Bengal tiger
Scientific classification
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Kingdom:
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Animalia
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Phylum:
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Chordata
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Class:
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Mammalia
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Order:
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Carnivora
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Family:
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Felidae
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Sub family:
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Pantherinae
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Genus:
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Panthera
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Species:
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Panthera
tigris
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Sub species:
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Panthera tigris tigris
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Trinomial name
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Panthera
tigris tigris
(Linnaeus, 1758) |
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Distribution of the Bengal Tiger (in red) |
The Bengal
tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is the most numerous tiger subspecies.
By 2011, the total population was estimated at fewer than 2,500 individuals
with a decreasing trend. None of the Tiger Conservation Landscapes
within the Bengal tiger's range is considered large enough to support an
effective population size of 250 adult individuals. Since 2010, it has been
classified as Endangered by the IUCN.
As of 2010,
Bengal tiger populations in India have been estimated at 1,706–1,909. As of 2014, they have increased to an estimated 2,226 individuals Bengal tigers
in Bangladesh
number around 440, in Nepal
163–253, and 67–81 in Bhutan
Bengal is
traditionally fixed as the typical
locality for the binomen Panthera tigris, to which the
British taxonomist Reginald Innes Pocock subordinated the Bengal
tiger in 1929 under the trinomen Panthera tigris tigris.
It is the national
animal of both India and Bangladesh.
Characteristics
Facial markings
of a tiger (Sultan a.k.a T72) from Ranthambhore National Park, Rajasthan,
India.
The Bengal
tiger's coat is yellow to light orange, with stripes ranging from dark brown to
black; the belly and the interior parts of the limbs are white, and the tail is
orange with black rings. The white tiger is a recessive mutant of the
Bengal tiger, which is reported in the wild from time to time in Assam, Bengal, Bihar and especially
from the former State of Rewa. However, it is not to be
mistaken as an occurrence of albinism. In fact, there is only one fully authenticated
case of a true albino tiger, and none of black tigers, with the possible
exception of one dead specimen examined in Chittagong
in 1846.
Male Bengal
tigers have an average total length of 270 to 310 cm (110 to 120 in)
including the tail, while females measure 240 to 265 cm (94 to
104 in) on average. The tail is typically 85 to 110 cm (33 to 43 in) long, and on
average, tigers are 90 to 110 cm (35 to 43 in) in height at the
shoulders. The weight of males ranges from 180 to 258 kg (397 to 569 lb), while
that of the females ranges from 100 to 160 kg (220 to 350 lb). The smallest recorded weights for Bengal tigers are from the Bangladesh
Sundarbans, where adult females are 75 to 80 kg (165 to 176 lb)
Bengal tigers have exceptionally stout teeth, and the canines are the longest
among all living felids; measuring from 7.5 to 10 cm (3.0 to 3.9 in)
in length
Records
Two tigers shot
in Kumaon and near Oude at the end of the
19th century allegedly measured more than 12 ft (370 cm). But at the
time, sportsmen had not yet adopted a standard system of measurement; some
would measure between pegs while others would round the curves
In the
beginning of the 20th century, a male Bengal tiger was shot in central India
with a head and body length of 221 cm (87 in) between pegs, a chest
girth of 150 cm (59 in), a shoulder height of 109 cm
(43 in) and a tail length of 81 cm (32 in), which was perhaps
bitten off by a rival male. This specimen could not be weighed, but it was
calculated to weigh no less than 272 kg (600 lb)
A heavy male
weighing 570 lb (260 kg) was shot in northern India in the 1930s
However, the heaviest known tiger was a huge male killed in 1967 that weighed
388.7 kg (857 lb) and measured 322 cm (127 in) in total
length between pegs, and 338 cm (133 in) over curves. This specimen
is on exhibition in the Mammals Hall of the Smithsonian Institution. In
1980 and 1984, scientists captured and tagged two male tigers in Chitwan
National Park that weighed more than 270 kg (600 lb)
Genetic ancestry
Bengal tigers
are defined by three distinct mitochondrial
nucleotide
sites and 12 unique microsatellite alleles. The pattern of genetic
variation in the Bengal tiger corresponds to the premise that they arrived
in India approximately 12,000 years ago. This is consistent with the lack of tiger fossils from the Indian subcontinent
prior to the late Pleistocene and the absence of tigers from Sri Lanka,
which was separated from the subcontinent by rising sea levels in the early Holocene.
