The Tiger

The infographic says it all. When I prepared this infographic, I was thinking of the challenges given to the men competing in the television competition The World's Strongest Man. A lot of their tests are about dragging and carrying huge weights for as far and as fast as they can. It is a good test of brute strength. None of the past champions would have been able to move a 1,697-pound gaur on rough ground an inch. A tiger did. He 'dragged away a gaur bull'. Or drag a cow two miles up a slope in a wood!! A tiger did. That is almost unbelievable. The source is impeccable and mentioned at the base of the infographic. Infographic on why the tiger is endangered

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...

It is well known that tigers are excellent swimmers. In the hot season in India and elsewhere they spend a lot of the daytime in water half submerged to keep cool. They like water. So how far can they swim? My research indicates that there are records of tigers sometimes visiting islands in the Sunda Strait. In this stretch of water there are strong tidal currents of more than 4 km/h. Tigers like water. Photo in public domain. The map below shows you the location of the Sunda Straits and below that there are two photographs which give you a feel for the geography of that area. Sunda Strait. Photo; Google Maps. Sunda Strait. Photo: Google Maps. There are several islands in the Sunda Straits but the closest appear to be around 2.5 km from the mainland. The island in the middle of the Straits is about 15 km from the mainland. Taking the shorter distance, it is still a substantial effort for a tiger to swim 2.5 km in a 4 km/h current. The Ranthambore National Park, in India, we...