The Tiger

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.

There was a time when American citizens were interested in the price of white tigers. That was before the enactment of the Big Cat Public Safety Act 2022 which very recently came into force. Big cats including of course, white tigers cannot be owned or possessed by private individuals in private zoos anymore in the USA.  Existing big cat owners can keep their tigers until they die but they can't then buy another one. Potential new owners are barred from buying. Accredited zoos can own them but the only reason why they want to own them is to entertain the public and make some dosh. There is not conservation value at all in white tigers as they are heavily inbred and extinct in the wild. In fact, they were extinct in the wild as long ago as 1951. A maharaja shot the last white tiger family but left one cub alive, Mohan (who was abused), from which the entire current world population of white tigers at zoos have been created. Horrible. A f***ing awful history of humankind's stupid...

The question is: "Do male tigers killed tigresses?" And the answer, in my considered opinion, is different when referring to wild tigers or captive tigers, which points to the source of what might be considered aberrant behaviour. If you have a different viewpoint, please comment and provide science in support please. I love good contributions. Captive female Sumatran tiger killed at London Zoo by male while zookeepers tried to get them to mate. Image: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Wild tigers In the wild, male tigers have much larger home ranges than those of females. And each male's range typically overlaps several female ranges. It seems like male tigers have a harem of females within their orbit. Consequently, there are no fights over territory between males and females, as I understand it. Clearly, fights over territory can result in the death of one tiger. Also, male tigers sometimes fight over access to a female, but this is a male-on-male fight. I have read through a lar...

Here is a picture on social media of a Bengal tiger about to be released 'into the jungle'. It seems that he was held in captivity for a period of time and was suddenly presented with the real world where he will have to fend for himself. Shock horror! 😎. It has become a 'funny cat picture' and entertained internet users, but there is a serious side to it which deserves discussion. Tiger about to be released looks shocked. Misleading image? I have a sneaking suspicion that people are being misled by the image because they have humanized the tiger. And images can mislead as they capture a fleeting moment. If there is a video, you'd have a different point of view I suspect. The human interpretation is that he is aghast at the prospect of joining the real world. His mouth hangs open and his eyes are wide and startled. It looks like he is saying to himself, "Do I really have to go out there and start killing animals for a living?!" Well, yes you do 😊✔️. But ...

The question in the title has been prompted by a report in The Sun newspaper today in which they state that the world's oldest Bengal tiger, Raja, has just died at the extraordinary age of 25. And for the last 14 years of his life, he lived with three legs because one of them was ripped off in a crocodile attack. Raja. Photo: JAM PRESS/NEWSLIONS So captive tigers can live to a relatively advanced age. My research indicates that captive tigers have lived for as long as 26 years, and 20 years is not uncommon. There is even a report of a female giving birth in captivity to a single cub at the Rotterdam Zoo at 17 years of age. Note: If you want a reference for this information, please ask in a comment. In the wild, as you might expect, tiger lifespan is much shorter and a female is undoubtedly doing well if she reaches 14 or 15 years of age. The Internet tells me that tigers in the wild might live to about the age of 10. However, there are different opinions on this. Some say that tig...

Of course, the video is charming. We all love to see moms and their babies as there is nothing more charming. And when the mother is a beautiful white tiger cuddling and playing with her white cub the charm is magnified. It is about as charming as animals can get but what is the back story to white tigers? A charming picture of a white tiger mother and her offspring. A loving scene. The back story is not about love. You might know but then you might not. All the white tigers that you see in captivity are hugely inbred. They have to be because they all come from one tiger. Yes, one single tiger. That does not bode very well for genetic diversity. The best book on tigers in the world (probably) states that: "All white tigers in captivity are descendants of a white male cub captured in the forests of Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, India in 1951. The cub named Mohan was mated with a normal-coloured tigress, but the union produced three litters of normal-coloured cubs. When Monaghan was paire...

