Tags:Tiger Death|Pilibhit Forest|Indian Veterinary Research Institute
LUCKNOW: In a worst case of infighting between felines, an adult tiger was killed and partially eaten by another in Pilibhit forest. The tiger's mauled body was recovered on Thursday midnight from the forest area. The `killer' tiger was so ferocious that it dragged the carcass deep into the forest and ate some flesh from one thigh. The viscera of the dead animal has been sent to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Bareilly and post-mortem report is awaited.
It was a fierce territorial fight. It was around 4:30 pm when the villagers had spotted the carcass of a male tiger lying in Garha compartment 132(b) in Mala range of Pilibhit on Thursday. However, when the forest staff reached the spot to recover the carcass it was found missing. "The carcass had been dragged inside forest by the killer tiger," said VK Singh, DFO, Pilibhit. The foresters earlier suspected it to be a case of poaching. The carcass however was recovered late night from the deep of the forest with its claws, skin and canines intact, thus ruling out any foul play. But its tail was reportedly severed.
The forest officials and experts from WWF and WTI who surveyed the area where carcass was recovered had given a preliminary report. The carcass had its collar bone broken. It only indicated towards the ferocity of the fight. The killer tiger could have dragged its victim from the neck. There are quite a few instances where cubs are eaten by adult tigers but two adult tigers fighting and one eating the other is rare. "Though history has instances of cannibalism in tigers, it is rare," said RL Singh, former director of Project Tiger.
The eating is never meant to satiate the hunger but is an extension of the fight. "It happens in the heat of the fighting and it is mostly a little portion of flesh which is eaten," said Singh. The experts also deny to link the `tiger-eating-tiger' instance with declining prey-base in forests. If that had been the reason ever, tigers would have hunted each other but that's not their intrinsic nature. The males fight over a territory. A robust male has 10 to 15 km of its hunting area called a territory. It guards its area fiercely against other tigers. The tigers might also increase their territory to areas with a good prey base.
A male has at least three females in the territory who individually guard their won small territories within that big area basically to rear cubs. In such an arrangement, young and old males are the only ones who are pushed to the fringes of the forest where there is a lesser prey base. In an in-fighting between two adults, it is the stronger one which survives.
Pilibhit in-fighting could also be explained in the backdrop of the fact that it has a good population of tigers. February 2008 census had showed 36 tigers present over 712 sq km of its area.
No comments:
Post a Comment