Body weight
Female Bengal
tiger in the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve
Bengal tigers
may weigh up to 325 kg (717 lb) and reach a head and body length of
320 cm (130 in). Several scientists indicated that adult male Bengal
tigers from Nepal, Bhutan, and Assam, Uttaranchal and West Bengal in northern
India (collectively, the tigers of the Terai) consistently
attain more than 227 kg (500 lb) of body weight. Seven adult males
captured in Chitwan National Park in the early 1970s had
an average weight of 235 kg (518 lb) ranging from 200 to 261 kg
(441 to 575 lb), and that of the females was 140 kg (310 lb)
ranging from 116 to 164 kg (256 to 362 lb).Males from northern India are nearly as large as Siberian
tigers with a greatest length of skull of 332 to 376 mm (13.1 to 14.8 in).
Three males
captured in Nagarahole National Park in India had a
head and body length which ranged from 189 to 204 cm (74 to 80 in),
with a tail length of 100 to 107 cm (39 to 42 in), while a single
female measured 161 cm (63 in), with a tail length of 87 cm
(34 in). Adult male Bengal tigers in Nagarahole National Park ranged from
230 to 260 kg (510 to 570 lb) in weight. An adult male tiger named
"T-03" that was killed by a large male gaur, weighed
257 kg (567 lb). Another male, "T-04" who was estimated to
be between 3 and 4 years old weighed 250 kg (550 lb) and had a head
and body length of 290 cm (110 in). "T-01" was an old male
that weighed 231 kg (509 lb). A collared male weighed 240 kg
(530 lb) despite the fact that both his canine teeth were broken. The
tigresses in the area were equally massive. One female, named
"Sundari" weighed 150 kg (330 lb). Another female, named
"T-02", had a head and body length of 250 cm (98 in) and
weighed 177 kg (390 lb).
In comparison,
a weight range of 150 to 189 kg (331 to 417 lb) is considered fairly
average for a male African lion in the Serengeti
Verifiable
Sundarbans tiger weights are not found in any scientific literature. Forest
Department records list weight measurements for these tigers, but none are
verifiable and all are guesstimates. There are also reports of head and body
lengths, some of which are listed as over 365.7 cm (144.0 in). More
recently, researchers from the University of Minnesota and the Bangladesh
Forest Department carried out a study for the US Fish and Wildlife Service and
weighed three Sundarbans tigresses from Bangladesh. All three tigers were
female, two of which were collared, captured and sedated, but the other one had
been killed by local villagers. The two collared tigresses were weighed using
150 kg (330 lb) scales, and the tigress killed by villagers was
weighed using a balance scale and weights. The two collared females both showed
signs of teeth wear and both were between 12 and 14 years old. The tigress
killed by the villagers was a young adult, probably between 3 and 4 years old,
and she was likely a pre-territorial transient. The three tigresses had a mean
weight of 76.7 kg (169 lb). One of the two older female's weight
75 kg (165 lb) weighed slightly less than the mean due to her old age
and relatively poor condition at the time of capture. Skulls and body weights
of Sundarbans tigers were found to be distinct from other subspecies,
indicating that they may have adapted to the unique conditions of the mangrove
habitat. Their small sizes are probably due to a combination of intense
intraspecific competition and small size of prey available to tigers in the
Sundarbans, compared to the larger deer and other prey available to tigers in
other parts.
