Tiger

Tiger
Temporal range: Early Pleistocene Recent
A Bengal tiger (P. tigris tigris) in India's Jim Corbett National Park
Conservation status
Endangered (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Panthera
Species: P. tigris
Binomial name
Panthera tigris
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Subspecies
Tiger 2
P. t. tigris
P. t. corbetti
P. t. jacksoni
P. t. sumatrae
P. t. altaica
P. t. amoyensis
P. t. virgata
P. t. balica
P. t. sondaica
Tiger's historic range in about 1850 (pale yellow) and in 2006 (in green).
Synonyms
Felis tigris Linnaeus, 1758
Tigris striatus Severtzov, 1858
Tigris regalis Gray, 1867
The tiger (Panthera tigris) is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to 3.3 m (11 ft)
and weighing
up to 306 kg (675 lb). Its most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-
orange fur with a
lighter underside. It has exceptionally stout teeth, and the canines are the longest among living felids
with a crown
height of as much as 74.5 mm (2.93 in) or even 90 mm (3.5 in).[1] In zoos, tigers have lived for 20 to
26 years, which
also seems to be their longevity in the wild.[2] They are territorial and generally solitary but social
animals, often
requiring large contiguous areas of habitat that support their prey requirements. This, coupled with the
fact that they
are indigenous to some of the more densely populated places on Earth, has caused significant
conflicts with humans.
Tigers once ranged widely across Asia, from Turkey in the west to the eastern coast of Russia. Over
the past 100
years, they have lost 93% of their historic range, and have been extirpated from southwest and
central Asia, from the
islands of Java and Bali, and from large areas of Southeast and Eastern Asia. Today, they range from
the Siberian
taiga to open grasslands and tropical mangrove swamps. The remaining six tiger subspecies have
been classified as
endangered by IUCN. The global population in the wild is estimated to number between 3,062 and
3,948 individuals,
down from around 100,000 at the start of the 20th century,[3] with most remaining populations
occurring in small
pockets isolated from each other. Major reasons for population decline include habitat destruction,
habitat
fragmentation and poaching. The extent of area occupied by tigers is estimated at less than
1,184,911 km2
(457,497 sq mi), a 41% decline from the area estimated in the mid-1990s.[4]
Tigers are among the most recognisable and popular of the world's charismatic megafauna. They
have featured
prominently in ancient mythology and folklore, and continue to be depicted in modern films and
literature. Tigers
appear on many flags, coats of arms, and as mascots for sporting teams. It is the national animal of
Bangladesh
(specifically the Bengal Tiger), India, Vietnam, Malaysia (specifically the Malayan tiger) and South
Korea.
Tiger 3
Taxonomy and etymology
In 1758, Linnaeus first described the species in his work Systema Naturae under the scientific name
Felis tigris.[] In
1929, the British taxonomist Reginald Innes Pocock subordinated the species under the genus
Panthera using the
scientific name Panthera tigris.[5]
The word Panthera is probably of Oriental origin and retraceable to the Ancient Greek word panther,
the Latin word
panthera, the Old French word pantere, most likely meaning "the yellowish animal", or from pandarah
meaning
whitish-yellow. The derivation from Greek pan- ("all") and ther ("beast") may be folk etymology that
led to many
curious fables.
The word "tiger" is traceable to the Latin word tigris, meaning "a spotted tigerhound of Actaeon".[6]
The Greek word
tigris is possibly derived from a Persian source.
Range of the tiger in 1900 and 1990
Characteristics and evolution
The oldest remains of a tiger-like cat, called Panthera palaeosinensis,
have been found in China and Java. This species lived about 2 million
years ago, at the beginning of the Pleistocene, and was smaller than a
modern tiger. The earliest fossils of true tigers are known from Java,
and are between 1.6 and 1.8 million years old. Distinct fossils from the
early and middle Pleistocene were also discovered in deposits in China
and Sumatra. A subspecies called the Trinil tiger (Panthera tigris
trinilensis) lived about 1.2 million years ago and is known from fossils
found at Trinil in Java.[7]
Tigers first reached India and northern Asia in the late Pleistocene, reaching eastern Beringia (but not
the American
Continent), Japan, and Sakhalin. Fossils found in Japan indicate the local tigers were, like the
surviving island
subspecies, smaller than the mainland forms. This may be due to the phenomenon in which body size
is related to
environmental space (see insular dwarfism), or perhaps the availability of prey. Until the Holocene,
tigers also lived
in Borneo, as well as on the island of Palawan in the Philippines.
Characteristics
Skeleton
Tigers have muscular bodies with particularly powerful forelimbs and
large heads. The pelage coloration varies between shades of orange or
brown with white ventral areas and distinctive black stripes. Their
faces have long whiskers, which are especially long in males. The
pupils are circular with yellow irises. The small, rounded ears have
black markings on the back, surrounding a white spot. These spots,
called ocelli, play an important role in intraspecific communication.
The pattern of stripes is unique to each animal, and these unique
markings can be used by researchers to identify individuals (both in the
wild and captivity), in much the same way as fingerprints are used to identify humans. The function of
stripes is
likely camouflage, serving to help tigers conceal themselves amongst the dappled shadows and long
grass of their
environments as they stalk their prey. The stripe pattern is also found on the skin of the tiger. If a tiger
were to be
shaved, its distinctive camouflage pattern would be preserved.
Tiger 4
Skull, as drawn by N. N. Kondakov.
Tigers are the most variable in size of all big cats, even more so than
leopards and much more so than lions. The Bengal, Caspian and
Siberian tiger subspecies represent the largest living felids, and rank
among the biggest felids that ever existed. An average adult male tiger
from Northern India or Siberia outweighs an average adult male lion
by around 45.5 kg (100 lb). Females vary in length from 200 to 275 cm
(79 to 108 in), weigh 65 to 167 kg (143 to 368 lb) with a greatest
length of skull ranging from 268 to 318 mm (10.6 to 12.5 in). Males
vary in size from 250 to 390 cm (98 to 150 in), weigh 90 to 306 kg
(200 to 675 lb) with a greatest length of skull ranging from
316 to 383 mm (12.4 to 15.1 in).[8] Body size of different populations
seems to be correlated with climateBergmann's ruleand can be
explained by thermoregulation. Large male Siberian tigers can reach a
total length of more than 3.5 m (11.5 ft) "over curves", 3.3 m (10.8 ft)
"between pegs" and a weight of 306 kg (675 lb). This is considerably
larger than the size reached by the smallest living tiger subspecies, the
Sumatran tiger, which reaches a body weight of 75 to 140 kg
(165 to 310 lb). Of the total length of a tiger, the tail comprises 0.6 to 1.1 m (2.0 to 3.6 ft). [9][10] At the
shoulder,
tigers may variously stand 0.7 to 1.22 m (2.3 to 4.0 ft) tall. The current record weight, per the Guinness
Book of
World Records, for a wild tiger was 389 kg (858 lb) for a Bengal tiger shot in 1967, though its weight
may have been
boosted because it had eaten a water buffalo the previous night.[11]
Tigresses are smaller than the males in each subspecies, although the size difference between male
and female tigers
tends to be more pronounced in the larger tiger subspecies, with males weighing up to 1.7 times more
than the
females. In addition, male tigers have wider forepaw pads than females. Biologists use this difference
in tracks to
determine gender. The skull of the tiger is very similar to that of the lion, though the frontal region is
usually not as
depressed or flattened, with a slightly longer postorbital region. The skull of a lion has broader nasal
openings.
