The Tiger

The answer is yes , when possible. I have two sources for that. The first one is probably the best. It comes from my book Wild Cats of the World by Mel and Fiona Sunquist, perhaps the best book on wild cat species you can buy. In their section on "conflict with humans" they state that: "The most significant reduction in human deaths followed the 1987 introduction of inexpensive rubberised masks, which are worn on the back of the head. The authorities reasoned that as tigers normally attack prey from behind, rather than face to face, a mask worn on the back of the head should be a deterrent". Human wearing a face mask on the back of the head for protection against a tiger attack. The photo is by Raghu Rai of Magnum . They conducted an experiment to prove that this was correct. About 2,500 masks were issued to approximately 8,000 workers entering a tiger reserve. The authorities said that "The results were dramatic". In 1987 nobody wearing the masks were ki...

The way of life of the tiger is built around hunting. And each tiger lives alone and they hunt alone. In the forests of Asia where nearly all tigers live (except the Siberian tiger in the Far East of Russia) the world's biggest and greatest hunter has no choice but to hunt alone because of the dense vegetation which is their habitat.  Tiger kills a deer. They hunt alone. Image in the public domain. Hunting in a group would not be successful. Apparently, very rarely, they might hunt in a group under certain favourable circumstances but this is essentially a solitary hunter. Their method of killing is to get near as possible to the prey animal using cover from their habitat and their camouflaged coat. They approach prey downwind from the prey animal. This means that their body odour is not carried towards the prey animal which might alert them. The tiger has to get as close as possible to the targeted prey animal because they cannot sprint for great distances. They have to approach t...

  I hope it helps a bit to understand the tiger. Please feel free to comment.

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 ...

The situations during which tigers roar indicate that it is mainly used for long-distance communication. And the sound of the roar, which is obviously very loud, also supports this viewpoint. Tiger roar. Image: MikeB Tiger roaring is heard in a variety of contexts including the following as per Mel and Fiona Sunquist in their book Wild Cats of the World ( buy the book if you are interested in the wild cats as it is the best ) after a tiger has killed a large animal as a prelude to mating during mating when a female beckons a young and when some tigresses advertise sexual receptivity ( I expand on this below ). A contributor to the Reddit.com discussion on this topic, Nick Nicholas (40 years studying big cats 😎) says that male tigers roar to attract females. He correctly states that the home range of male tigers encompasses those of several females, and males know when a female is in season from their scent, and they will roar to attract her. He also says that tigers roar to warn other...

It is hard to imagine tigers not being able or not wanting to climb trees. They are a cat, and all cats are great or at least adequate climbers as most enjoy moving vertically and a few species of wild cat are arboreal (live mainly in trees).  Although, admittedly, the Siberian tiger is a very hefty animal and less agile compared to smaller wild cat species. That said, the picture shows four Siberian (Amur) tigers climbing trees in order to reach a treat put there by Whipsnade Zoo staff to make their lives more interesting. The photograph is by the zoo. The treat was for breakfast, apparently. Amur tigers climbing trees at Whipsnade Zoo, UK. Photo: the zoo. So, we can tell in specific terms that tigers climb trees and in general terms the picture is slightly different but similar. The experts say that tigers "rarely climb trees, although they can and will, especially if provoked". In Chitwan National Park, Nep, a tigress was observed with a new-born young, and she was irritat...

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...

The question in the title in inaccurate. We know that tigers in the wild like to spend many hours in a pool or river. Although, I am talking about Bengal tigers or perhaps Sumatran tigers and in either case I'm referring to tigers in Asia living in warm/hot climates because this is why they like to spend many hours in pools. Being very large animals, they can get very hot because they are able to conserve heat. The best way to dissipate heat is to have cold water running over you which draws away the body heat. And so, tigers like water to cool off and they are perfectly okay swimming in water as well. Tigers like water to cool off and stay cooler. Image by UpTownGrl from Pixabay Tigers can swim two or 3 miles in the sea if required. They are great swimmers but this seems to be in stark comparison to domestic cats. But is it in stark comparison?  That is the key question because there is a lot of misinformation being bandied around the Internet about how domestic cats hate water. ...

In Chitwan National Park, in the far north of India, almost on the foothills of the Himalayas, radio tracking of the Bengal tiger showed that tigers often hunt while moving slowly along roads and trails. They do this because it allows them to move quietly and they don't have the added burden of having to push through dense grass and brush (as reported by Mel and Fiona Sunquist in their book Wild Cats of the World ).  Tiger on a trail in a tiger reserve in India. Image: Pixabay. Tigers have been observed to hunt like this by many naturalists including Dunbar Brander, who recorded his observations in Wild animals in central India published in 1931. His description in his book is particularly apt according to Mel and Fiona Sunquist: "The usual daily round of a tiger is to commence questing for food shortly before sunset and to continue doing so all night. In this questing, they go at a slow walk often following the beds of nalas and jungle roads, especially so in the cold weathe...