Distribution and habitat
A Bengal tiger
roaming in Ranthambore National Park, Rajasthan,
India.
In 1982, a sub-fossil right middle
phalanx
was found in a prehistoric midden near Kuruwita in Sri Lanka, which is dated to about 16,500 ybp and tentatively
considered to be of a tiger. Tigers appear to have arrived in Sri Lanka during
a pluvial period during which sea levels were depressed, evidently prior to the
last glacial maximum about 20,000 years ago. In 1929,
the British taxonomist Pocock assumed that tigers arrived in
southern India too late to colonize Sri Lanka, which
earlier had been connected to India by a land bridge.
In the Indian
subcontinent, tigers inhabit tropical moist evergreen
forests, tropical dry forests, tropical and subtropical
moist deciduous forests, mangroves,
subtropical and temperate upland forests, and alluvial grasslands. Latter tiger
habitat once covered a huge swath of grassland and riverine and moist
semi-deciduous forests along the major river system of the Gangetic
and Brahmaputra plains, but has now been largely
converted to agriculture or severely degraded. Today, the best examples of
this habitat type are limited to a few blocks at the base of the outer
foothills of the Himalayas including the Tiger Conservation Units
(TCUs) Rajaji-Corbett, Bardia-Banke, and the transboundary TCUs Chitwan-Parsa-Valmiki, Dudhwa-Kailali
and Sukla Phanta-Kishanpur. Tiger densities in these
blocks are high, in part a response to the extraordinary biomass of ungulate prey.
The Bengal
tigers inhabiting the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans
in India and Bangladesh are the only tigers in the world which exist in a
mangrove. The population in the Indian Sundarbans is estimated as 70 tigers in
total.
India
A Bengal tiger
in Mangalore
In the past,
Indian censuses of wild tigers relied on the individual identification of
footprints known as pug marks — a method that has been criticised as deficient
and inaccurate, though now camera traps are being used in many places.
Good tiger
habitats in subtropical and temperate upland forests include the Tiger
Conservation Units (TCUs) Manas-Namdapha. TCUs in tropical dry forest
include Hazaribagh National Park, Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam Tiger
Reserve, Kanha-Indravati corridor, Orissa dry forests, Panna National Park, Melghat Tiger Reserve and Ratapani Tiger Reserve. The TCUs in tropical
moist deciduous forest are probably some of the most productive habitats for
tigers and their prey, and include Kaziranga-Meghalaya, Kanha-Pench, Simlipal and Indravati Tiger Reserves. The TCUs in
tropical moist evergreen forests represent the less common tiger habitats,
being largely limited to the upland areas and wetter parts of the Western
Ghats, and include the Tiger Reserves of Periyar, Kalakad-Mundathurai, Bandipur and Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary.