However, due to the amount of skull variation in the two species, usually, only the structure of the
lower jaw can be
used as a reliable indicator of species.[12]
Subspecies
There are 9 subspecies of tiger, three of which are extinct. Their historical range in Bangladesh,
Siberia, Iran,
Afghanistan, India, China, and southeast Asia, including three Indonesian islands is severely
diminished today. The
surviving subspecies, in descending order of wild population, are:
A Bengal tiger (P. tigris tigris) in India's
Bandhavgarh National Park
The Bengal tiger (P. t. tigris), also called the Indian tiger, lives in
India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh, and is the most common
subspecies, with populations estimated at less than 2,500 adult
individuals. In 2011, the total population of adult tigers was
estimated at 1,5201,909 in India, 440 in Bangladesh, 155 in Nepal
and 75 in Bhutan. It lives in alluvial grasslands, subtropical and
tropical rainforests, scrub forests, wet and dry deciduous forests,
and mangroves. Male Bengal tigers have a total length, including
the tail, of 270 to 310 cm (110 to 120 in), while females range from
240 to 265 cm (94 to 104 in). The weight of males range from
180 to 260 kg (400 to 570 lb), while that of the females range from
Tiger 5
100 to 160 kg (220 to 350 lb).[13] In northern India and Nepal, tigers tend to be of larger size. Males
often average
235 kilograms (518 lb), while females average 141 kilograms (311 lb). In 1972, Project Tiger was
founded in
India aiming at ensuring a viable population of tigers in the country and preserving areas of biological
importance
as a natural heritage for the people.[14] But the illicit demand for bones and body parts from wild tigers
for use in
traditional Chinese medicine is the reason for the unrelenting poaching pressure on tigers on the
Indian
subcontinent.[15] Between 1994 and 2009, the Wildlife Protection Society of India has documented
893 cases of
tigers killed in India, which is just a fraction of the actual poaching and illegal trade in tiger parts during
those
years.[16] An area of special conservation interest lies in the Terai Arc Landscape in the Himalayan
foothills of
northern India and southern Nepal, where 11 protected areas comprising dry forest foothills and tall
grass
savannas harbor tigers in a landscape of 49,000 square kilometres (19,000 sq mi). The goals are to
manage tigers
as a single metapopulation, the dispersal of which between core refuges can help maintain genetic,
demographic,
and ecological integrity, and to ensure that species and habitat conservation becomes mainstreamed
into the rural
development agenda. In Nepal, a community-based tourism model has been developed with a strong
emphasis on
sharing benefits with local people and on the regeneration of degraded forests. The approach has
been successful
in reducing poaching, restoring habitats, and creating a local constituency for conservation.[17]
The Indochinese tiger (P. t. corbetti), also called Corbett's tiger, is found in Cambodia, China, Laos,
Burma,
Thailand, and Vietnam. These tigers are smaller and darker than Bengal tigers. Males weigh from
150195 kg
(330430 lb), while females are smaller at 100130 kg (220290 lb). Their preferred habitat is forests
in
mountainous or hilly regions. According to government estimates of national tiger populations, the
subspecies
numbers around a total of 350 individuals.[18] All existing populations are at extreme risk from
poaching, prey
depletion as a result of poaching of primary prey species such as deer and wild pigs, habitat
fragmentation, and
inbreeding. In Vietnam, almost three-quarters of the tigers killed provide stock for Chinese
pharmacies.
The Malayan tiger (P. t. jacksoni), exclusively found in the southern part of the Malay Peninsula,
was not
considered a subspecies in its own right until 2004. The new classification came about after a study
by Luo et al.
from the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity Study, part of the National Cancer Institute of the United
States.
According to official government figures, the population in the wild may number around 500
individuals, but is
under considerable poaching pressure. The Malayan tiger is the smallest of the mainland tiger
subspecies, and the
second-smallest living subspecies, with males averaging about 120 kg (260 lb) and females about
100 kg (220 lb)
in weight. The Malayan tiger is a national icon in Malaysia, appearing on its coat of arms and in logos
of
Malaysian institutions, such as Maybank.
The Sumatran tiger (P. t. sumatrae) is found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and is
critically
endangered. It is the smallest of all living tiger subspecies, with adult males weighing between 100
and 140 kg
(220 and 310 lb) and females 75 and 110 kg (165 and 240 lb). Their small size is an adaptation to the
thick, dense
forests of the island of Sumatra where they reside, as well as the smaller-sized prey. The wild
population is
estimated at between 400 and 500, seen chiefly in the island's national parks. Recent genetic testing
has revealed
the presence of unique genetic markers, indicating it may develop into a separate
species,Wikipedia:Citing
sources if it does not go extinct. This has led to suggestions that Sumatran tigers should have greater
priority for
conservation than any other subspecies. While habitat destruction is the main threat to existing tiger
population
(logging continues even in the supposedly protected national parks), 66 tigers were recorded as being
shot and
killed between 1998 and 2000, or nearly 20% of the total population.
The Siberian tiger (P. t. altaica), also known as the Amur tiger, inhabits the Amur-Ussuri region of
Primorsky
Krai and Khabarovsk Krai in far eastern Siberia. It ranks among the largest felids ever to have existed,
with a
head and body length of 160180 cm (6371 in) for females and 190230 cm (7591 in) for males,
plus a tail of
about 60110 cm (2443 in), with adult males weighing between 180 and 306 kg (400 and 675 lb)
and females
100 and 167 kg (220 and 368 lb). The average weight of an adult male is around 227 kg (500 lb).
Siberian tigers
have thick coats, a paler golden hue, and fewer stripes. The heaviest wild Siberian tiger weighed 384
kg (847 lb),
Tiger 6
but according to Mazk, this record is not reliable. In 2005, there were 331393 adult and subadult
Siberian tigers
in the region, with a breeding adult population of about 250 individuals. The population has been
stable for more
than a decade, but partial surveys conducted after 2005 indicate the Russian tiger population is
declining. At the
turn of the century, the phylogenetic relationships of tiger subspecies was reassessed, and a
remarkable similarity
between the Siberian and Caspian tigers was observed, indicating the Siberian tiger population is the
genetically
closest living relative of the extinct Caspian tiger, and strongly implying a very recent common
ancestry for the
two groups.
The South China tiger (P. t. amoyensis), also known as the Amoy or Xiamen tiger, is the most
critically
endangered subspecies of tiger, and is listed as one of the 10 most endangered animals in the
world.[19] One of the
smaller tiger subspecies, the length of the South China tiger ranges from 2.22.6 m (87100 in) for
both males
and females. Males weigh between 127 and 177 kg (280 and 390 lb) while females weigh between
100 and 118 kg (220 and 260 lb). From 1983 to 2007, no South China tigers were sighted. In 2007, a
farmer
spotted a tiger and handed in photographs to the authorities as proof. The photographs in question,
however, were
later exposed as fake, copied from a Chinese calendar and digitally altered, and the "sighting" turned
into a
massive scandal. In 1977, the Chinese government passed a law banning the killing of wild tigers, but
this may
have been too late to save the subspecies, since it is possibly already extinct in the wild. Currently, 59
captive
South China tigers are known, all within China, but these are known to be descended from only six
animals. Thus,
the genetic diversity required to maintain the subspecies may no longer exist. [citation needed] Currently,
efforts are
being made to breed and reintroduce these tigers to the wild.[citation needed]
Bengal tiger at Ranthambore
National Park
Indochinese tiger Malayan tiger Sumatran tiger
Siberian tiger Siberian tiger South China tiger
Extinct subspecies
Tiger 7
A hunted-down Bali tiger
A Javan tiger
A captive Caspian tiger, Berlin Zoological
Garden 1899
The Bali tiger (P. t. balica) was limited to the Indonesian island of
Bali, and was the smallest subspecies, with a weight of 90100 kg
(200220 lb) in males and 6580 kg (143180 lb) in females. Bali
tigers were hunted to extinctionthe last Bali tiger, an adult female,
is thought to have been killed at Sumbar Kima, West Bali, on 27
September 1937. There is no Bali tiger in captivity. The tiger still
plays an important role in Balinese Hinduism.
The Caspian tiger (P. t. virgata), also known as the Hyrcanian
tiger or Turan tiger was found in the sparse forest habitats and
riverine corridors west and south of the Caspian Sea and west
through Central Asia into the Takla-Makan desert of Xinjiang, and
had been recorded in the wild until the early 1970s. The Amur tiger
is the genetically closest living relative of the Caspian tiger.
The Javan tiger (P. t. sondaica) was limited to the island of Java,
and had been recorded until the mid-1970s. Javan tigers were larger
than Bali tigers; males weighed 100140 kg (220310 lb) and
females 75115 kg (165254 lb).[20] After 1979, no more sightings
were confirmed in the region of Mount Betiri.[21] An expedition to
Mount Halimun Salak National Park in 1990 did not yield any
definite, direct evidence for the continued existence of tigers. [22]
Hybrids
Hybridisation among the big cats, including the tiger, was first
conceptualised in the 19th century, when zoos were particularly
interested in the pursuit of finding oddities to display for financial gain.