Four Paws International have successfully rescued four Bengal tigers, two of which (the parents) had spent 15 years of captivity in a tight enclosure on a train carriage. The history is interesting and sad. In 2007 a circus troupe abandoned a male and female tiger in San Luis, Argentina. Four Bengal tigers, two of which were trapped in a train carriage for 15 years, now freed. Photo in public domain. On a temporary basis, a local farmer was asked to take care of them but the animal's handler never returned to claim them. As a consequence, this male and female Bengal tiger were caged in a metal train carriage on the farmer's property. The tigers were not sterilised. They bred. They produced two offspring who were born into captivity and remained in captivity until released with their parents by Four Paws International. The train carriage was filthy, as expected, with leftover bones and meat. The tigers probably engaged in pacing which is a displacement activity due to the stress...

Guinness World Records have declared that a tiger at Tiger Creek Animal Sanctuary, Tyler, Texas, USA, is the world's oldest captive tiger. Her name is Bengali. She came to the Sanctuary in 2000. The sanctuary say that they like "provide a safe and secure environment for animals in need of rescue or rehabilitation while conserving endangered and threatened species." Bengali the world's oldest living captive tiger at 25 years 319 days. Photo: Guinness World Records. Normally, tigers in captivity live to around 15-20 years. In the wild about 12 years is the norm. Bengali has more than doubled the average wild tiger lifespan. She has no cubs but the sanctuary considers her to be an important part of tiger conservation. They said: "We are extremely honored and very proud to know we have the oldest living tiger in captivity. We care deeply for every animal at Tiger Creek, and keeping Bengali healthy and happy for so many years is an incredible accomplishment for the...

A specialist eye veterinarian decided that a 17-year-old Sumatran tiger, Ratna, had injured her left eye when, perhaps, it had been jabbed by a stick of bamboo in her enclosure. Sometime earlier she had had a cataract operation on the eye but in this instance, it was a first. Apparently, cataract operations on tigers are not that uncommon but it was a first to remedy a corneal ulcer and a deteriorating eye. Ratna a Sumatran tiger with corneal ulcer in her left eye. Photo: Shepreth Wildlife Park The surgeon is Dr. David Williams from the Queen's Veterinary School Hospital at the University of Cambridge. After two months of post-operation monitoring, he declared that he was delighted with the outcome and that he was able to "sign Ratna off". The eye has fully healed. Corneal surgery is not uncommon on domestic cats and dogs but it requires a lot more anaesthetic on an adult tiger, for obvious reasons. Ratna lives it Shepreth Wildlife Park near Cambridge, UK. She was move...

There is no God-given rule, no absolute diktat from up above as to why tigers should be kept in captivity. They shouldn't. In a better world, with half the current human population, there would be enough space for tigers to live in their own reserves without coming into conflict with people. In other words people would be living in harmony with tigers rather than persecuting them, exploiting them, abusing them and banging them up in prison cells with concrete floors and nasty bars.  Why shouldn't tigers be kept in captivity? Because it is a f**k**g failure. Pic: Pixabay. Tigers like to enjoy space. In the natural world they may roam over hundreds of square miles in their home range. You imprison them in a zoo and no matter how wonderful you make that zoo they are still confined to a space much smaller than they would be enjoying in the wild. And let's remind ourselves that very many zoos are terrible dumps. They are disgusting places in Third World countries where tigers...

Tigers need an enormous amount of space when they live in the wild and I believe that they still need that kind of space when in captivity even if they were born in captivity because this need is inherited. I believe that it is hardwired into their DNA. On that basis life in a zoo for a tiger is uncomfortable, sterile and without enjoyment except intermittently. And I am referring to good zoos in the West. What about the crappy zoos in Asia where we see tigers pacing to survive mentally. It is horrible to see. I shake my head when I think of it because I don't know how people can put tigers through that kind of mental torture. Only ignorant people can do it. Tiger in captivity. Photo: Pixabay I do not believe that it makes any difference whether a tiger is born in captivity, in a zoo, or whether they are born in the wild. They need a certain amount of space in order to express their natural behaviour. It is an enormous amount of space. It depends upon where the tiger lives in the w...