During the
tiger census of 2008, camera trap and sign surveys using GIS were employed to
project site-specific densities of tigers, their co-predators and prey. Based
on the result of these surveys, the total tiger population was estimated at
1,411 individuals ranging from 1,165 to 1,657 adult and sub-adult tigers of
more than 1.5 years of age. Across India, six landscape complexes were surveyed
that host tigers and have the potential to be connected. These landscapes
comprise the following:
- in the Shivaliks–Gangetic flood plain landscape there are six populations with an estimated population size of 259 to 335 individuals occupying 5,080 km2 (1,960 sq mi) of forested habitats, which are located in Rajaji and Corbett national parks, in the connected habitats of Dudhwa-Kheri-Pilibhit, in Suhelwa Tiger Reserve, in Sohagi Barwa Sanctuary and in Valmiki National Park;
- in the Central Indian highlands there are 17 populations with an estimated population size of 437 to 661 individuals occupying 48,610 km2 (18,770 sq mi) of forested habitats, which are located in the landscapes of Kanha-Pench, Satpura-Melghat, Sanjay-Palamau, Navegaon-Indravati; isolated populations are supported in the tiger reserves of Bandhavgarh, Tadoba, Simlipal and the national parks of Panna, Ranthambore–Kuno–Palpur–Madhav and Saranda;
- in the Eastern Ghats landscape there is a single population with an estimated population size of 49 to 57 individuals occupying 7,772 km2 (3,001 sq mi) of habitat in three separate forest blocks located in the Srivenkateshwara National Park, Nagarjunasagar Tiger Reserve and the adjacent proposed Gundla Brahmeshwara National Park, and forest patches in the tehsils of Kanigiri, Baduel, Udayagiri and Giddalur;
- in the Western Ghats landscape there are seven populations with an estimated population size of 336 to 487 individuals occupying 21,435 km2 (8,276 sq mi) forest in three major landscape units Periyar-Kalakad-Mundathurai, Bandipur-Parambikulam-Sathyamangalam-Mudumalai-Anamalai-Mukurthi and Anshi-Kudremukh-Dandeli;
- in the Brahmaputra flood plains and north-eastern hills tigers occupy 4,230 km2 (1,630 sq mi) in several patchy and fragmented forests;
- in the Sundarbans National Park tigers occupy about 1,586 km2 (612 sq mi) of mangrove forest.
In May 2008,
forest officials spotted 14 tiger cubs in Rajasthan's
Ranthambore National Park. In
June 2008, a tiger from Ranthambore was relocated to Sariska Tiger Reserve, where all tigers had
fallen victim to poachers and human encroachments since 2005.
As of 2014,
adult and subadult tigers at 1.5 years or older are estimated to number 408 in
Karnataka, 340 in Uttarakhand, 308 in Madhya Pradesh, 229 in Tamil Nadu, 190 in
Maharashtra, 167 in Assam, 136 in Kerala, and 117 in Uttar Pradesh.
Bangladesh
Tigers in
Bangladesh are now relegated to the forests of the Sundarbans
and the Chittagong Hill Tracts.he Chittagong forest is contiguous with tiger habitat in India and Myanmar, but the
tiger population is of unknown status.
As of 2004,
population estimates in Bangladesh ranged from 200 to 419, mostly in the
Sunderbans.
This region is the only mangrove habitat in this bioregion,
where tigers survive, swimming between islands in the delta to hunt prey.Bangladesh's Forest Department is raising mangrove plantations supplying forage
for spotted
deer. Since 2001, afforestation has continued on a small scale in newly
accreted lands and islands of the Sundarbans.
From October 2005 to January 2007, the first camera-trap
survey was conducted across six sites in the Bangladesh Sundarbans to estimate
tiger population density. The average of these six sites provided an estimate
of 3.7 tigers per 100 km2 (39 sq mi). Since the
Bangladesh Sundarbans is an area of 5,770 km2
(2,230 sq mi) it was inferred that the total tiger population
comprised approximately 200 individuals. In
another study, home ranges of adult female tigers were recorded comprising
between 12 and 14 km2 (4.6 and 5.4 sq mi).,]
which would indicate an approximate carrying capacity of 150 adult females.
The small home range of adult female tigers (and consequent high density of
tigers) in this habitat type relative to other areas may be related to both the
high density of prey and the small size of the Sundarbans tigers.
Since 2007
tiger monitoring surveys have been carried out every year by WildTeam in the Bangladesh Sundarbans to
monitor changes in the Bangladesh tiger population and assess the effectiveness
of conservation actions. This survey measures changes in the frequency of tiger
track sets along the sides of tidal waterways as an index of relative tiger
abundance across the Sundarbans landscape.