Lions have been known to breed with tigers (most often the Amur and
Bengal subspecies) to create hybrids called ligers and tigons. Such
hybrids were once commonly bred in zoos, but this is now discouraged
due to the emphasis on conserving species and subspecies. Hybrids are
still bred in private menageries and in zoos in China.
The liger is a cross between a male lion and a tigress. Because the lion sire passes on a growth-
promoting gene, but
the corresponding growth-inhibiting gene from the female tiger is absent, ligers grow far larger than
either parent.
They share physical and behavioural qualities of both parent species (spots and stripes on a sandy
background). Male
ligers are sterile, but female ligers are often fertile. Males have about a 50% chance of having a
mane, but, even if
they do, their manes will be only around half the size of that of a pure lion. Ligers are typically
between 10 and
12 feet in length, and can weigh between 800 and 1,000 pounds or more.
The less common tigon is a cross between the lioness and the male tiger.
Tiger 8
Colour variations
White tigers
A Bengal white tiger in Bannerghatta National
Park in Bangalore
A pair of white tigers at the Singapore Zoo
A well-known allele produces the white tiger, an animal which is rare
in the wild but widely bred in zoos due to its popularity. Breeding of
white tigers will often lead to inbreeding (as the trait is recessive).
Many initiatives have taken place in white and orange tiger mating in
an attempt to remedy the issue, often mixing subspecies in the process.
Such inbreeding has led to white tigers having a greater likelihood of
being born with physical defects, such as cleft palates and scoliosis
(curvature of the spine). Furthermore, white tigers are prone to having
crossed eyes (strabismus). Even apparently healthy white tigers
generally do not live as long as their orange counterparts. Records of
white tigers were first made in the early 19th century. They can only
occur when both parents carry the rare gene found in white tigers; this
gene has been calculated to occur in only one in every 10,000 births.
The white tiger is not a separate sub-species, but only a colour
variation; since the only white tigers to have been observed in the wild
have been Bengal tigers (and all white tigers in captivity are at least
part Bengal), the recessive gene that causes the white colouring is
commonly thought to be carried only by Bengal tigers, although the
reasons for this are not known. They are not in any way more
endangered than tigers are generally, this being a common
misconception. Another misconception is white tigers are albinos,
despite pigment being evident in the white tiger's stripes. They are distinct not only because of their
white hue, but
they also have blue eyes.
The causative mutation has been identified: it is due to a mutation in the transporter protein
SLC45A2.[23]
Golden tigers
A rare golden tiger at the Buffalo Zoo
In addition, another recessive gene may create a very unusual "golden"
or "golden tabby" colour variation, sometimes known as "strawberry".
Golden tigers have light-gold fur, pale legs, and faint orange stripes.
Their fur tends to be much thicker than normal. Extremely few golden
tigers are kept in captivity, around 30 in all. Like white tigers, golden
tigers are invariably at least part Bengal. Some golden tigers carry the
white tiger gene, and when two such tigers are mated, they can produce
some stripeless white offspring. Both white and golden tigers tend to
be larger than average Bengal tigers.
Other colour variations
No black tiger has been authenticated, with the possible exception of
one dead specimen examined in Chittagong in 1846.[24] There are
unconfirmed reports of a "blue" or slate-coloured tiger, the Maltese
tiger. Largely or totally black tigers are assumed, if real, to be intermittent mutations rather than
distinct species.
Tiger 9
Distribution and habitat
In the past, tigers were found throughout Asia, from the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea to Siberia
and the Indonesian
islands of Java, Bali and Sumatra. During the 20th century, tigers have been extirpated in western
Asia and became
restricted to isolated pockets in the remaining parts of their range. Today, their fragmented and partly
degraded range
extends from India in the west to China and Southeast Asia. The northern limit of their range is close
to the Amur
River in southeastern Siberia. The only large island inhabited by tigers today is Sumatra.
Tigers were extirpated on the island of Bali in the 1940s, around the Caspian Sea in the 1970s, and
on Java in the
1980s. Loss of habitat and the persistent killing of tigers and tiger prey precipitated these extirpations,
a process that
continues to leave forests devoid of tigers and other large mammals across South and Southeast
Asia. Since the
beginning of the 20th century, their historical range has shrunk by 93%. In the decade from 1997 to
2007, the
estimated area known to be occupied by tigers has declined by 41%.
Fossil remains indicate tigers were present in Borneo and Palawan in the Philippines during the late
Pleistocene and
Holocene.
Tigers can occupy a wide range of habitat types, but will usually require sufficient cover, proximity to
water, and an
abundance of prey. Bengal tigers live in many types of forests, including wet, evergreen, and the
semievergreen of
Assam and eastern Bengal; the swampy mangrove forest of the Ganges Delta; the deciduous forest
of Nepal, and the
thorn forests of the Western Ghats. In various parts of their range they inhabit or have inhabited
additionally partially
open grassland and savanna as well as taiga forests and rocky habitats. Compared to the lion, the
tiger prefers denser
vegetation, for which its camouflage colouring is ideally suited, and where a single predator is not at a
disadvantage
compared with the multiple felines in a pride. A further habitat requirement is the placement of suitably
secluded den
locations, which may consist of caves, large hollow trees, or dense vegetation. [25]
Biology and behaviour
Territorial behaviour
A tiger in a pool at Zoo Dortmund in Dortmund,
Germany
Adult tigers lead solitary lives and congregate only on an ad hoc and
transitory basis when special conditions permit, such as plentiful
supply of food. They establish and maintain home ranges. Resident
adults of either sex tend to confine their movements to a definite
territory, within which they satisfy their needs, and in the case of
tigresses, those of their growing cubs. Those sharing the same ground
are well aware of each other's movements and activities.
The size of a tiger's home range mainly depends on prey abundance,
and, in the case of male tigers, on access to females. A tigress may
have a territory of 20 km2 (7.7 sq mi), while the territories of males are
much larger, covering 60 to 100 km 2 (23 to 39 sq mi). The range of a male tends to overlap those of
several
females.[26]
Tigers are strong swimmers, and are often found bathing in ponds, lakes, and rivers. Among fellow
big cats, only the
jaguar shares with the tiger a similar fondness for and capability in the water. [27] They may also cross
rivers up to
6 to 7 km (3.7 to 4.3 mi) across and can swim a distance of up to 29 km (18 mi) in a day. During the
extreme heat of
the day, they often cool off in pools. They are able to carry prey through or capture it in the water.
Tiger 10
Tigers for the most part are solitary animals.
The relationships between individuals can be quite complex, and
apparently tigers follow no set "rule" with regards to territorial rights
and infringing territories. For instance, although for the most part tigers
avoid each other, both male and female tigers have been documented
sharing kills, usually with others of the opposite sex, or cubs. George
Schaller observed a male tiger share a kill with two females and four
cubs. Females are often reluctant to let males near their cubs, but
Schaller saw these females made no effort to protect or keep their cubs
from the male, suggesting the male might have been the sire of the
cubs. In contrast to male lions, male tigers will allow the females and
cubs to feed on the kill first. Furthermore, tigers seem to behave
relatively amicably when sharing kills, in contrast to lions, which tend to squabble and fight. Unrelated
tigers have
also been observed feeding on prey together. This quotation is from Stephen Mills' book Tiger, as he
describes an
event witnessed by Valmik Thapar and Fateh Singh Rathore in Ranthambhore National Park: [28]
A dominant tigress they called Padmini killed a 250 kg (550 lb) male nilgai a very large antelope.
They found her at the kill just after dawn with her three 14-month-old cubs and they watched
uninterrupted for the next ten hours. During this period the family was joined by two adult females and
one adult male all offspring from Padmini's previous litters and by two unrelated tigers, one female
the
other unidentified. By three o'clock there were no fewer than nine tigers round the kill.
