The Tiger

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...

It is the best I can do as the video quality is poor. 😢😒 This is a short Twitter video. It is not a great video, but it does make a clear statement about tourists interfering with tiger behaviour and irritating tigers. This video was probably captured in one of the many Indian tiger reserves and you initially see the camera focused on the bushes. After a little while, the tiger rushes out towards the vehicles. Sometimes, our ‘too much’ eagerness for ‘Tiger sighting’ is nothing but intrusion in their Life…🐅 #Wilderness #Wildlife #nature #RespectWildlife #KnowWildlife #ResponsibleTourism Video: WA @susantananda3 @ntca_india pic.twitter.com/B8Gjv8UmgF — Surender Mehra IFS (@surenmehra) November 27, 2022 The person operating the smart phone capturing the video is so struck by the aggressive approach of the tiger that they are unable to continue filming and the camera pans left and then it comes back to the tiger who then decides to retreat. It is a statement by the ...

Ranthambore National Park, Rajasthan appears to be the best Bengal tiger reserve in India where you are most likely to see a Bengal tiger (guaranteed!?). It is recommended by 98% of clients I am told. However, please do your own research. This is an important topic for some as a holiday to see a tiger in India is going to be expensive. Tiger in reserve. Image: Twitter. If you travel thousands of miles to see a Bengal tiger in one of India's well-known tiger reserves, you don't want to leave empty handed. It can happen. The people who run the reserves normally can't guarantee that you'll see a tiger. I can remember one reserve at one time having no tigers! I doubt they told visitors! The Times of India has optimistically and with, perhaps, over-confidence listed the tiger reserves where you are guaranteed to see a tiger in descending order of the quality of the guarantee! Here they are: Kanha National Park, Madhya Pradesh Bandhavgarh National Park, Madhya Pradesh Rantham...

It has been known for a long time, but a study confirmed that tigers don't like the presence of tourists. The stress levels, as measured by the amount of stress hormones in faeces, are such that it can be a barrier to mating and breeding thereby seriously undermining conservation efforts. "Tourists can both promote conservation and damage it." - Michael Tourist vehicles near a tiger at Sariska Tiger Reserve. Photo by Subhadeep Bhattacharjee The tiger is on its knees in terms of conservation, so this is important. Tourism helps to fund the reserves. Almost all Bengal tigers are in India's tiger reserves nowadays. It is a tricky problem to crack. But the study (' Physiological stress responses of tigers due to anthropogenic disturbance especially tourism in two central Indian tiger reserves '. Conservation Physiology ) calls into question the modus operandi of the tiger project conservation program. Tigers in reserves are great money spinners. One tiger is said ...

The Indian Forest Service official, Susanta Nanda, says in his tweet that this is a 'herd of tigers' because of the number of offspring which is 5. Normally around 4 is the maximum and my book on the tiger states that a tigress "may give birth to 1-7, although a tigress in the wild is rarely accompanied by more than 2 or 3 cubs. In Nepal, the average size of 49 litters was 2.98. In zoos, the average litter size at birth is 2.8, and an equal numbers of males and females are born". A Bengal female tiger and a 5 cubs which is rare because the average litter size prey tiger is around 2.8 The official is correct and therefore this is an unusual video and a good one because it not only shows us the tigress and cubs but the way the wildlife officials and indeed the way tourists see tigers in their natural habitat. Although, it is said that, if there are too many tourists it disturbs the tigers to the point where they can no longer behave naturally. If you haven’t seen a tige...

NEWS AND COMMENT: Atkosia Tiger Reserve is located in the Angul district of Odisha, India covering an area of 988.30 km². A plan to repopulate the reserve with tigers has failed miserably with a catalogue of disasters. Sad failure in tiger conservation in India. Photo: The Hindu file photo. A tigress imported into the reserve (one of a pair) has been removed from the reserve to be returned to Madhya Pradesh. The tigress's name is Sundari. The tiger was kept in a special enclosure inside the Satkosia Forest before removal. A final act of failure. Before the return of Sundari it was claimed that the reserve had abundant prey and the management had asked for fresh tigers.  In the first year of the repopulation a tiger was gifted from Kanha and a tigress from the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve.  The tigress strayed into a human settlement surrounding the reserve and killed two people. And then, in Nov 2018, the first tiger was killed by poachers. Comment : poaching of Bengal tigers ...