The population
size for the Bangladesh Sundarbans was estimated as 100–150 adult females or
335–500 tigers overall. Female home ranges, recorded using Global Positioning System collars, were
some of the smallest recorded for tigers, indicating that the Bangladesh
Sundarbans could have one of the highest densities and largest populations of
tigers anywhere in the world. They are isolated from the next tiger population
by a distance of up to 300 km (190 mi). Information is lacking on
many aspects of Sundarbans tiger ecology, including relative abundance,
population status, spatial dynamics, habitat selection, life history
characteristics, taxonomy, genetics, and disease. There is also no monitoring
program in place to track changes in the tiger population over time, and
therefore no way of measuring the response of the population to conservation
activities or threats. Most studies have focused on the tiger-human conflict in
the area, but two studies in the Sundarbans East Wildlife sanctuary documented
habitat-use patterns of tigers, and abundances of tiger prey, and another study
investigated tiger parasite load. Some major threats to tigers have been identified.
The tigers living in the Sundarbans are threatened by habitat destruction, prey
depletion, highly aggressive and rampant intraspecific competition, tiger-human
conflict, and direct tiger loss.
Nepal
The tiger
population in the Terai
of Nepal is split into three isolated subpopulations that are separated by
cultivation and densely settled habitat. The largest population lives in Chitwan National Park and in the adjacent Parsa Wildlife Reserve encompassing an area
of 2,543 km2 (982 sq mi) of prime lowland forest. To
the west, the Chitwan population is isolated from the one in Bardia National Park and adjacent unprotected
habitat further west, extending to within 15 km (9.3 mi) of the Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve, which
harbours the smallest population.
The bottleneck between the Chitwan-Parsa and Bardia-Sukla Phanta
metapopulations is situated just north of the town of Butwal.
As of 2009, an
estimated 121 breeding tigers lived in Nepal. By
2010, the number of adult tigers had reached 155.
A survey conducted from December 2009 to March 2010 indicates that 125 adult
tigers live in Chitwan National Park and its border areas covering
1,261 km2 (487 sq mi).
Between February and June 2013, a camera trapping survey was carried out in the
Terai covering an area of 4,841 km2 (1,869 sq mi)
tiger habitat. The country’s tiger population was estimated at 163–253 breeding
adults comprising about 127 tigers in the Chitwan-Parsa protected areas, about
54 in the Bardia-Banke National Parks and about 17 in the
Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve.
Bhutan
As of 2005, the
population in Bhutan is estimated at 67–81 individuals.
Tigers occur from an altitude of 200 m (660 ft) in the subtropical Himalayan
foothills in the south along the border with India to over 3,000 m
(9,800 ft) in the temperate forests in the north, and are known from 17 of
18 districts.
Their stronghold appears to be the central belt of the country ranging in
altitude between 2,000 and 3,500 m (6,600 and 11,500 ft), between the
Mo River
in the west and the Kulong River in the east. In
2010, camera
traps recorded a pair of tigers at altitudes of 3,000 to 4,100 m
(9,800 to 13,500 ft). The male was recorded scent-marking, and the female
can also be seen to be lactating, confirming that the pair are living within
their own territory, and strongly suggesting they are breeding at that
altitude.
Ecology and behavior
A Bengal
tigress with her cubs in the Bandhavgarh National Park, India
The basic
social unit of the tiger is the elemental one of mother and offspring. Adult
animals congregate only on an ad hoc and transitory basis when special
conditions permit, such as plentiful supply of food. Otherwise they lead
solitary lives, hunting individually for the dispersed forest and tall
grassland animals, upon which they prey. They establish and maintain home
ranges. Resident adults of either sex tend to confine their movements to a
definite area of habitat within which they satisfy their needs, and in the case
of tigresses, those of their growing cubs. Besides providing the requirements
of an adequate food supply, sufficient water and shelter, and a modicum of
peace and seclusion, this location must make it possible for the resident to
maintain contact with other tigers, especially those of the opposite sex. Those
sharing the same ground are well aware of each other’s movements and
activities.