This is a bizarre story but aren't they all bizarre when they come from the Joe Exotic book of life . Just to remind you, Joe Exotic is the former owner of a private in America where he kept hundreds of animals including a large number of tigers and lions and indeed other big cats. He planned to murder Carole Baskin (BCR founder) and has ended up in jail for 22 years. He is one of four "Tiger Kings" all of whom have been charged for animal cruelty. All four owned private zoos and allegedly exploited tigers and/or lion cubs . Image: PoC from pictures in the public domain. Moving forward, a Las Vegas museum is exhibiting a penis pump which they claim belonged to Joe Exotic. He denies it saying that he never needed a sex aid and that is sex drive has always been strong. He is gay and he is known to have lived with two husbands when he wasn't locked in prison. He claims that Geoff Lowe who took over his private zoo in Oklahoma made up the stories about items collected...

There are two costs for tigers (a) the purchase price and (b) the maintenance cost. The second is much more than the first. Some tigers come free of charge because they have been rescued from some run down, backyard private zoo where they were starved, maltreated and malnourished. These are rescue tigers. A tiger cub might cost $2,500. Exotic cats generally range from around $900 for a bobcat to around $15k for an ocelot. It is about rarity. They get rarer as humans persecute them and destroy their habitat. The costs of maintaining a captive tiger are enormous. Big Cat Rescue (BCR) dramatically highlight this. Squeeze cage (for a vet to attend to a tiger for treatment: $2,000). Forklift truck to move tiger: Hire at $300 per day. Transport tiger to vet for vaccines etc..: Truck at $28,000. Captive habitat must comply with state rules. Some states demand 5 acres for a big cat. One acre might cost $75,000. Perimeter fence (under state legislation): $8,000. Cage: $7,5000. ...

Tigers, like all captive animals, can tend to pace back and forth as a way of coping with the stress of captivity. Due to stress, captive wild cats breed poorly, which is why it is hard to maintain population levels in zoos and also why zoos are bad because the cats are sometimes imported from the wild. The Born Free site says cats breed well in captivity. This is incorrect in my opinion. You'll see human prisoners in confinement in their cell for 23 hours in a day pacing in the same way. It is obviously therapeutic. I wonder if they copied it from captive animals in cages or whether it just happened naturally. Sometimes you'll see stand up comedians on stage walking back and forth. It seems to help delivery. Why does pacing ease stress? I am not sure. It probably distracts the mind as the mind has to work to a certain extent when pacing. Pacing may be a form of displacement behaviour much like nail biting in humans and nose licking in cats. It displaces anxiety and unce...

Here is a list of tiger numbers by state in the United States that are living in USDA licensed facilities. The qualifying factor is more than 50 tigers. See a post about the number of tigers in Texas . I'll leave you to chew on the figures that come from Lynn Culver of the Feline Conservation Federation based on a request to the USDA-APHIS under the Freedom of Information Act.

Anecdotal evidence suggests or claims that there are around 5,000 tigers in captivity in Texas, USA. If that were true there would be far more tigers in Texas than there are in the wild in the rest of the world. It is something that is constantly recited on the internet. Is it true? Well we don't know for sure it seems because there is no requirement for individual people who keep a tiger or tigers in captivity as a sort of pet to register the tiger and facility with the authorities if the tiger is a "generic" tiger. Generic means a tiger of no specific subspecies. In other words a hybrid tiger. Lots of tigers even those managed by specialist people and so called experts are hybrid or generic tigers. However, we do know the number of tigers that are in USDA licensed facilities (USDA is the United States Department of Agriculture) in Texas. Lynn Culver the executive director of the Feline Conservation Federation requested numbers from the USDA-APHIS office under the ...