about Tigers... behaviour cont'd

Tiger Fights:

Male tigers will fight if they are attracted to the same breeding female. Fights are rarely to the death and usually consist of a few angry gestures; after this, the loser will normally just depart.
Most fights probably occur between a male holding territory and a transient male hoping to take over that territory and the local females. It is necessary for young adults (of both sexes) to stake out an area of their own before they can start to breed. Whereas females only need territories of about 10-15 square kilometres, males have a range that is about triple that size. (Lack of prey can mean a territory is even larger). If neither combatant gives way, when challenged, a ritual is followed which invariably leads to a fight.

The Challenge:

The ritual consists of a series of challenges; after each challenge one tiger has the opportunity to back away.

Stare each other down; they then show their teeth and fan their whiskers.
Vocalisation - First a catlike hiss and then quiet growls. As they become more annoyed the pair gets louder and increasingly vocal.
Now the pair begins slapping each other with their front paws until eventually one cat unsheathes his claws.
The violence escalates, with the noise becoming bloodcurdling. Combatants rise up onto on their hind legs and start swiping.
Usually all of this activity ceases after a matter of seconds or minutes, though fights of some hours have been recorded.
If neither male withdraws the fight continues to the death, often from a broken neck.

Feeding:

Wild tigers can eat as much as 40 pounds of meat at one time. After eating a lot, they often do not eat again for several days. Over much of the tiger's broad geographic range, wild pig, wild cattle, and several species of deer (sambar being the preferred and chital being the staple diet) is its major prey.

Tigers as Man-eaters:

Age, injury or ill health may cause some teeth to be lost and this is considered a prime reason for tigers turning man-eater. Bad teeth make catching and holding prey extremely difficult. In one case, a post-mortem examination revealed a tigress with two broken canine teeth (only about a third remained of each tooth), four missing incisors, and one lose upper molar. Only once she reached this stage did she attack a worker.

Hunting:

Though usually thought of as a nocturnal hunter, strictly speaking tigers are crepuscular; this simply means they commence hunting in the twilight period just after sundown. Tigers use a combination of keen vision and hearing to locate a potential meal. They tend to concentrate their search for prey around selected water holes, making the rounds several times a night in the process of the hunt.

Concealment:

Standing motionless in a mix of long yellow grass, jungle vegetation, dappled sunlight, and shadows, the tiger becomes almost invisible even at close quarters and can observe potential prey while searching for young or weak animals.

Strength:

Kills are usually carried or dragged to an area of dense cover before feeding; one tiger was observed to drag a kill for over a mile. Once a safe spot is reached, the prey is consumed over the course of several days. 500lb worth of prey may be dragged a great distance with ease, quite a feat when it is considered that this may equal or exceed the weight of the tiger itself. It is not rare for a tiger to successfully move prey twice its own weight and some amazing events have been noted. For instance, a tiger was recorded as carrying the whole carcass of a domestic cow over a six-foot wall and another male tiger pulled an adult gaur (a type of wild ox) a distance of 39 feet. Later attempts to move the carcass by thirteen men failed.

Techniques:

Pound for pound the tiger is the most powerful land predator on earth. These big cats can move extremely fast over short areas, having a top speed of around 35 miles per hour. With a single leap a tiger can cover an impressive distance. There have been instances recorded of these cats leaping widths of as much as 20ft, with one tiger seen to leap 30ft.

The tiger is an 'ambush hunter', carefully stalking prey, circling in as closely as possible, and then suddenly charging the target. When hunting, this cat circles around to approach downwind from its quarry taking its time to carefully creep using the natural landscape as cover. At a distance of approximately 50 feet the tiger will sometimes pause, seemingly hopeful that its target may inadvertently move closer and so lessen that critical attack distance. The cat will raise and lower its head, judging the distance and angle, before finally raising its body and charging.

A tiger will endeavour to get in as close as possible, so increasing the chances of a successful kill. Charging tigers do not roar or make any sound during an attack. For the prey, death comes quickly and silently. Tigers also lie on the tracks to waterholes. Then they wait until a victim comes close and spring up, utilising the element of surprise. This ambush method of hunting uses less energy and has a greater chance of success.

Gigantic Leaps:

Vertically, it is not uncommon for a tiger to leap six feet to scale an obstacle. Mahouts in Bandhavgarh have witnessed a male tiger leap over the 6ft boundary fence to chase down and kill a buffalo. The tiger then dragged the buffalo to the fence in its jaws and swung the body over its back before leaping back over the fence.

However, the graphic descriptions which are often given of tigers making gigantic leaps onto their prey are incorrect. During the final attack phase the cat will usually keep its hind paws on the ground and simply rear up to reach the neck area of the prey animal, it will not launch itself into the air and onto the preys back as lion’s are often seen to do. An exception to this rule comes if the cat miscalculates the required distance. He may then become briefly airborne, touch down and spring once more towards his target.