In the Panna
Tiger Reserve an adult radio-collared male tiger moved 1.7 to 10.5 km
(1.1 to 6.5 mi) between locations on successive days in winter, and 1 to
13.9 km (0.62 to 8.64 mi) in summer. His home range was about
200 km2 (77 sq mi) in summer and 110 km2
(42 sq mi) in winter. Included in his home range were the much
smaller home ranges of two females, a tigress with cubs and a sub-adult
tigress. They occupied home ranges of 16 to 31 km2 (6.2 to
12.0 sq mi).
The home ranges
occupied by adult male residents tend to be mutually exclusive, even though one
of these residents may tolerate a transient or sub-adult male at least for a
time. A male tiger keeps a large territory in order to include the home ranges
of several females within its bounds, so that he may maintain mating rights with
them. Spacing among females is less complete. Typically there is partial
overlap with neighbouring female residents. They tend to have core areas, which
are more exclusive, at least for most of the time. Home ranges of both males
and females are not stable. The shift or alteration of a home range by one animal
is correlated with a shift of another. Shifts from less suitable habitat to
better ones are made by animals that are already resident. New animals become
residents only as vacancies occur when a former resident moves out or dies.
There are more places for resident females than for resident males.
During seven
years of camera trapping, tracking, and observational data in Chitwan National
Park, 6 to 9 breeding tigers, 2 to 16 non-breeding tigers, and 6 to 20 young
tigers of less than one year of age were detected in the study area of
100 km2 (39 sq mi). One of the resident females left
her territory to one of her female offspring and took over an adjoining area by
displacing another female; and a displaced female managed to re-establish
herself in a neighboring territory made vacant by the death of the resident. Of
11 resident females, 7 were still alive at the end of the study period, 2
disappeared after losing their territories to rivals, and 2 died. The initial
loss of two resident males and subsequent take over of their home ranges by new
males caused social instability for two years. Of 4 resident males, 1 was still
alive and 3 were displaced by rivals. Five litters of cubs were killed by
infanticide, 2 litters died because they were too young to fend for themselves
when their mothers died. One juvenile tiger was presumed dead after being
photographed with severe injuries from a deer snare.
The remaining young lived long enough to reach dispersal age, 2 of them
becoming residents in the study area.
Hunting and diet
Tiger standing
over hunted ungulate in Ranthambore
Tigers are carnivores.
They prefer hunting large ungulates such as chital, sambar,
gaur, and to a
lesser extent also barasingha, water
buffalo, nilgai,
serow and takin. Among the
medium-sized prey species they frequently kill wild boar,
and occasionally hog deer, muntjac and Gray langur. Small prey species such as porcupines, hares and peafowl form a
very small part in their diet. Due to the encroachment of humans into their
habitat, they also prey on domestic livestock.
In Nagarahole
National Park, the average weight of 83 tiger kills was 401 kg
(884 lb).
This sample included several gaurs weighing upwards of 1,000 kg
(2,200 lb). Gaurs were the most preferred choice of prey by tigers in
Nagarahole, making up 44.8% of all tiger kills. Sambar deers were the second
most preferred and made up 28.6% of all tiger kills.
In Bandipur National Park, gaur and sambar together also constituted 73% of
their diet.
In most cases,
tigers approach their victim from the side or behind from as close a distance
as possible and grasp the prey's throat to kill it. Then they drag the carcass
into cover, occasionally over several hundred meters, to consume it. The nature
of the tiger's hunting method and prey availability results in a "feast or
famine" feeding style: they often consume 18–40 kilograms (40–88 lb)
of meat at one time.
Bengal tigers
have been known to take other predators, such as leopards,
wolves,
jackals,
foxes, crocodiles, Asiatic black bears, sloth bears,
and dholes as
prey, although these predators are not typically a part of their diet. They
rarely attack adult elephants and rhinoceroses but such extraordinarily rare
events have been recorded.
The Indian hunter and naturalist Jim Corbett
also described an incident of two tigers fighting and killing a large bull
elephant. If injured, old or weak, or their normal prey is becoming scarce,
they may even attack humans and become man-eaters.
