The Tiger

There would appear to be two factors which influence when tigers living in the wild are most active: Human activity Prey activity Human activity In a way this behaviour is reminiscent of the leopard. The tiger, in many parts of their range, have become totally nocturnal as a response to human activities. In other words, in areas where the human is active during the daytime, this has put off tigers being active themselves during the daytime and in order to avoid humans they have become nocturnal. It shows that tigers can be both nocturnal and daytime hunters. It also shows us that tigers are wary of people and don't really want to get involved with them. This might surprise some people who think that tigers prey on humans. They don't. The human is not a prey animal for the tiger. Tigers have quite nice dispositions (character). You will find that where tigers attack people it is often because they can no longer attack large prey animals (which they need to attack to survive) bec...

Often, man-eating tigers become the danger that they are to people because they've been injured in some way which has incapacitated them, or they are debilitated to such an extent that they can no longer prey upon their standard prey animal which is a large ungulate. They turn to humans as an alternative and as an easy prey animal. And one way that a tiger can become debilitated is when they try and attack and eat a porcupine. This is not that uncommon in wild animals generally and you will also certainly see domestic dogs getting into an awful state with porcupine quills all over their face. The quills can kill a dog . And, you might know that porcupine quills are very hard to remove because they have barbs along the shaft as you can see in the photograph. In fact, the barbs drive the quill further into the body when the body moves where they can damage internal organs. Porcupine and a quill showing the barbs. Image: MikeB Tigers can't remove them by biting on them and if ther...

Yes, the tiger is the largest hunter of any kind to stalk the earth today . And of all the tiger species, the largest is the Siberian because they have evolved in the cold Far East of Russia where size matters in order to maintain body temperature. The tiger is the largest member of the cat family, and its immense power enables it to kill almost any kind of hooved animal up to large wild cattle. The difference in size between the tiger and the leopard and the subservience of the leopard to the tiger is dramatically shown in this excellent photograph. And note that the tiger regards the common leopard as a prey animal. There is no 'cat agreement' to leave each alone. When hunting the final dash has to be relatively short because of the tiger's immense weight. The tiger can maintain top speed for around 30 metres.  It delivers a massive blow with its front paw to knock the animal down except for the very large prey animals. Once down the tiger grabs the animal in its front cl...

The video on this page shows a Bengal tiger in India (I believe) sauntering down a road and behind him/her is one of their classic prey animals, a deer, a mere 50 yards away. The tiger is entirely disinterested, probably sated on a meal not long before but it is a slightly incongruous video because we are used to seeing tigers attacking prey animals at anytime and anywhere within their habitat. This is not the case. Interestingly, when you read about the iconic tiger, you don't really anywhere about tigers shunning their dinner; shunning the chance to attack a prey animal such as we see in the video. We think they simply don't do it and attack anything that comes before them on their travels. This apparently is incorrect. Bengal tiger ignores prime prey behind it no more than 50 metres away. Screenshot. But if a tiger is going to be satisfied with eating almost anything they can catch as my reference book states, it implies that they will attack almost any prey animal but once ...

No, tigers don't eat zebras under natural circumstances as there are no zebras where the tiger lives which is in Asia (Bengal tiger and other subspecies) and the far east of Siberia (Siberian tiger). Zebras live in Africa where the lion predominantly lives (the Asiatic lion lives in north-east India (Gir Forest). So, there is no opportunity for a tiger living in wild to attack a zebra. However, sometimes zookeepers feed their tigers zebras which are surplus to requirements (see below). Do tigers eat zebras? No unless they are fed to a tiger. Image: Pixabay (know loon). If the zebra did live in India, the tiger would attack it because tigers eat almost anything they can catch from frogs to elephant calves in the words of Fiona Sunquist ( Wild Cats of the World ). The zebra is a nice-sized prey animal for the tiger. Perfect as it would be relatively easy to attack and kill and large enough to provide food for a good time. Tigers need large prey animals because they eat so much. RELAT...