When young female tigers first establish a territory, they tend to do so fairly close to their mother's
area. The overlap
between the female and her mother's territory tends to wane with increasing time. Males, however,
wander further
than their female counterparts, and set out at a younger age to mark out their own area. A young
male will acquire
territory either by seeking out a range devoid of other male tigers, or by living as a transient in another
male's
territory until he is old and strong enough to challenge the resident male. The highest mortality rate
(3035% per
year) amongst adult tigers occurs for young male tigers which have just left their natal area, seeking
out territories of
their own.
Tiger dentition (above), compared with that of an
Asian black bear (below): The large canines are
used to make the killing bite, but they tear meat
when feeding using the carnassial teeth.
Male tigers are generally more intolerant of other males within their
territories than females are of other females. For the most part,
however, territorial disputes are usually solved by displays of
intimidation, rather than outright aggression. Several such incidents
have been observed, in which the subordinate tiger yielded defeat by
rolling onto its back, showing its belly in a submissive posture. [29]
Once dominance has been established, a male may actually tolerate a
subordinate within his range, as long as they do not live in too close
quarters. The most violent disputes tend to occur between two males
when a female is in oestrus, and may result in the death of one of the
males, although this is a rare occurrence.
To identify his territory, the male marks trees by spraying of
urine[30][31] and anal gland secretions, as well as marking trails with
scat. Males show a grimacing face, called the Flehmen response, when
identifying a female's reproductive condition by sniffing her urine markings. Like the other Panthera
cats, tigers can
roar. Tigers will roar for both aggressive and nonaggressive reasons. Other tiger vocal
communications include
moans, hisses, growls, and chuffs.
Tigers have been studied in the wild using a variety of techniques. The populations of tigers were
estimated in the
past using plaster casts of their pugmarks. This method was criticized as being inaccurate. [32]
Attempts were made to
Tiger 11
use camera trapping instead. Newer techniques based on DNA from their scat are also being
evaluated. Radio
collaring has also been a popular approach to tracking them for study in the wild.
Hunting and diet
Ernst Rudolf's "The Tiger Hunt"
In the wild, tigers mostly feed on large and medium-sized animals,
with most studies indicating a preference for native ungulates weighing
90 kg (200 lb) at a minimum. Sambar, chital, barasingha, wild boar,
gaur, nilgai and both water buffalo and domestic buffalo, in descending
order of preference, are the tiger's favoured prey in India. Sometimes,
they also prey on other predators, including other large species, such as
leopards, pythons, sloth bears, and crocodiles. In Siberia, the main prey
species are manchurian wapiti and wild boar (the two species
comprising nearly 80% of the prey selected) followed by sika deer,
moose, roe deer, and musk deer. In Sumatra, sambar, muntjac, wild
boar, and Malayan tapir are the predominant prey.[33] In the former
Caspian tiger's range, prey included saiga antelope, camels, Caucasian wisent, yak, and wild horses.
Like many
predators, they are opportunistic and will eat much smaller prey, such as monkeys, peafowl, other
large,
ground-based birds, hares, porcupines, and fish.
Adult elephants are too large to serve as common prey, but conflicts between tigers and elephants,
with the huge
elephant typically dominating the predator, do sometimes take place.[34] A case where a tiger killed an
adult Indian
rhinoceros has been observed, although adult rhinoceroses are often ignored as potential prey due to
a combination
of very large size, a short temper, and very thick skin, which render them a laborious and very difficult
kill.[35]
Young elephant and rhino calves are occasionally taken. Tigers also sometimes prey on
domesticated animals, such
as dogs, cattle, horses, and donkeys. These individuals are termed cattle-lifters or cattle-killers in
contrast to typical
game-killers.
Old tigers, or those wounded and rendered incapable of catching their natural prey, have turned into
man-eaters; this
pattern has recurred frequently across India. An exceptional case is that of the Sundarbans, where
healthy tigers prey
upon fishermen and villagers in search of forest produce, humans thereby forming a minor part of the
tiger's diet.
Tigers will occasionally eat vegetation for dietary fiber, the fruit of the slow match tree being favoured.
A Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) with Indian Pangolin(Manis crassicaudata)
Tadoba Tiger Reserve, Maharastra
Tigers are thought to be nocturnal predators,
hunting at night.[36] However, in areas
where humans are typically absent, they
have been observed via remote-controlled,
hidden cameras, hunting during the daylight
hours.[37] They generally hunt alone and
ambush their prey as most other cats do,
overpowering them from any angle, using
their body size and strength to knock the
prey off balance. Successful hunts usually
require the tiger to almost simultaneously
leap onto its quarry, knock it over, and grab
the throat or nape with its teeth. Even with
their great masses, tigers can reach speeds of
about 4965 km/h (3040 mph), although
Tiger 12
Tiger with kill
they can only do so in short bursts, since they have relatively little
stamina; consequently, tigers must be relatively close to their prey
before they break their cover. If the prey catches wind of the tiger's
presence before the moments of the pounce, the tiger will usually
abandon the hunt rather than chase prey or battle it head-on. Tigers
have great leaping ability; horizontal leaps of up to 10 m (33 ft) have
been reported, although leaps of around half this amount are more
typical. However, only one in 20 hunts, including any instances of
stalking in proximity to potential prey, ends in a successful kill. An
adult tiger can go up to two weeks without eating, but then can gorge
on up to 34 kg (75 lb) of flesh at one time. In captivity, adult tigers are fed 3 to 6 kg (6.6 to 13 lb) of
meat a day. Due
to their low hunting success rate, ability to go prolonged periods without food, and naturally low
population
densities, tigers typically have little to no deleterious effect on the populations of the species on which
they prey.
Several other large carnivores, such as gray wolves, spotted hyenas, and lions, live in groups and
need to capture
relatively greater quantities of prey to feed and maintain stability in their respective packs, clans, or
prides.
When hunting large prey, tigers prefer to bite the throat and use their extremely powerful forelimbs to
hold onto the
prey, often simultaneously wrestling it to the ground. The tiger remains latched onto the neck until its
prey dies of
strangulation.[] By this method, gaurs and water buffalos weighing over a ton have been killed by
tigers weighing
about a sixth as much. Although they can kill healthy adults of large bovids weighing at least 1,000 kg
(2,200 lb),
tigers often select the calves or infirm of very large species. Large prey can be quite dangerous to
tackle, with the
great bulk and massive horns of large bovids, the strong legs and antlers of mature deer, and the
long, powerful tusks
of boars all being potentially fatal to the tiger. No other extant land predator routinely takes on prey
this large on
their own.[38][39] Whilst hunting sambars, which comprise up to 60% of their prey in India, tigers have
reportedly
called out a passable impersonation of the male sambar's rutting call to attract them. [] With small prey,
such as
monkeys and hares, the tiger bites the nape, often breaking the spinal cord, piercing the windpipe, or
severing the
jugular vein or common carotid artery. Though rarely observed, some tigers have been recorded to kill
prey by
swiping with their paws, which are powerful enough to smash the skulls of domestic cattle, and break
the backs of
sloth bears. After killing their prey, tigers sometimes drag it to conceal it in vegetative cover, usually
pulling it by
grasping with their mouths at the site of the killing bite (on the throat in large prey, on the nape in
smaller prey).
This, too, can require great physical strength. In one case, after it had killed an adult gaur, a tiger was
observed to
drag the massive carcass over a distance of 12 m (39 ft). When 13 men simultaneously tried to drag
the same carcass
later, they were unable to move it.
During the 1980s, a tiger named "Genghis" in Ranthambhore National Park was observed frequently
hunting prey
through deep lake water,[40] a pattern of behaviour that had not been previously witnessed in over 200
years of
observations. Moreover, he appeared to be extraordinarily successful for a tiger, with as many as
20% of hunts
ending in a kill.
Tiger 13
Reproduction
A tigress with her cubs in the Kanha Tiger
Reserve, India
A Bengal tigress with her cubs at the
Bandhavgarh National Park, India
Mating can occur all year round, but is generally more common
between November and April. A female is only receptive for three to
six days and mating is frequent during that time period. A pair will
copulate frequently and noisily, like other cats. The gestation period
can range from 93 to 112 days, although the average is 104106 days.