Reproduction and lifecycle
A male and
female Bengal tiger interact with each other.
The tiger in
India has no definite mating and birth seasons. Most young are born in December
and April.
Young have also been found in March, May, October and November. In
the 1960s, certain aspects of tiger behaviour at Kanha National Park indicated
that the peak of sexual activity was from November to about February, with some
mating probably occurring throughout the year.
Males reach
maturity at 4–5 years of age, and females at 3–4 years. A Bengal comes into
heat at intervals of about 3–9 weeks, and is receptive for 3–6 days. After a
gestation period of 104–106 days, 1–4 cubs are born in a shelter situated in
tall grass, thick bush or in caves. Newborn cubs weigh 780 to 1,600 g
(1.72 to 3.53 lb) and they have a thick wooly fur that is shed after 3.5–5
months. Their eyes and ears are closed. Their milk teeth start to erupt at
about 2–3 weeks after birth, and are slowly replaced by permanent dentition
from 8.5–9.5 weeks of age onwards. They suckle for 3–6 months, and begin to eat
small amounts of solid food at about 2 months of age. At this time, they follow
their mother on her hunting expeditions and begin to take part in hunting at
5–6 months of age. At the age of 2–3 years, they slowly start to separate from
the family group and become transient — looking out for an area, where they can
establish their own territory. Young males move further away from their
mother's territory than young females. Once the family group has split, the
mother comes into heat again.
Threats
Over the past
century tiger numbers have fallen dramatically, with a decreasing population
trend. None of the Tiger Conservation Landscapes within the Bengal tiger
range is large enough to support an effective population size of 250
individuals. Habitat losses and the extremely large-scale incidences of poaching are
serious threats to the species' survival.
The challenge
in the Western Ghats forest complex in western South India,
an area of 14,400 square miles (37,000 km2) stretching across
several protected areas is that people literally live on top of the wildlife.
The Save the Tiger Fund Council estimates that 7,500 landless people live
illegally inside the boundaries of the 386-square-mile (1,000 km2)
Nagarhole National Park in southwestern India. A voluntary if
controversial resettlement is underway with the aid of the Karnataka Tiger
Conservation Project led by K.
Ullas Karanth of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
A 2007 report
by UNESCO, "Case Studies on Climate Change and World Heritage" has
stated that an anthropogenic 45-cm rise in sea level, likely by the end of the
21st century, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, combined with other forms of anthropogenic stress on the Sundarbans,
could lead to the destruction of 75% of the Sundarbans mangroves. The Forest
Rights Act passed by the Indian government in 2006 grants some of India's
most impoverished communities the right to own and live in the forests, which
likely brings them into conflict with wildlife and under-resourced,
under-trained, ill-equipped forest department staff. In the past, evidence
showed that humans and tigers cannot co-exist.
Poaching
The most
significant immediate threat to the existence of wild tiger populations is the illegal trade in poached skins and
body parts between India, Nepal and China. The
governments of these countries have failed to implement adequate enforcement
response, and wildlife crime remained a low priority in terms of political
commitment and investment for years. There are well-organised gangs of
professional poachers, who move from place to place and set up camp in
vulnerable areas. Skins are rough-cured in the field and handed over to
dealers, who send them for further treatment to Indian tanning centres.
Buyers choose the skins from dealers or tanneries and smuggle them through a
complex interlinking network to markets outside India, mainly in China. Other
factors contributing to their loss are urbanization
and revenge killing. Farmers blame tigers for killing cattle and shoot them.
Their skins and body parts may however become a part of the illegal trade.
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. For at least a thousand years, tiger bones have been an ingredient
in traditional medicines that are prescribed as a muscle strengthener and
treatment for rheumatism and body pain.
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 trade in tiger parts during those years.