This is a video taken from what appears to be a bus or some other tourist vehicle in India. A bull is trotting down the road in a rainstorm towards the vehicle. The tiger is about 20 yards off the road to the left.  The tiger sees the bull and goes in to attack it. The bull in showing courage confronts the tiger at speed. The tiger backs off and the bull carries on its way.  This looks unusual because we are told countless times that tigers can pull down a cow fairly easily but there is something a bit different about this bull! It is wearing a mask. And the mask is white.  Image: MikeB Perhaps it was used in some sort of ceremony and I wonder whether the tiger became concerned because they could not recognise what would be for them a typical prey animal. Perhaps the tiger decided that he had not seen this kind of prey animal before and then decided that it might be dangerous and so backed off. That is my assessment of why this happened. The video quality is poor but the ...

This video on Twitter shows a tiger feeding on a leopard in Ranthambore National Park, India. There is no unwritten rule between these top predators that they leave each other alone. The tiger is dominant and the top predator. In India, Arjan Singh raised three leopards who, he said, had "an instinctive dread of tigers". They would flee when they came across the scent of a tiger according to Mel and Fiona Sunquist in their book While Cats of the World . Screenshot. Singh said that when he was out with one of his pet leopards a tigress crossed the road and he observed a change in the leopard's behaviour and "as we came within 50 yards of the point at which the tigress had disappeared, her demeanour changed entirely.". The leopard's "high-spirited desire to lead the way evaporated". He said that she went into a crouch as she "slunk towards the big cat's trail and disappeared into the bushes". When predator becomes a prey. Got to witness...

The tweet states that other than humans the tiger is the only predator of the elephant but of course it has to be a baby elephant. Tigers are famous for killing any animal that puts themselves in a vulnerable position. Few animals are immune to tiger predation. Tigers do kill animals that are considerably larger than themselves such as water buffalo but there are records of tigers being killed by these animals after a long and deadly struggle. Adult rhinoceroses and elephants are rarely killed. But they are killed sometimes and, certainly rarely, a baby elephant is killed as evidenced in this video. Tiger with an elephant calf kill. A very rare happening, but can happen in the wild. Other than humans, tiger happens to be the only predator that attacks the elephant in India. Normally they don’t attack adult elephant, but they do follow herds with juvenile elephants. (WA fwd ) pic.twitter.com/KxMhQw3TPx — Susanta Nanda IFS (@susantananda3) July 2, 2022 Note : This is an embedded twe...

Sometimes people ask about the strength of the tiger. Their strength is legendary. This video on Twitter kind of proves it. However, they can do far more impressive things than this. They will move the carcasses of enormous animals over quite considerable distances before hiding them or finding a quiet place  to stash them for consumption at a later date. Tiger pulls car backwards with its teeth clamped on the bumper. Screenshot. Tigers take their prey into cover before beginning to eat. There are many stories about the tiger's amazing ability to move a carcass that is several times heavier than itself. One tiger in Myanmar (formerly Burma) dragged a gaur bull weighing 770 kg although 13 men were unable to move the carcass a yard!  Several other records confirm the tiger's strength in dragging away large carcasses. One tiger reportedly carried a full-grown horse 500 m. Another tiger carried an adult heifer up a 12-foot-high embankment. Going around #Signal like wildfire. Appa...

This is one of those extraordinary pictures of a huge predator, a tigress, not killing and eating a prey animal that is right next to her. But rather than kill and eat this fawn the tigress appears to be relating to the young animal as one of her offspring.  Tigress carries a fawn in her mouth as if she is carrying her own cub. Photo: Instagram. Perhaps she is pregnant (see looks it) and those mothering emotions are coming out and dominating the emotion to attack, kill and eat. And sometimes tigers are curious so they don't always (albeit very rarely) kill and eat prey animals.  We have seen it before in fact with large predators, particularly big cats. I've seen a leopard playing with a young antelope, for example.  I guess sometimes these encounters start like this but lead to the death of the prey animal because the instincts of the tiger are somewhat jumbled up and at the end of the day the dominant instinct is to kill.  Notwithstanding that I am reassured tha...