The litter size usually consists of one to six cubs, though two or three
are usually the norm. Cubs can weigh from 680 to 1,400 g (1.50 to
3.1 lb) each at birth and are born blind and helpless. The females rear
them alone, with the birth site and maternal den being sheletered
locations such as thickets, caves and rocky crevices. The father of the
cubs generally takes no part in rearing them. Unrelated wandering male
tigers may even kill cubs to make the female receptive, since the
tigress may give birth to another litter within five months if the cubs of
the previous litter are lost. The mortality rate of tiger cubs is fairly high
about half do not survive more than two years. Few other predators
attack tiger cubs due to the diligence and ferocity of the mother tiger.
Beyond humans and other tigers, common causes of cub mortality are
starvation, freezing, and accidents.
Generally, a dominant cub emerges in each litter, which tends to be
male, but may be of either sex. This cub generally dominates its
siblings during play and tends to be more active, leaving its mother
earlier than usual. The cubs open their eyes at six to 14 days old. At eight weeks, the cubs may make
short ventures
out of the den with their mother, although they do not travel with her as she roams her territory until
they are older.
The cubs are nursed in total for a period of three to six months. Around the time they are weaned,
they start regularly
engaging in territorial walks with their mother. During this stage, the tigress' young are also taught
how to hunt. The
cubs are often capable (and nearly adult size) hunters by the time they are 11 months old. The cubs
become
independent around 18 months of age, but it is not until they are around 22 years old that they fully
separate from
their mother. Females reach sexual maturity at three to four years, whereas males reach sexual
maturity at 45 years.
Over the course of her life, a female tiger will typically give birth to an approximately equal number of
male and
female cubs. Tigers breed well in captivity, and the captive population in the United States may rival
the wild
population of the world. The known limit for lifespan in captivity is 26 years, and while captive animals
usually
outlive wild ones, although a wild adult tiger, with no natural predators as long as it does not run afoul
of humans,
can likely live to a comparable age.
Tiger 14
Interspecific predatory relationships
Tiger hunted by wild dogs (dholes) as illustrated
in Samuel Howett & Edward Orme, Hand
Coloured, Aquatint Engravings, published
London 1807
Tigers usually prefer to eat prey they have caught themselves, but are
not above eating carrion in times of scarcity and may even pirate prey
from other large carnivores. Although predators typically avoid one
another, if a prey item is under dispute or a serious competitor is
encountered, displays of aggression are a regular occurrence. If these
are not sufficient, the conflicts may turn violent and tigers may kill
such formidable competitors as leopards, striped hyenas, pythons and
even crocodiles on occasion.[41][42] In some cases, rather than being
strictly competitive, the attacks by tigers on other large carnivores
seem to be predatory in nature. Situations where smaller predators,
such as badgers, lynxes, and foxes are attacked, are almost certainly
predatory. Interestingly, this species' closest living relative, the lion,
deals with competing predators very differently, undoubtedly because
it lives in large prides. Lions do not treat other predators as prey, as do tigers, but invest a good deal
of time
proactively tracking down other predators and killing them, then leaving their bodies uneaten. Lions
kill competitors
from honey badgers to spotted hyenas and, in protected areas of Africa, are the leading cause of
mortality for African
wild dogs and cheetahs. The tiger does not spend as much time tracking down other predators. [43]
The considerably smaller leopard dodges competition from tigers by hunting at different times of the
day and
hunting different prey.[44] In Indias Nagarhole National Park, most prey selected by leopards were
from
30 to 175 kg (66 to 386 lb) against a preference for prey weighing over 176 kg (388 lb) in the tigers.
The average
prey weight in the two respective big cats in India was 37.6 kg (83 lb) against 91.5 kg (202 lb). With
relatively
abundant prey, tigers and leopards were seen to successfully coexist without competitive exclusion or
interspecies
dominance hierarchies that may be more common to the savanna (where the leopard may coexist
with the lion).
Tigers have been known to suppress wolf populations in areas where the two species coexist, mainly
via competitive
exclusion. There are four proven records of Siberian tigers killing wolves and not eating them. [45]
Dhole packs have
been observed to challenge the big cats in disputes over food and have even killed tigers in rare
cases. However,
tigers have also been observed killing multiple dholes at once, and dholes will typically only attack a
tiger directly if
the pack is quite large. Lone golden jackals expelled from their pack have been known to form
commensal
relationships with tigers. These solitary jackals, known as kol-bahl, will attach themselves to a
particular tiger,
trailing it at a safe distance to feed on the big cat's kills. A kol-bahl will even alert a tiger to a kill with a
loud pheal.
Tigers have been known to tolerate these jackals: one report describes how a jackal confidently
walked in and out
between three tigers walking together a few feet away from each other. When in the presence of a
tiger, a golden
jackal pack will emit a howl very different from its normal vocalization that is thought to function as a
warning to
other jackals.[46]
Occasionally, a large crocodile may attempt to prey upon a tiger. When seized by a crocodile, a tiger
will strike at
the reptile's eyes with its paws. Eighteenth-century physician Oliver Goldsmith described the frequent
conflicts
between mugger crocodiles and tigers that occurred during that time. Thirsty tigers would frequently
descend to the
rivers to drink and on occasion were seized and killed by the muggers, though more often the tiger
escaped and the
reptile was disabled. Mature mugger crocodiles may target much the same prey as the tiger, including
sambar and
water buffalo. Occasionally, a mugger and a tiger will try to claim a carcass killed by either one,
resulting in a "tug
of war" at the water's edge until one of them comes away with it.[47] A potentially more formidable foe
is the larger,
more aggressive saltwater crocodile, which the tiger rarely encounters outside of estuarian regions of
eastern India.
Other than the rare large crocodile or large dhole pack, the only serious competitors to tigers are
bears. Some bears,
especially the brown bear of the north, will try to steal tigers' kills, although the tiger will sometimes
defend its kill.
However, in some cases, bears (especially cubs) are preyed upon by tigers. Although it hunts all its
prey by ambush,
Tiger 15
tigers are especially cautious when handling bears, as many bears are capable of killing a tiger while
defending
themselves. Predation seems especially prevalent in India, where tigers may attack sloth bears. The
sloth bears can
be quite aggressive and will sometimes displace young tigers away from their kills or successfully
defend themselves
with counterattacks. Despite this, sloth bears are killed with some regularity and react fearfully to the
presence of
tigers or even stimuli related to them (i.e. the call of the sambar deer due to the tiger's impersonation
of it).[2] Bears,
both Asiatic black bears and brown bears, make up 58% of the tiger's diet in the Russian Far East.
Some accounts
claim that black bears more successfully avoid predation by tigers because they are skilled tree-
climbers, although
dietary research has contrarily indicated the smaller, less aggressive black bear (comprising 46.5%
of the tiger's
local diet) is the more common prey species than the brown bear (at 11.5% of the diet).[48] Siberian
tigers and
brown bears usually avoid confrontation, but can sometimes be competitors, with dominance
seemingly determined
by the age, sex, and size of the rivals rather than species. Older and larger males of both species
tend to dominate in
this interspecies conflict. Some brown bears, upon emerging from hibernation, follow tigers habitually
to steal their
kills. Tigers will kill brown bear cubs and even adults on some occasions, especially if they find the
bears in their
dens during the hibernation cycle or in periods of low prey density in the fall. There are also records of
brown bears
killing tigers up to the size of adult males, either in self-defense or in disputes over kills. Tigers may
additionally
prey upon the other bear species it encounters (or had encountered historically), which includes giant
pandas and sun
bears, but information is very limited on such interactions.[49]
Conservation efforts
The tiger is an endangered species. Poaching for fur and body parts and destruction of habitat have
simultaneously
greatly reduced tiger populations in the wild. At the start of the 20th century, it is estimated there were
over 100,000
tigers in the wild but the population has dwindled outside of captivity to between 1,500 and 3,500.
Demand for tiger
parts for the purposes of Traditional Chinese Medicine has also been cited as a major threat to tiger
populations.
Some estimates suggest that there are less than 2,500 mature breeding individuals, with no
subpopulation containing
more than 250 mature breeding individuals.