This is a well asked question. And obviously Bengal tigers do attack humans sometimes when they come into conflict with humans because they've been forced into conflict by humans. The Sundarbans, a vast delta which straddles India and Bangladesh, is the place where Bengal tigers most often come into conflict with people and these are people who work in this delta. Essentially there are too many people to accommodate the space required by the Bengal tiger. They require vast ranges of many square miles. Big male Bengal tiger saunters across road ignoring the motorcyclist and passenger. Photo: Twitter. However, Jim Corbett who has a tiger reserve named after him and who was a big game hunter turned conservationist many years ago, said that tigers have quite a nice disposition. He should know because he shot lots of them and he was a renowned expert on tigers. What he is essentially saying is that tigers have quite a nice character and are not inherently aggressive except when they ne...

It is claimed by Valmik Thapar that there is too much interference with the wild tiger in the Indian tiger reserves. The main culprits are the forest managers. The sort of interference that takes place is: Artificial feeding of orphaned cubs until they are adults; Providing food to injured and slightly injured tigers to help in their recovery; To sedate injured tigers with tranquiliser guns and then treat them with antibiotics; To relocate tigers and manhandle them once they are tranquillised. Relocated tigers are often followed and chased in order to confine them to a certain part of the forest. Many people are employed to force them to change direction using noise reminiscent of the days when tigers were hunted and driven into the guns of professional or paying hunters; To artificially bait the tigers. Apparently, this increases their longevity as it makes them easier to watch and to photograph; We are also told that on occasions water tankers are employed to provide water to...

These are Bengal tiger population figures for the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve and adjacent area in West Bengal, the South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India. This is a map of South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India: View Larger Map And this is a map of the Sunderbans, a large mangrove swamp and one of the largest Bengal tiger reserves: View Larger Map You can see and read more about the Indian Bengal tiger reserves if you wish.

You may have heard about the loss of all tigers at the Sariska tiger reserve. It was a highly embarrassing situation for Project Tiger - now National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) -  management. It gradually dawned on management what had happened in and around 2004. The loss of all tigers from poaching was confirmed in January 2005. There were 15 tigers at the Sariska tiger reserve before they were poached. They probably all ended up in tiger bone wine and medicinal products in Asia. This is tragic for people who care. There has been a gradual restocking of the park. And it seems to be very gradual. Two tigers, a male and female, were translocated in 2008. And a search of the internet indicates that as at 2011 there are five tigers (2 males and 3 females) and two new translocated cubs. Cats are reportedly poor travellers, meaning poor at translocation and introduction to new habitats . This is due to the land tenure system employed by tigers and all wild felids. Also br...

Two examples of the unwitting, deliberate or reckless creation of the pollution of tiger genetics by cross breeding different subspecies, come to mind. In captivity the South China tiger is cross-bred with the Bengal tiger sometimes. And in India there is a startling story of a British zoo supplying an Indian Bengal tiger reserve, the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, with a Bengal tiger that was in fact a Bengal/Siberian tiger cross-breed! The zoo, Twycross Zoo in England, did not know. They thought they would help out the dwindling tiger population in one of India's many reserves. Unwittingly they ruined (too strong a word?) the Bengal tiger population at that reserve. I have no idea if the tigress is still breeding in the Dudhwa reserve. She quite possibly is. Some tigers showed signs of being Siberian tiger hybrids. These tigers have got to die in this reserve to protect other reserves. Apparently Twycross Zoo maintained no breeding records and had behaved irresponsibly. It beggars b...

Here is a nice interactive map showing some major tiger reserves in India and Bangladesh. If you click on the blue flags marking the reserves you will see a photograph most times of the reserve and some information about size, management and tiger population density. View Bengal Tiger Reserves India in a larger map You can see it in large format and some information about Bengal tiger reserves on this page .