Tiger
The majestic tiger was once found in large numbers all over the subcontinent.
It
was feared, misunderstood, admired, and even worshiped as the vehicle of
goddess
Durga. In our own times, when man has all but wiped out this
wonderful animal,
few of us know what a tiger is like up close... At a time
when tigers were
hunted in the name of sport, the Maharaja of Dholpur ordered
a beat. Some two
hundred men formed a wide semicircle, beating drums and
canisters in order to
flush out the tiger hiding in the undergrowth and drive
him towards the hunters
waiting in a vehicle at the opposite end. But the
tiger in question had other
ideas. Instead of running towards the vehicle, he
whipped around and tore
through the line of beaters. In doing so, its right
fore paw landed on the head
of one of the beaters. There was a sickening
sound of bones being crushed and
the luckless man's head and neck simply
disappeared within the thoracic cavity.
The tiger has phenomenal strength
but doesn't use strength alone to knock down
its prey. Essentially a loner,
he believes in stealth and ambush. Thus he
approaches his prey up-wind, so
his smell won't give him away. And he patiently
stalks his prey, advancing
very, very slowly, ears laid back, legs drawn under
him, belly to the ground,
waiting and watching for the right moment. In the
process the tiger takes
advantage of every scrap of cover that the surrounding
bushes and creepers
can afford. Finally, rising to a crouching position, muscles
superbly
coordinated and taut with a purpose, he makes a lightning charge. A
tiger
most often attacks its prey from behind. Laying his chest against the back
of
the animal, the tiger grabs the neck with his canines. As a rule, the
sheer
weight of the tiger is enough to snap the backbone of the victim. But
should
follow-up action be necessary, it includes driving the claws into the
trachea
and hanging on till the animal is choked to death. The tiger makes
good use of
its formidable, retractable claws in capturing and holding on to
its prey. It
looks after those claws too, by sharpening them on tree trunks.
Like a hunter
anywhere, the tiger is merciless, showing no quarter to his
victims. But then,
unlike man, he does not kill for sport. He kills to
survive. A tigress kills for
herself and to sustain her liter. If lives are
lost and blood is shed on the
forest floor, it is a part of nature's plan.
Should tigers suddenly have a
change of heart and turn vegetarian, their prey
species would multiply without
let or hindrance, upsetting the balance of
nature. At the same time, since a
tiger kills only to satisfy a basic
biological need, there is no danger of
tigers wiping out a particular prey
species. But a bit more about the tiger's
eating habits, more particularly,
his table manners. Having made a kill, he
generally drags it to the shade of
a bush where he can eat in peace. He starts
feeding from the rump and hind
legs and is a clean feeder. Opening the stomach
cavity with one swift
movement of its claws, almost surgical in precision, he
removes the stomach
and intestines and is known to carry the lot some distance
away and dump it.
If the kill is large enough, a tiger may feed on it for 4 - 5
days. In the
process he despatches all the flesh, small bones, skin and hair.
The hair
in fact provides the roughage in the tiger's diet, helping the process
of
digestion. Having eaten his fill, a tiger may hide the kill and return to
it
later. Sometimes, being completely satiated, he may not hunt at all for a
day or
two. The tiger is a nocturnal animal. Since he avoids the heat and the
direct
rays of the sun, most of the daylight hours are spent holed up near a
nullah,
lazing in shallow water or snatching some sleep in the cool of a
clump of
bamboo. Hunting time is dusk or later, sometimes just before the
crack of dawn.
But hunting in our tangled forests is no cakewalk. Only
one in ten attempts
leads to a successful kill. True, the tiger himself is
not easy to spot, given
his coloring and the black stripes that blend so
perfectly with the general
pattern of light and shade in the forest. But the
forest has its own team of
watchmen -- the kakar, langur and jungle babbler
-- who are quick to spot a
carnivore on the move and lose no time giving out
the alarm call. The prey
species too are alert, with a highly developed
instinct for self preservation.
Out in the wilds, a tiger is not
necessarily an unfriendly animal. Two adult
males have been known to rub
heads together in passing. But the fact remains
that the tiger is a
territorial animal, marking its domain by spraying the trees
around, much
like a dog. The tiger safeguards its territory, too, by constantly
patrolling
and with the help of that great thunderous roar which, coming from an
adult
tiger, can be heard all of three kilometers away. An intruder into a
tiger's
territory is more than likely to meet with death. For this offence,
many
leopards has been killed and devoured. The renowned authority on tigers,
Valmik
Thapar, as all praise for the mother tiger. According to him, she
devotes every
minute of the first two years of the cubs'' life to feeding and
caring for them.