Tigers want and need access to large terrestrial animals as prey. Therefore what is good for these prey animals is good for the tiger. You'll find the highest density of tigers and the largest home range size where there is an abundance of large terrestrial prey.   What is the natural or ideal habitat of the tiger? A habitat that supports its ideal prey animal: large ungulates. This is related to habitat diversity and primary productivity. 'Primary productivity' refers to the rate at which energy from sunlight is converted to organic substances by photosynthesis.  This is a reference to the tiger food chain. Where the habitat is able to convert sunlight into an abundance of plants which feeds the herbivore prey animals of the tiger there will be an ideal and natural habitat for the tiger. In practical terms this is where 'grassland and forest form a mosaic; a mix of vegetation types supports a rich ungulate community'. Ungulates are hoofed mammals. Note: tigers a...

Well firstly, tigers kill large animals by suffocating them with a bite to the throat. Tigers hold down their prey sometimes beyond the time when they are dead and have stopped struggling. They take their prey into cover for security and then begin to eat.  How do tigers eat large prey animals? The sequence is spelled out on this page. Normally they start at the back end of the animal i.e. the rump and buttocks. They progress forwards and open the body cavity to remove the stomach. They place the stomach to one side of the carcass and then continue eating. Tigers normally eat in that Sphinx-like position which is in a semi-prone position with the stomach touching the ground. I guess it's more comfortable because they eat over a long period of time. They rest on their elbows. You may know that the molars of tigers are not flat at the top as they are for humans but they are like scissors and as the teeth meet they slice chunks of flesh of the prey animal. Their tongue is covered i...

Yes, a tiger would kill and eat a domestic cat if the opportunity presented itself. Tigers are opportunistic hunters and will attack almost anything even frogs, fish and elephants and all animals in between. Their prey animals includes domestic animals such as cows and buffalos.  Sumatran tiger by Brookshaw photography. There are records of tigers killing and eating another big cat, the leopard and a medium-sized cat the lynx. Tigers also kill and eat bears, wolves and foxes, all carnivores. Leopards avoid tigers for obvious reasons. There is no gentlemen's agreement between the various cat species that they should not attack and eat each other. It would be nice if there was. My source material is page 349 of Wild Cats of the World by the Sunquists. It is the best book on the wild cats in my view except it could do with being updated on conservation as it is dated 2002. There is relentlesss pressure on the tiger from human population growth and above all Chinese traditional med...

We are all familiar with the tiger's coat; its pattern of sharp dark stripes against a reddish-orange background with a splattering of white here and there. It looks as if it would not be good camouflage in the wild because in a cage it stands out very starkly. Some people ask why the tiger developed such a coat when it makes the animal more conspicuous. Image by Andreas Breitling from Pixabay   But nature finds a way to help with survival and evolution is always correct. There are perhaps three major points to make about the pattern and colour of the tiger's coat which justifies its creation through evolution. Variable habitat The tiger is found in a variety of habitats and sometimes it's a quite orange, warm coloured environment broken up by vegetation. The orange colour of the coat fits nicely into this landscape. Dappled sunlight The tiger is often in a forest setting under dappled sunlight shafting through the canopy of the trees and under these conditions th...

Tigers will kill any animal that puts itself in a vulnerable position and there are few animals which the tiger avoids and does not try and kill. Elephants and rhinoceroses are rarely killed. But tigers have a tendency to attack and kill animals which are considerably larger than themselves. In fact they need large prey items in order to consume enough flesh to survive in relative comfort. Massive Indian bison can kill a tiger and you can see why. Photo in public domain. However, large prey animal such as water buffalo and Indian bison (gaur) can be very formidable, dangerous and there are records of tigers being killed by these animals often after a gruesome and deadly struggle. Scientists have recorded these events and I can repeat a couple of their accounts here. A scientist called Anderson reported a long battle in which an Indian bison repeatedly gored and trampled to death a tiger. The undergrowth where the battle happened was trodden down and flattened. "The undergrowth ...