Certain prey animals present particular difficulties and in these cases the tiger modifies its technique. The tiger is the only animal which will challenge the porcupine and the cat is able to kill a porcupine outright. In doing so tigers often get quills embedded in their paws or jaw, which may render them unable to hunt or feed properly. The longest quill on a porcupine is over a foot long and even a small quill will quickly turn septic.

Failures:

Despite their range of abilities only about one attack in every 20 attempts is successful. Though the figure sounds low, this is quite an acceptable level where the tiger's territory is well stocked with prey. It also explains the importance of ensuring man does not decimate prey species to a grave extent or heavily deforest the tiger’s habitat. In cases where prey is in short supply the tiger's low success rate may become life threatening. If the attack goes wrong and the target escapes it will rarely be followed, the tiger being too big and heavy to have any hope of catching it. Prey animals are often attacked and badly mauled yet manage a successful escape only to die later of loss of blood and shock.

Prey Species:

Tigers attack a variety of animals, but they prefer deer (sambar, swamp, muntjac, chital), antelope (nilgai), buffalo, and wild boar. In the last instance preference is given to the piglets as adults have very thick neck muscles and layers of fat which a tiger cannot bite through to reach the vertebrae. Adult boars worry very little about the tiger. Tigers often make for areas recently visited by elephant. This is because the elephant pulls down trees and uproots undergrowth which, in turn, attracts hoof stock and provides the chance for a banquet. When none of the above animals is on the menu tigers will settle for monkeys, fowl, tortoises, frogs, lynx, birds, jackals, bear, badgers, fish, the odd porcupine, locusts and fruit. They will even lap up ants.

As all these animals require the tiger to expend a great deal of energy, usually in return for only a small meal, they prefer to look for larger prey. During territorial disputes a tiger may also kill another and eat it. On one occasion a tiger was sighted eating a leopard. Overall, the tiger is unfussy and an opportunist. If the opportunity arises carrion will be consumed no matter how rotten it happens to be.

Feeding:

Tigers (including man-eaters) usually begin their eating at the animal's rump and then search for the choicest organs: kidneys, heart, liver and lungs. Because the tiger goes for days between meals a great deal of food is needed at each sitting and these cats may eat as much as 80 pounds of meat at one time. A particularly hungry wild tiger can consume as much as one fifth of its own body weight. It has been estimated that approximately 70 chital deer (average weight 70 kilograms) would be required to feed an adult tiger for a year. There must also be enough prey animals to maintain their own numbers, so the density of prey has to be quite high to sustain tiger populations.

Leftovers:

Tigers usually leave certain parts of large kills untouched including the head, legs, main bones and the coarse hide; the carcass itself will be stripped clean with the exception of the viscera and rumen, (the first stomach found in cud-chewing grazing animals). In fact, many tigers are put off their food if the evil smelling rumen makes contact with the flesh. A punctured stomach and rumen almost certainly points to a jackal or leopard attack. In the case of small kills, the tiger consumes everything with the exception of antlers and hooves. A tigress will allow any cubs to eat first and they squabble noisily over their meal.

Adult tigers feed quietly and the only sound is that of bones crunching. Even this noise does not happen as often as it might and with large prey it is rare for any felid to break the bones of the victim whilst eating. Any 'leftovers' are covered to discourage scavengers and the cat will return later to have a second meal. In some cases the tiger may prevent scavenging by sleeping protectively on the carcass.

Roaring:

Only the great cats can roar; that is, the tiger, lion, jaguar and leopard (but not the snow leopard). The ability to roar is what differentiates a 'great' cat from a 'big' cat. In great cats the structure of bones supporting the larynx, and anchoring the throat and tongue, (called the hyoid) is connected with an elastic ligament as against more bone. This can be stretched by up to a third (eight or nine inches), so opening the air passages, and allowing the roar to be produced. Though the snow leopard has this modification it is in a somewhat primitive form and that cat has never been recorded as roaring.

Utilised in long-range communication the roar is infrequently used. Easily heard for over 3 km, it advertises location and warns away other tigers, or attracts them when the search for a mate is on. Sometimes it is sounded after a successful kill, but never during the actual attack which is carried out in silence. Mating is when roaring is heard most often; tigers are at their noisiest when on heat and breeding. During a roar the ears are laid back and rotated so the backs are visible, the nose wrinkles and the eyes narrow.

Moans:

Roars may be preceded with a long, low moaning noise. Softer versions of the moan are used in communication between mother and cubs.

Growls & Snarls:

Growls and snarls are easily the most common form of communication, with the growl being aggressive, while the snarl is defensive. The tiger shown on this page is snarling. Growls can turn into a hissing or spitting very similar to that produced by a domestic cat.