In 2006, India's
Sariska Tiger Reserve lost all of its 26
tigers, mostly to poaching. In
2007, police in Allahabad raided a meeting of suspected poachers, traders
and couriers. One of the arrested persons was the biggest buyer of tiger parts
in India who used to sell them off to the Chinese traditional medicinal market,
using women from a nomadic tribe as couriers. In
2009, none of the 24 tigers residing in the Panna Tiger Reserve were left due to excessive
poaching.
In November 2011, two tigers were found dead in Maharashtra:
a male tiger was trapped and killed in a wire snare; a tigress died of
electrocution after chewing at an electric cable supplying power to a water
pump; another tigress was found dead in Kanha Tiger Reserve landscape —
poisoning is suspected to be the cause of her death.
Human-tiger conflict
The Indian
subcontinent has served as a stage for intense human and tiger confrontations.
The region affording habitat where tigers have achieved their highest densities
is also one which has housed one of the most concentrated and rapidly expanding
human populations. At the beginning of the 19th century tigers were so numerous
it seemed to be a question as to whether man or tiger would survive. It became
the official policy to encourage the killing of tigers as rapidly as possible,
rewards being paid for their destruction in many localities. The United Provinces supported large
numbers of tigers in the submontane Terai region, where man-eating had been uncommon. In the latter
half of the 19th century, marauding tigers began to take a toll of human life.
These animals were pushed into marginal habitat, where tigers had formerly not
been known, or where they existed only in very low density, by an expanding
population of more vigorous animals that occupied the prime habitat in the
lowlands, where there was high prey density and good habitat for reproduction.
The dispersers had no where else to go, since the prime habitat was bordered in
the south by cultivation. They are thought to have followed back the herds of
domestic livestock that wintered in the plains when they returned to the hills
in the spring, and then being left without prey when the herds dispersed back
to their respective villages. These tigers were the old, the young and the
disabled. All suffered from some disability, mainly caused either by gunshot
wounds or porcupine
quills.
In the Sundarbans,
10 out of 13 man-eaters recorded in the 1970s were males, and they accounted
for 86% of the victims. These man-eaters have been grouped into the confirmed
or dedicated ones who go hunting especially for human prey; and the opportunistic
ones, who do not search for humans but will, if they encounter a man, attack,
kill and devour him. In areas where opportunistic man-eaters were found, the
killing of humans was correlated with their availability, most victims being
claimed during the honey
gathering season. Tigers in the Sunderbans presumably attacked humans who
entered their territories in search of wood, honey or fish, thus causing them
to defend their territories. The number of tiger attacks on humans may be
higher outside suitable areas for tigers, where numerous humans are present but
which contain little wild prey for tigers.Between 1999 and 2001, the highest
concentration of tigers attacks on people occurred in the northern and western
boundaries of the Bangladesh Sundarbans. Most people were attacked in the
mornings while collecting fuel wood, timber, or other raw materials, or while fishing
In Nepal, the
incidence of man-eating tigers has been only sporadic. In Chitwan National Park
no cases have been recorded prior to 1980. In the following few years, 13
persons have been killed and eaten in the park and its environs. In the
majority of cases, man-eating appeared to have been related to an
intra-specific competition among male tigers.
In December
2012, a tiger was shot by the Kerala Forest Department on a coffee
plantation on the fringes of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary. Chief
Wildlife Warden of Kerala ordered the hunt for the animal after mass protests
erupted as the tiger had been carrying away livestock. The Forest Department
had constituted a special task force to capture the animal with the assistance
of a 10-member Special Tiger Protection Force and two trained elephants
from the Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka.
Conservation efforts
An area of
special 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 49,000 square kilometres (19,000 sq mi) landscape. 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.
WWF partnered with Leonardo
DiCaprio to form a global campaign, Save Tigers Now, with the
ambitious goal of building political, financial and public support to double
the wild tiger population by 2022[ Save
Tigers Now started its campaign in 12 different WWF Tiger priority
landscapes, since May 2010.
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