards the prey animal which might alert them. The tiger has to get as close as possible to the targeted prey animal because they cannot sprint for great distances. They have to approach t...

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...

This is a highly contentious issue. It has been for a very long time. It affects tiger conservation dramatically. A research study published in 2008 provides us with some information about the attitudes of Chinese people living in China about eating bits of tiger and using Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) tiger products and the effect on conservation. Traditional Chinese Medicine tiger products which are hugely damaging to tiger conservation. Image: WWF The scientists surveyed 1,880 residents from six Chinese cities. In summary the results are as follows: 43% had consumed some products that were said to contain tiger parts (this points to the fact that some of these products may not have genuinely contained tiger parts but were sold as containing them) 71% of the respondents said they preferred wild products over farmed ones. This means that they believe that eating the body parts of wild tigers was more beneficial to them than eating the body parts of farmed tigers. You properly kno...