From suckling the cubs to providing them with a diet of
fresh meat, this is
certainly not an easy task. She not only hunts for them
but, at a kill, keeps
exposing the tender inner layers of meat for her
children to eat. Should the
tiger sense danger to her babies, she'll gently
pick them up by the neck and
carry them to the new den, one by one. A tiger
learns all his skills from his
mother. Thus she keeps twitching her tail from
side to side so the cub may learn
to stalk a moving animal. She teaches them
how to attack, when to attack and
when to give a wide berth. A tigress and
her cubs may play endless family games
but she is quick to reprimand them
with a low growl or a light cuff with one
paw, should a reprimand be called
for. The cubs spend two years with the mother
and then separate. Sometimes
siblings tend to stay together for longer but
sooner or later they go, each
his own way. The droppings of adult male tigers
have sometimes revealed baby
tiger claws, leading to the widespread belief that
a male tiger will not
hesitate to devour its own offspring. Valmik Thapar
reports a case where a
male tiger visited his family every four or five days and
took an active part
in providing them with food. There was no question of
practicing infanticide.
However, if a tigress loses the mate who sired her
litter and takes on
another mate, the new father is likely to make short work of
his foster cubs.
Simply because he wants to father his own and the tigress will
not be ready
to reproduce again till the first litter is grown up and no longer
needs her.
The legendary hunter-naturalist, Jim Corbett, has done much to put
the record
straight in favor of the tiger. According to Corbett, no tiger is by
instinct
a cattle lifter or man-eater because neither cattle nor man form part
of his
normal diet. But sometimes a tiger is driven to attack them because he
cannot
stalk or hunt down his natural prey, either on account of old age or
a
serious injury. Normally a tiger cleans his wounds with his tongue and they
heal
fast enough. But if the injury is deep, as that caused by porcupine
quills or a
stray bullet lodged in the flesh, or if one of his limbs is
broken, the tiger is
helpless. Unable to run and driven by pangs of hunger,
the tiger attacks the
easiest prey -- cattle and man. Thus cattle lifters and
man-eaters are made, not
born. The celebrated wildlife photographers Naresh
and Rajesh Bedi who have made
some spellbinding films on the tiger, once
trailed a tigress for the purpose in
Kanha National Park. They were never
more than 30 to 50 feet away from the
animal but she allowed their team to
follow her closely because they had spent a
lot of time with her and she had
got used to them. But also because she had a
good temper. "Never follow a
tiger if it is stalking its prey!" warns
Naresh Bedi. No story about the
tiger is complete without mention of the Royal
Bengal Tiger, living in
the mangrove forests known as the Sunderbans. Quite
simply, the Royal Bengal
Tiger is magnificent to look at, reddish brown in color
and with broad black
stripes on his head and back. He has adapted himself
beautifully to life in
an estuary, where the fresh water of streams mingles with
the salt water of
the sea. Thus, it is lightly built and smaller than others of
its kind, and
the only semi aquatic tiger anywhere in the world. And that speaks
volumes,
for the tiger, any tiger, is an expert swimmer anyway, known to cross a
mile
wide river in a straight line! The Sunderbans tiger is happy to hunt in
water
because he enjoys a diet of fish, crabs and turtles! Unfortunately,
this
tiger carries a man-eater tag and several reasons have been advanced for
his
reputation. People like grass cutter, wood and honey gatherers must,
of
necessity, venture in to the mangrove forests. Often, these men disturb
a
sleeping tiger or worse, a tigress with cubs, and do not live to tell the
tale.
Sometimes, when the Sunderbans tiger sees fishermen carrying home
the day's
catch, he either dives headlong into the boat or tilts it to help
himself to the
booty. In the ensuing scuffle, some fishermen do get killed.
Experts concede
that the Sunderbans tiger probably has a taste for human
flesh, having drunk so
long at the saline estuarine waters. It has been
observed that these tigers
seldom drink at any of the eleven fresh water
tanks in that area. A significant
detail, but who shall vouch for the truth?
Well I hope that after reading this
you have gained a little bit more
knowledge about the tigers in India and also
have realized that for the most
part they are not man-eaters unless need be.
What animal doesn’t get mad
or defensive when disturbed sleeping (I know I
do). Or even worst what
mother is not overly protective of her kids/young. When
you have an animal
that is this powerful you are going to have people killed by
it. I am sure
you can tell that I am very fond of the tiger that is why this
paper is so
long but I felt that a lot of this info was important and I figured
what the
heck I had four days to work on
it.