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Bengal Tiger

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Bengal tiger

Conservation status

Endangered

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Felidae
Genus:	Panthera
Species:	P. tigris
Subspecies:	P. t. tigris

Trinomial name

Panthera tigris tigris
(Linnaeus, 1758)

The Bengal Tiger or Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris or Panthera tigris bengalensis) is a subspecies of tiger primarily found in Bangladesh, India and also in Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and in southern Tibet.^[1] It is the second largest and the most common tiger subspecies, and lives in a variety of habitats, including grasslands, subtropical and tropical rainforests, scrub forests, wet and dry deciduous forests and mangroves. It is the national animal of India and Bangladesh.

1 Physical characteristics
2 Diet
3 Population and Conservation
4 Genetic pollution in wild Bengal Tigers
5 Re-wilding Project in South Africa
6 Using technology to save tigers in the Wild
7 See also
8 Gallery
9 References
10 External links

Physical characteristics

Male Bengal Tigers measure 275–310 cm^[2] (sometimes up to 360 cm) with their tail. The tail of a large male is usually 85–95 cm long. Their weight ranges from 180 to 270 kilograms (400-594 pounds), with an average weight of 200–236 kg (440–520 lb)^[2]. The heaviest Bengal Tiger ever reported was 389.5 kg and measured 320 cm between shoulders. This tiger was shot in Uttar Pradesh, Northern India, in 1967 by David Hasinger and is the heaviest tiger with reliable source. However, according to Mazak, the occurrence of those exceptional large tigers is debatable and not confirmed via reliable references.^[2] Females are considerably smaller and have an average weight of 141 kg (310 lb), but they can reach up to 180 kg^[3] (400 lb). Males have a maximum skull length of 330 to 380 mm, females 275 to 311 mm. Jim Corbett once shot a tiger called the Bachelor of Powalgarh, with a total length of 3.23 m "over curves" (3.10 m between shoulders), thought to be "as big as a Shetland pony" by the famous hunter Fred Anderson.^[4] Pictures of this cat documented that it was indeed a very large tiger.

The fur of this subspecies is generally orange-brown with black stripes, although there is a mutation that sometimes produces white tigers, as well as a rare variation (less than 100 known to exist, all in captivity) called the Golden Tabby as a white coat with golden patches and stripes that are much paler than normal.

Diet

Bengal Tigers hunt medium-sized and large-sized animals, such as wild boar, sambar, barasingha, chital, nilgai, gaur and water buffalo. They sometimes prey on smaller animals like hares, monkeys, langurs or peacocks and carrion is also readily taken. Bengal Tigers have also been known to prey on young Asian Elephants and rhino calves in rare documented cases. For instance, the World Wildlife Fund is fostering an orphaned rhino whose mother was killed by a tiger. Famous Indian hunter and naturalist Jim Corbett described an incident where two tigers fought and killed a large bull elephant.^[2] Bengal Tigers have also been known to take other predators such as leopards, wolves, jackals, foxes, crocodiles and dholes as prey, although these predators are not typically a part of the tiger's diet. Bengal Tigers prefer to hunt mostly by night, but are awake in the daytime. During the day, the cover of the tall "elephant grass" gives the feline excellent camouflage. Bengals kill prey by overpowering their victim and severing the spinal cord (preferred method for smaller prey), or applying a suffocation bite of the throat for large prey. A Bengal Tiger will usually drag its kill to a safe place to eat away from possible predators. Despite their size, Bengal Tigers can climb trees effectively, but they are not as adept as the smaller leopard, which hides its kills from other predators in the trees. Bengal Tigers are also strong and frequent swimmers, often ambushing drinking or swimming prey or chasing prey that has retreated into water. The Bengal Tiger can consume up to about 30 kg (66 lb) of meat at a time and then go without eating for days.^[5] These tigers normally hunt deer or anything above 100 pounds, but when driven to hunger, it will eat anything, such as frogs, fowl, crocodiles, domestic livestock and sometimes humans.

Population and Conservation

Estimations in 2005 indicate an approximate worldwide population of 4,500 Bengal Tigers: The bulk of the population of about 3000 individuals live in India and Bangladesh. There are about 200 in Nepal and a small, unknown number in Northwestern Myanmar. The Bengal Tiger is now strictly protected and is the national animal of Bangladesh . After the resounding success of the Tiger conservation program in India known as Project Tiger, the population of wild tigers has increased dramatically. The tiger population of Bangladesh is officially estimated to have reached about 3,500 ( unverified), up from 1,200 in the 1970s. In the Sunderbans, a 2004 census found the presence of about 280 Tigers on the India side & 500 tigers in the Bangladesh side.

Bengal tiger

But since the early 1990s, the tiger population has suffered a setback due to habitat destruction and the large scale poaching of these animals for their skins and bones. The Bangladeshi government is trying hard to show the world that the tiger is thriving in Bangladesh, often using controversial techniques like taking molds of paw prints to track tiger populations. It was recently discovered that tigers were wiped out from one of Project Tiger's leading sanctuaries, Sariska, much to the embarrassment of the Indian government. The current population of wild bengal tigers in Indian subcontinent is now estimated to be around 1300-1500.^[6] which is less than half of the previous estimation of 3000-4500 tigers. This estimation is based on the recent state-by-state cenus conducted in Bangladesh on Early August this year. Habitat loss and poaching are important threats to species survival. Poachers kill tigers not only for their pelts, but also for components to make various traditional East Asian medicines. Other factors contributing to their loss are urbanization and revenge killing. Farmers blame tigers for killing cattle and will shoot them. Poachers also kill tigers for their bones and teeth to make medicines that are alleged to provide the tiger's strength. The hunting for Chinese medicine and fur is the biggest cause of decline of the tigers. In India, retired Indian Army personnel are being recruited to save the Bengal Tiger from poaching gangs.<