India
A Bengal tiger in a national park in southern
India. Indian officials successfully reintroduced
two Bengal tigers in the Sariska Tiger Reserve in
July 2008.[50]
India is home to the world's largest population of tigers in the wild.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, of the 3,500 tigers around the
world, 1,400 are found in India. Only 11% of original Indian tiger
habitat remains, and it is becoming significantly fragmented and often
degraded.[51]
A major concerted conservation effort, known as Project Tiger, has
been underway since 1973, initially spearheaded by Indira Gandhi. The
fundamental accomplishment has been the establishment of over 25
well-monitored tiger reserves in reclaimed land where human
development is categorically forbidden. The program has been credited
with tripling the number of wild Bengal tigers from roughly 1,200 in
1973 to over 3,500 in the 1990s. However, a tiger census carried out in
2007, whose report was published on February 12, 2008, stated that the wild tiger population in India
declined by
60% to approximately 1,411.[52] It is noted in the report that the decrease of tiger population can be
attributed
directly to poaching.
Tiger 16
An Indian tiger at Guwahati Zoo in Assam, India.
Following the release of the report, the Indian government pledged
$153 million to further fund the Project Tiger initiative, set up a Tiger
Protection Force to combat poachers, and fund the relocation of up to
200,000 villagers to minimise human-tiger interaction. Additionally,
eight new tiger reserves in India were set up. Indian officials
successfully started a project to reintroduce the tigers into the Sariska
Tiger Reserve. The Ranthambore National Park is often cited as a
major success by Indian officials against poaching.
Tigers Forever is a collaboration between the Wildlife Conservation
Society and Panthera Corporation to serve as both a science-based
action plan and a business model to ensure that tigers live in the wild forever. Initial field sites of
Tigers Forever
include the world's largest tiger reserve, the 21,756 km 2 (8,400 sq mi) Hukaung Valley in Myanmar,
the Western
Ghats in India, Thailand's Huai Khai Khaeng-Thung Yai protected areas, and other sites in Laos PDR,
Cambodia, the
Russian Far East and China covering approximately 260,000 km 2 (100,000 sq mi) of critical tiger
habitat.[53]
Russia
The Siberian tiger was on the brink of extinction with only about 40 animals in the wild in the 1940s.
Under the
Soviet Union, anti-poaching controls were strict and a network of protected zones (zapovedniks) were
instituted,
leading to a rise in the population to several hundred. Poaching again became a problem in the
1990s, when the
economy of Russia collapsed, local hunters had access to a formerly sealed off lucrative Chinese
market, and logging
in the region increased. While an improvement in the local economy has led to greater resources
being invested in
conservation efforts, an increase of economic activity has led to an increased rate of development
and deforestation.
The major obstacle in preserving the species is the enormous territory individual tigers require (up to
450 km2
needed by a single female and more for a single male).[54] Current conservation efforts are led by
local governments
and NGO's in consort with international organisations, such as the World Wide Fund and the Wildlife
Conservation
Society. The competitive exclusion of wolves by tigers has been used by Russian conservationists to
convince
hunters in the Far East to tolerate the big cats, as they limit ungulate populations less than wolves,
and are effective
in controlling the latter's numbers.[55] Currently, there are about 400550 animals in the wild.
China
During the early 1970s, such as in the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, China
rejected the
Western-led environmentalist movement as an impeachment on the full use of its own resources.
However, this
stance softened during the 1980s, as China emerged from diplomatic isolation and desired normal
trade relations
with Western countries. China became a party to the CITES treaty in 1981, bolstering efforts at tiger
conservation by
transnational groups like Project Tiger, which were supported by the United Nations Development
Programme and
the World Bank. In 1988, China passed the Law on the Protection of Wildlife, listing the tiger as a
Category I
protected species. In 1993, China banned the trade on tiger parts, which led to a drop in the number
of tiger bones
harvested for use in traditional Chinese medicine.
However, as the tiger bone trade was undermined by effective Chinese legislation in the 1990s, the
Tibetan people's
trade in tiger pelts emerged as a relatively more important threat to tigers. As wealth in the Tibetan
areas increased,
singers and participants in annual Tibetan horse races began to wear chuba (coats made out of Tiger
skins) with
longer trims. Tiger pelt clothing became a standard of beauty, and even mandatory at weddings, with
Tibetan
families competing to buy larger and larger pelts to demonstrate their social status. In 2003, Chinese
customs
officials in Tibet intercepted 31 tigers, 581 leopards, and 778 otters, which if sold in the Tibetan capital
of Lhasa
would have netted $10,000, $850, and $250 respectively. By 2004, international conservation
organizations such as
World Wide Fund for Nature, Fauna and Flora International, and Conservation International were
targeting Tibetans
Tiger 17
in China in successful environmental propaganda campaigns against the tiger skin trade. In the
summer of 2005, the
Environmental Investigation Agency sent undercover teams to Litang and Nagchu in order to film
documentation of
Tibetan violations of Chinese environmental law for submission to the Chinese CITES office. In April
2005, Care
for the Wild International and Wildlife Trust of India confronted the 14th Dalai Lama about the Tibetan
trade, and
his response was recorded as "awkward" and "ambushed", with suspicion against the NGOs for trying
to "dramatize"
the situation as "mak[ing] it seem as if Tibetans were the culprit".
Although popular accounts since the 1980s have portrayed the Tibetans as "having always lived in
harmony with the
earth", according to the Professor of Geography Emily Yeh, "None of the 14th Dalai Lama's seven
books published
before 1985, nor interviews that he gave from his arrival in India in 1959 through the mid-1980s, make
reference to
environmental issues or the relationship between Tibetan Buddhism and ecology". However, the NGO
campaign in
India threatened the goodwill of the Indian government towards the Dalai Lama's Central Tibetan
Administration;
the Indian environmentalist Maneka Gandhi even proposed on television to "throw all Tibetans out of
India [as] each
one of them is a poacher". In May, the Dalai Lama was confronted in the United States by activists
from the National
Geographic Society with evidence that Tibetans were the primary cause of the illegal tiger trade in
China; he reacted
as describing himself as "embarrassed". At the 2006 Kalachakra festival in India, he gave a speech to
an audience of
10,000, including 8000 Tibetans from China, in which he condemned "following the bad example of
the ostentatious
garments made of tiger and leopard pelts worn by some protector deities such as Dgra lha" as
"shameful". The
speech made no reference to ethical or religious issues about killing animals, but instead focused on
the reputation of
Tibetan exiles and their threatened status as citizens of India. The Dalai Lama later took credit in a
press release for
incidents of Tibetans burning their chubas, while decrying the arrest of those who complied with
environmental
regulations as a political statement in support of him.
Population estimate
The global wild tiger population is estimated at anywhere between 3,062 and 3,948 individuals. The
World Wide
Fund for Nature estimates the tiger population at 3,200.[56] The exact number of wild tigers is
unknown, as many
estimates are outdated or come from educated guesses. Few estimates are considered reliable,
coming from
comprehensive scientific censuses. The table shows estimates per country according to IUCN and
range country
governments.[57]
Country Estimate
Bangladesh 440
Bhutan 75
Cambodia 20
China 45
India 1,706
Indonesia 325
Laos 17
Malaysia 500
Myanmar 85
Nepal 155
North Korea n/a
Russia 360
Thailand 200
Vietnam 20
Tiger 18
Total 3,948
Rewilding
Origin
Although the term "rewilding" was used in conservation in other contexts since at least 1990,[58] it was
first applied
to the restoration of a single species of carnivores by conservationist and ex-carnivore manager of
Pilanesberg
National Park, Gus Van Dyk in 2003.[citation needed]
In 1978, the Indian conservationist Billy Arjan Singh attempted to rewild a tiger in Dudhwa National
Park; this was
the tigress Tara who had been born and reared in a zoo.[59] Soon after the release, a large number of
people were
killed and eaten by a tigress who was subsequently shot. Government officials claim that this tigress
was Tara, an
assertion hotly contested by Singh and some other conservationists. Later on, this rewilding gained
further disrepute
when it was discovered that the local gene pool had been sullied by Tara's introduction because she
was partly
Siberian tiger, a fact not known at the time of her release, ostensibly due to poor record-keeping at
Twycross Zoo
where she had been raised.[60][61][62][63][64]
Save China's Tigers
A South China tiger of the Save China's Tigers
project with his blesbuck kill
The organisation Save China's Tigers, working with the Wildlife
Research Centre of the State Forestry Administration of China and the
Chinese Tigers South Africa Trust, secured an agreement on the
reintroduction of Chinese tigers into the wild. The agreement, which
was signed in Beijing on 26 November 2002, calls for the
establishment of a Chinese tiger conservation model through the
creation of a pilot reserve in China where indigenous wildlife,
including the South China Tiger, will be reintroduced. Save China's
Tigers aims to rewild the critically endangered South China Tiger by
bringing a few captive-bred individuals to South Africa for
rehabilitation training for them to regain their hunting instincts. At the
same time, a pilot reserve in China is being set up and the tigers will be relocated and release back in
China when the
reserve in China is ready. The offspring of the trained tigers will be released into the pilot reserves in
China, while
the original animals will stay in South Africa to continue breeding.