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...

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...

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...

Night-time radio-tracking in India's tiger reserves indicates that tigers often hunt at night while moving slowly along roads and trails. They do this because it is quiet and they don't disturb prey animals. It means they don't have to brush through dense grass which creates noise. It is also more comfortable not to have to push through dense vegetation which might be wet and cold. Tigers mainly hunt at night all night. Photo: Pixabay (modified). The usual routine for a tiger is to start looking for food shortly before sunset and to continue all night long. Siberian tigers live in very cold and snowy conditions and they can sometimes starve to death if the snow is unusually heavy. They avoid hunting in areas with deep snow cover because their prey won't be there. And also because it is difficult to walk through an unstable snow crust. If the snow is deep they might take advantage of a frozen river bed or paths made by the animals that they are preying upon i.e. large...

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...

How much do tigers sleep? I think the question is a weak one because the response is dependent upon so many factors. It depends, for example, on how successful a tiger has been in finding food and that in turn depends upon the amount of prey in the area in which it resides. It also depends upon the age of the tiger. The internet quite boldly states that tigers sleep for about 18-20 hours a day but I'm not sure about that answer. Sleeping or snoozing tiger in captivity. Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay   For instance, the best reference work that I have on the tiger states (and I will quote verbatim if I may): "The usual daily round of a tiger is to commence questing for food shortly before sunset and to continue doing so all night. In this questing, they go at a slow walk often following the beds of nalas and jungle roads, especially so in cold weather when cover is dense and the grass is wet and cold". The quote is from Dunbar Brander in his work Wild Anima...

Yes, tigers mark their territory like any other cat species including the domestic cat. One way they mark territory is to desposit scent from glands on their cheeks as you can see in the video. They reach up to a tree or a rock and rub their cheeks against the object.  This is Boris, a Siberian tiger released into the wild by Putin. Boris has hundreds of square miles in which to roam with very little if no competition due to the scarcity of Siberian tigers. Land tenure is part of the social system of the tiger. Both male and females communicate with a combination of scent marks, visual signals and vocalisations. Scent marks are probably the most important. "Marking fluid" is deposited. It is a musky liquid. It is often mixed with urine and sprayed backward onto upright objects. We see domestic cats doing the same thing. Scent may be deposited on faeces from the anal glands. The liquid secreted by these lands is similar to that in their urine. And, as you can see in...

Dr Desmond Morris, in his book Cat World tells us that the hunting success rate of tigers is about 1 in 20 or 5%. Clearly a poor success rate. He also tells us that a female with cubs has a better success rate because of the urgency to feed her cubs. He puts it at a 1 in 5 chance or 20%. Tiger eating. Photo on Flickr and by Tambako The Jaguar The internet tells me that the success rate is 10% or between 5% and 10% depending on the source. However way you cut it, the success rate is low. This accounts for why tigers are careful eaters leaving little of its prey for scavengers. And they gulp down as much as 30 kg or 66 pounds of meat at a single sitting. When it has finished it may stay with the partly eaten body of its prey until it becomes hungry again and then continue. Alternatively a tiger may cover the carcass with leaves and branches hiding it from predators and scavengers. It can then return for a second meal. The tiger also has to travel long distances to find and kill prey ...

There are few measurements on how far tigers travel in a day or night but they spend a lot of their time searching for food and travel long distances in doing so. George Schaller in his work of 1967 called The Deer and the Tiger estimated the tiger's average walking speed and decided that tigers travelled 16 to 32 km per night in the Kanha National Park.  Tiger in Ranthambore NP, India. Photo in public domain. Soviet researchers followed tiger tracks in the snow and estimated that they normally travelled between 15 to 20 km per day ( The Amur Tiger in the USSR 1980). Others have reported that Siberian tigers in eastern Siberia travelled between 50 to 60 km per day under unusual circumstances.  In Chitwan National Park, a park where tiger prey is or was abundant, tigresses travelled roughly 7 to 10 km per night at a speed of about 0.7 km/h. Male tigers tend to go further than females and it is reported that one adult male in Chitwan travelled the length of his territory us...

On the whole, tigers are well tempered creatures disinterested in attacking people. They prefer to avoid humans and normally give them a wide berth. Even if they are provoked they will growl back and if provoked further they may rush at the person combined with a loud roar but they will not attack. Their intention is to avoid attack and to see the person off. Occasionally a tiger may object to a person approaching too closely to her cubs or to their kill that they are guarding. But one of the great so-called big-game hunters of that era, Jim Corbett, said that if a person is attacked by a tiger the blame rests with the intruder. Champawat tiger. Image in public domain due to lapse of time. It is said that if tigers and lions which attack people in an unprovoked manner it is possibly or probably due to the fact that the tiger is injured and unable to successfully bring down a typical prey animal. They therefore have to resort to much easier prey i.e. the human. This topic is relevant...