Genetic pollution in wild Bengal Tigers

Tara, a hand-reared supposedly Bengal tigress acquired from Twycross Zoo in England in July 1976, was trained by Billy Arjan Singh and reintroduced to the wild in Dudhwa National Park, India with the permission of India’s then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in an attempt to prove the experts wrong that zoo bred hand reared Tigers can ever be released in the wild with success. In the 1990s, some tigers from Dudhwa were observed which had the typical appearance of Siberian tigers: white complexion, pale fur, large head and wide stripes. With recent advances in science it was subsequently found that Siberian Tigers genes have polluted the otherwise pure Bengal Tiger gene pool of Dudhwa National Park. It was proved later that Twycross Zoo had been irresponsible and maintained no breeding records and had given India a hybrid Siberian-Bengal Tigress instead. Dudhwa tigers constitute about 1% of India's total wild population, but the possibility exists of this genetic pollution spreading to other tiger groups; at its worst, this could jeopardize the Bengal tiger as a distinct subspecies^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14]^[15]^[16].

Re-wilding Project in South Africa

There is a Bengal Tiger rewilding project started by John Varty (South African conservationist and filmmaker) in 2000. This project involves bringing captive-bred zoo Bengal tiger cubs, and for them to be trained by their human trainers so that the tigers can regain their predatory instincts. Once they prove that they can sustain themselves in the wild, they would be released into the wilderness of Africa to fend for themselves. Their trainers, John Varty and Dave Salmoni (Big Cat expert and zoologist), have to teach them how to stalk, hunt, and most importantly to associate hunting with food. All of these instincts would be taught to them by their biological mothers in the wild. Two Bengal tigers have already succeeded in re-wilding and two more tigers are currently undergoing their re-wilding training. The tiger canyons project is not an attempt to introduce tigers into Africa, but an experiment to create a free-ranging, self-sustaining tiger population outside Asia. From this population, third and fourth generations of tigers can be returned to parks in Asia that meet a set of criteria which give the tigers a chance of surviving in Asia. This project is featured by The Discovery Channel as a documentary, "Living With Tigers". It was voted one of the best Discovery Channel documentaries in 2003.

A strong criticism about this project is with the chosen cubs. Experts state that the four tigers (Ron, Julie, Seatao and Shadow) involved in the rewilding project are not purebred Bengal tigers and should not be used for breeding. The tigers are bred by Ron Witfield, world renowned as having the best breeding line of Bengal tigers, and the tigers' genealogy can be traced back through many generations. However, the four tigers are not recorded in the Bengal tiger Studbook and should not be deemed as purebred Bengal Tigers. Many tigers in the world's zoos are genetically impure and there is no reason to suspect these four are not among them.^[17] The 1997 International Tiger Studbook lists the current global captive population of Bengal tigers at 210 tigers. All of the studbook-registered captive population is maintained in Indian zoos, except for one female Bengal tiger in North America.^[18] It is important to note that Ron and Julie (2 of the tigers) were bred in the USA and hand-raised at Bowmanville Zoo in Canada^[19], while Seatow and Shadow are two tigers bred in South Africa.^[20] The Tigers in the Tiger Canyons Project have recently been confirmed to be crossbred Siberian/Bengal tigers. Tigers that are not genetically pure are not allowed to be released into the wild and will not be able to participate in the Tiger Species Survival Plan which aims to breed genetically pure tiger specimens and individuals.^[21] In short, these tigers do not have any genetic value.^[22]

Using technology to save tigers in the Wild

The Bengal tiger

Sadly, though millions of dollars have been spent in tiger conservation in India, the government of India has not really used latest technological innovations in the efforts. In fact, it was the use of technology itself that prompted the latest outcry against the declining numbers. For the first time in India, tiger census was done in a more scientific manner by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), using DNA profiling and camera traps rather than pugmarks. The new method reduced drastically the numbers of tigers in India, as quoted by the forest department.

The WII estimates showed that tiger numbers had fallen in Madhya Pradesh by 61%, Maharashtra by 57%, and Rajasthan by 40%. Compare this with the government's first tiger census; conducted under the Project Tiger initiative, begun in 1973, it counted 1,827 tigers in the country that year. Since then the tiger population saw a steady rise to reach 3,700 tigers in 2002. Use of technology has effectively curtailed the numbers by half.

Tiger scientists in India like Raghu Chundavat and Ulhas Karanth have faced lot of backlash from the forest department. Both these scientists have been for years calling for use of technology in the conservation efforts. For instance, Raghu, in the past, had been involved with radio telemetry, i.e., collaring the tigers. Ulhas has been instrumental in using camera traps. Even the project to map all the forest reserves in India has not been completed yet, though the Ministry of Environment and Forests had sanctioned Rs. 13 million for the same in March 2004. A recent article written by Shashwat DC and published in the Dataquest Magazine, talks about the issue in complete detail[1]. In the story noted Wildlife expert, George Schaller has been quoted as saying:

India has to decide whether it wants to keep the tiger or not. It has to decide if it is worthwhile to keep its National Symbol, its icon, representing wildlife. It has to decide if it wants to keep its natural heritage for future generations, a heritage more important than the cultural one, whether we speak of its temples, the Taj Mahal, or others, because once destroyed it cannot be replaced. If the answer is yes, then plans can be made and implemented.