South Africa was chosen as a springboard thanks to its leadership in wildlife management, readily
available land,
and abundant game. SCT has also been working with the Chinese government to identify suitable
sites for the
establishment of pilot reserves in China. The South China tigers of the project have since been
successfully rewilded
and are fully capable of hunting and surviving on their own. This project is also very successful in the
breeding of
these rewilded South China tigers and five cubs have been born in the project, these cubs of the
second generation
would be able to learn their survival skills directly from their successfully rewilded mothers.
Tiger 19
Success story of rewilding
A rewilded South China tiger of the Save China's
Tigers rewilding project hunting blesbuck
Save China's Tigers' South China tiger rewilding and reintroduction
project has been deemed a success. [citation needed] Recently, renown
scientists have confirmed the role of Rewilding captive populations to
save the South China tiger. A rewilding workshop conducted in the
October 2010, in Laohu Valley reserve, South Africa to access the
progress of the rewilding and reintroduction program of Save China's
Tigers. The experts present includes Dr. Peter Crawshaw of Centro
Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservaco de Mamiferos Carnivoros,
Cenap/ICMBIO, Dr. Gary Koehler, Dr. Laurie Marker of Cheetah
Conservation Fund, Dr. Jim Sanderson of Small Wild Cat
Conservation Foundation, Dr. Nobuyuki Yamaguchi of Department of Biological and Environmental
Sciences of
Qatar University, and Dr. David Smith of Minnesota University, Chinese government scientists as well
as
representatives of Save China's Tigers.
The tigers involved, were born in captive conditions, in concrete cages and their parents are all
captive animals who
are unable to sustain in the wild. They were sent to South Africa as part of the Save China's Tigers
project to
rewilding and ensure that they regain the necessary skills needed for a predator to survive in the wild.
Results of the workshop confirmed the important role of the South China Tiger Rewilding Project in
tiger
conservation. "Having seen the tigers hunting in an open environment at Laohu Valley Reserve, I
believe that these
rewilded tigers have the skill to hunt in any environment." Dr. David Smith remarked. Furthermore,
Save China's
Tigers recovered natural habitat both in China and in South Africa during their attempt to reintroduce
South China
tigers back into the wild.
The goal is of preparing tigers born in captivity for introduction to wild habitat in China where tigers
once lived
seems to be very possible in the near future based on the success of the rewilding and reintroduction
program.
Relation with humans
Tiger as prey
Tiger hunting on elephant-back, India, 1808.
The tiger has been one of the Big Five game animals of Asia. Tiger
hunting took place on a large scale in the early nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, being a recognised and admired sport by the
British in colonial India as well as the maharajas and aristocratic class
of the erstwhile princely states of pre-independence India. A single
maharaja or English hunter could claim to kill over a hundred tigers in
their hunting career. Tiger hunting was done by some hunters on foot;
others sat up on machans with a goat or buffalo tied out as bait; yet
others on elephant-back.[65] In some cases, villagers beating drums
were organised to
Tiger 20
Stereographic photograph (1903) of a captured man-eating tiger in the Calcutta
zoo; the tiger had claimed 200 human victims.
drive the animals into the killing zone.
Elaborate instructions were available for the
skinning of tigers and there were
taxidermists who specialised in the
preparation of tiger skins.
Man-eating tigers
Normally wild tigers, especially if they have
no prior contact with humans, will actively
avoid interactions with humans. However,
according to some sources, tigers are
thought to be responsible for more human
deaths through direct attack than any other wild mammal. Attacks are occasionally provoked, as
tigers will lash out
after being injured while they themselves are hunted. Occasionally, attacks are provoked accidentally,
as when a
human surprises a tiger or inadvertently comes between a mother and her young.[66] Occasionally
human behavior
will inadvertently provoke tiger attacks by triggering their natural instincts. In one case, a postman
who delivered
mail on foot in a rural region of India where interactions with tigers are commonplace, was not
bothered by them for
several years despite many interactions. Soon after the postman started to use a bicycle, the man
was attacked by a
tiger, theoretically having been instinctively provoked by the chase.[67] Although humans are not
regular prey for
tigers, occasionally tigers will come to view people as prey. Such attacks tend to be particularly
prevalent in areas
where population growth, logging, and farming have put pressure on tiger habitats and reduced wild
prey for them.
Most man-eating tigers are old and missing teeth, acquiring a taste for humans because of their
inability to capture
their preferred prey. This was the case in the Champawat Tiger, a tigress found in Nepal and then
India, that was
found to have had two broken canines. She was responsible for an estimated 430 human deaths, the
most attacks
known to be perpetrated by a single wild animal per the Guinness Book of Records, by the time she
was shot in 1907
by Jim Corbett.
Unlike man-eating leopards, even established man-eating tigers will seldom enter human settlements,
usually
remaining at village outskirts. Nevertheless, attacks in human villages do occur. Tigers treat humans
as they do other
potential prey, engaging in a length stalking phase before pouncing from close range. Despite being
mostly a
nocturnal predator, tigers attack humans in daytime. According to Jim Corbett, arguably the greatest
expert on
man-eating tigers, he had never heard of a tiger attacking a human at night (unlike man-eating
leopards, who attack
humans only at night, and are afraid of humans in daytime).[68] Attacks are also common when people
are working
outdoors and are physically engaged in distracting tasks, particularly when the work requires them to
bend down
(collecting firewood, working on field cultivation, or answering the call of nature). Thanks to their
natural predatory
instincts, such as their use of stealth and surprise and their tendency to attack partially isolated
people, early writings
tend to profile man-eating tigers and other similarly disposed big cats as "cowardly". [69] Due to the
size and power of
the tiger, few humans survive when a predatory attack is carried out.
Reportedly, in the Singapore area (where tigers are now extirpated) in the 1840s, an estimated 1,000
fatalities
occurred from tiger attacks. Man-eaters have been a particular problem in recent decades in India
and Bangladesh,
especially in Kumaon, Garhwal and the Sundarbans mangrove swamps of Bengal, where some
healthy tigers have
been known to hunt humans. Because of rapid habitat loss attributed to climate change, tiger attacks
have increased
in the Sundarbans. The Sundarbans area reportedly had 129 human deaths from tigers from 1969 to
1971. In the 10
years prior to that period, according to Chakrabarti (1984), humans were preyed upon at an estimated
rate of 100 per
year in the Sudarban region, with a possible high of around 430 in some years of the 1960s.
Unusually, in some
years in the Sundarbans, more humans are killed by tigers than vice versa. In the year of 1972,
India's production of
honey and beeswax dropped by 50% when at least 29 people who gathered these materials were
devoured.
