The Tiger

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...

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 ...

There are records of males killing cubs, and some of these instances of infanticide occurred at kills. So for young cubs, the vicinity of a kill can be a dangerous place because of the likelihood of encountering other tigers there.  Tiger cubs are vulnerable to being killed at kill sites by adult male tigers. Photo: Pixabay. The words are quoted verbatim from the book Wild Cats of the World . I take the words to mean that at a kill site where there is competition to eat the carcass of an animal, male tigers will kill a much smaller tiger i.e. a cub, to ensure access to the food.  To the best of my knowledge, tigers do not kill cubs in order to bring the mother into heat so that they can procreate and generate their own offspring. Tigers don't do this or at least my research indicates this. But lions do. My research also indicates that sometimes in India's tiger reserves they use a buffalo, a live buffalo actually, as bait to draw tigers into an area so that tourists can wat...