Tiger 21
Almost all tigers that are identified as man-eaters are quickly captured, shot, or poisoned. Current
Indian wildlife
protection laws state that animals must be saved unless the tiger is a repeat offender and no hope
exists for
rehabilitation. However, man-eating attacks may still lead to revenge killing of several tigers, including
those not
involved in the attack. On occasion, man-eating tigers are relocated to large nature preserves, with
mixed success. In
1986 in the Sundarbans, since tiger almost always attack from the rear, the idea was implemented
that masks with
human faces on them be worn to the back of the head, on the theory that tigers will usually not carry
through attacks
if seen by their prey. This temporarily decreased the number of attack, though the tigers appeared to
become
habituated to the masks and attacks again increased in the following years. [70]
Tigers kept in captivity retain wild instinct and, especially those in privately owned collections where
improper
handling is more common, may attack humans. An estimated 1.75 fatal attacks occur per year in
captivity, with at
least 27 people killed or seriously injured in the United States by tigers from 1998 to 2001. In large,
well-kept public
zoos, tiger attacks on humans are very rare and tigers who associate with their zookeepers from birth
may be docile
and even affectionate towards their handlers once fully grown. However, most zoos are rightfully
cautious and, when
the tigers must be handled closely (such as medical procedures), it is a necessity to assure that tigers
are fully
unconsicous from anesthesia. Tatiana, a female tiger, escaped from her enclosure in the San
Francisco Zoo, killing
one person and seriously injuring two more before being shot and killed by the police. The enclosure
had walls that
were lower than they were legally required to be, allowing the tiger to climb the wall and escape.
Commercial hunting and traditional medicine
A group of men poses with a killed Javan tiger,
1941
Historically, tigers have been hunted at a large scale so their famous
striped skins could be collected. The trade in tiger skins peaked in
1960s, just before international conservation efforts took effect. By
1977, a tiger skin in an English market was considered to be worth
$4,250 US dollars.
Many people in China and other parts of Asia have a belief that various
tiger parts have medicinal properties, including as pain killers and
aphrodisiacs. There is no scientific evidence to support these beliefs.
The use of tiger parts in pharmaceutical drugs in China is already
banned, and the government has made some offenses in connection
with tiger poaching punishable by death. Furthermore, all trade in tiger
parts is illegal under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora and a
domestic trade ban has been in place in China since 1993.
However, the trading of tiger parts in Asia has become a major black market industry and
governmental and
conservation attempts to stop it have been ineffective to date. Almost all black marketers engaged in
the trade are
based in China and have either been shipped and sold within in their own country or into Taiwan,
South Korea or
Japan. The Chinese subspecies was almost completely decimated by killing for commerce due to
both the parts and
skin trades in the 1950s through the 1970s. Contributing to the illegal trade, there are a number of
tiger farms in the
country specialising in breeding the cats for profit. It is estimated that between 5,000 and 10,000
captive-bred,
semi-tame animals live in these farms today. However, many tigers for traditional medicine black
market are wild
ones shot or snared by poachers and may be caught anywhere in the tiger's remaining range (from
Siberia to India to
the Malay Peninsula to Sumatra). In the Asian black market, a tiger penis can be worth the equivalent
of around
$300 U.S. dollars. In the years of 1990 through 1992, 27 million products with tiger deriatives were
found.
Tiger 22
In captivity
A captive tiger after undergoing surgery at one of
its paws.
In recent years, captive breeding of tigers in China has accelerated to
the point where the captive population of several tiger subspecies
exceeds 4,000 animals, with a greater number of legally kept tigers in
that country alone than all populations of tigers in the wild combined.
Three thousand specimens are reportedly held by 1020 "significant"
facilities, with the remainder scattered among some 200 facilities. This
makes China home to the second largest captive tiger population in the
world, after the USA, which in 2005 had an estimated 4,692 captive
tigers.[71] In a census conducted by the US based Feline Conservation
Federation in 2011, 2,884 tigers were documented as residing in 468
American facilities.
Part of the reason for America's large tiger population relates to legislation. Only nineteen states have
banned private
ownership of tigers, fifteen require only a license, and sixteen states have no regulations at all. The
success of
breeding programmes at American zoos and circuses led to an overabundance of cubs in the 1980s
and 1990s, which
drove down prices for the animals. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Texas
estimate there are
now 500 lions, tigers and other big cats in private ownership just in the Houston,
Texas.Wikipedia:Verifiability A
private zoo in Zanesville, Ohio owned 18 Bengal tigers, all of which were shot dead by Ohio
authorities after their
owner released them, along with many other dangerous animals, before committing suicide on
October 18, 2011.
Genetic ancestry of 105 captive tigers from 14 countries and regions was assessed by using
Bayesian analysis and
diagnostic genetic markers defined by a prior analysis of 134 voucher tigers of significant genetic
distinctiveness. Of
the 105 captive tigers, 49 specimen were assigned to one of five subspecies; 52 specimen had
admixed subspecies
origins.
The Tiger Species Survival Plan devised by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums has condemned
the breeding of
white tigers on the allegation that they are of mixed ancestry, hybridized with other subspecies and
are of unknown
lineage. The genes responsible for white colour are represented by 0.001% of the population. The
disproportionate
growth in numbers of white tigers points to the relentless inbreeding resorted to among homozygous
recessive
individuals for selectively multiplying the white animals. This progressively increasing process will
eventually lead
to inbreeding depression and loss of genetic variability.
Tiger 23
Cultural depictions
19th-century painting of a tiger by
Kuniyoshi Utagawa.
The Bengal tiger is the national animal of India and Bangladesh. [citation needed] The
Malaysian tiger is the national animal of Malaysia. The Siberian tiger is the
national animal of South Korea.
The tiger replaces the lion as King of the Beasts in cultures of eastern Asia
representing royalty, fearlessness and wrath. Its forehead has a marking which
resembles the Chinese character , which means "king"; consequently, many
cartoon depictions of tigers in China and Korea are drawn with on their
forehead.
Of great importance in Chinese myth and culture, the tiger is one of the 12 Chinese
zodiac animals. Also in various Chinese art and martial art, the tiger is depicted as
an earth symbol and equal rival of the Chinese dragon the two representing
matter and spirit respectively. The Southern Chinese martial art Hung Ga is based
on the movements of the tiger and the crane. In Imperial China, a tiger was the
personification of war and often represented the highest army general (or present
day defense secretary), while the emperor and empress were represented by a
dragon and phoenix, respectively. The White Tiger (Chinese: ; pinyin: Bai
H) is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. It is sometimes
called the White Tiger of the West ( ), and it represents the west and
the autumn season.
In Buddhism, it is also one of the Three Senseless Creatures, symbolising anger,
with the monkey representing greed and the deer lovesickness.
Goddess Durga riding a tiger
The Tungusic people considered the Siberian tiger a near-deity and
often referred to it as "Grandfather" or "Old man". The Udege and
Nanai called it "Amba". The Manchu considered the Siberian tiger as
Hu Lin, the king.
The widely worshiped Hindu goddess Durga, an aspect of
Devi-Parvati, is a ten-armed warrior who rides the tigress (or lioness)
Damon into battle. In southern India the god Ayyappan was associated
with a tiger.
The weretiger replaces the werewolf in shapeshifting folklore in Asia;
in India they were evil sorcerers while in Indonesia and Malaysia they
were somewhat more benign.
The tiger continues to be a subject in literature; both Rudyard Kipling,
in The Jungle Book, and William Blake, in Songs of Experience, depict
the tiger as a menacing and fearful animal. In The Jungle Book, the
tiger, Shere Khan, is the wicked mortal enemy of the protagonist,
Mowgli. However, other depictions are more benign: Tigger, the tiger
from A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories, is cuddly and likable. In
Tiger 24
the Man Booker Prize winning novel "Life of Pi", the protagonist, Pi Patel, sole human survivor of a
ship wreck in
the Pacific Ocean, befriends another survivor: a large Bengal tiger. The famous comic strip Calvin and
Hobbes
features Calvin and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes.
World's favourite animal
In a poll conducted by Animal Planet, the tiger was voted the world's favourite animal, narrowly
beating the dog.
More than 50,000 viewers from 73 countries voted in the poll. Tigers received 21% of the vote, dogs
20%, dolphins
13%, horses 10%, lions 9%, snakes 8%, followed by elephants, chimpanzees, orangutans and
whales.
Animal behaviourist Candy d'Sa, who worked with Animal Planet on the list, said: "We can relate to
the tiger, as it is
fierce and commanding on the outside, but noble and discerning on the inside".
Callum Rankine, international species officer at the World Wildlife Federation conservation charity,
said the result
gave him hope. "If people are voting tigers as their favourite animal, it means they recognise their
importance, and
hopefully the need to ensure their survival," he said.