[FEL-L] Maneating Tigers

[lynxmond at aol.com]

 Hi Gloria,



from what I have read in a couple of exotic cat books, experts do have some idea on that topic. According to these articles, most incidents of maneating tigers are happening in an area called the "Sundabars". It is a mostly swampy area, and not the best hunting ground for tigers. They can survive there, but compared to their normally preferred habitats, it is a borderline habitat. Limited hunting success allows only few tigers, the strongest and fittest ones, to get enough food by hunting deer or boars. Younger tigers or older or sick ones, who are not able to keep and defend their territory against other tigers are pushed towards the borders of the Sunderbars, where human settlements are getting dense. There, the tigers find easier prey like cattle and hoofstock and are getting accoustomed to the smell of humans and losing their fear of humans. Humans also very often enter the forrest and the swampy area in search for firewood, fishing or e.g. collecting honey from wild bees. Once the hunger of the tiger becomes stronger then it´s fear of humans, and when a good possibility arises, then the tiger will try to hunt a human. To them, it´s easy prey, because humans can´t flee as fast as the usual prey and humans are less carefull when walking through the forrest. A tiger could hide just 6 feet away from them and they wouldn´t recognice it. So the combination of very limited access to food, (relatively) high tiger population, limited living space and very high human population surrounding that area causes a high probability for a tiger to become a maneater. And it´s not only tigers, who turn into maneaters... there are also enough reports of leopards attacking and killing children and men.  To protect forrest workers from tigers, people entering the forrest are adviced to to wear a mask on their hind-heads. This mask looks like a human face. Sounds funny at first, I know, but tigers almost always attack from behind. When discovered before they started their ambush, tigers usually retreated. And according to some articles I have read, the masks really seem to work, since the tigers cannot really distinguish between a real face and the mask and are never sure if they are observed or not. I read about an incident, where a couple of forrest workers were wearing those masks and nothing happened, until one of them took off the mask. As they continued their way into the forrest, after only a couple of yards, this man was getting attacked by a tiger and only survived because his coworkers came by and attacked the tiger. He had severe bitewounds in his neck and hind head. What this shows is, that as good as these masks seem to work, people have to use them. But another question is, how long these masks will be able to fool tigers. 





 Hope I could help a bit.

Alex.





 



-----Ursprüngliche Mitteilung----- 

Von: lance at light-tech.com <lance at light-tech.com>

An: felines-l at catbox.com

Verschickt: Di., 4. Dez. 2007, 15:41

Thema: Re: [FEL-L] Maneating Tigers













If I was a tiger in India I would be able to prevent myself from finding out if

they tasted like delicious Curry.  Judging from it not being an isolated 

incident

I'm willing to bet they do! :)



On Mon Dec  3 19:08 , gjpanthergirl at aol.com sent:



>I've not posted before on Felines-L so I'm not sure this is where members will

get to read my comments.  However, here is my observation and question.  Tiger

owners, experts,  handlers and even the general public (some of them) are aware

by now that the phenomen of the unusual band of tigers in India which have

actually become maneaters is unusual, abnormal, and as yet, not understood.  I

would like to hear opinions on how you think this small band would affect the

usual uninformed public about tigers generally, and if you have an opinion 

(which

the "experts" don't even seem to understand), why this small group has taken to

such abnormal behavior as other tiger species.

>

>glo

>

>

>

>

>

> Gloria Noble Johnson

>

>Cougar Ridge Educational Center

>

>www.cougar-ridge.org

>

>

>More new features than ever.  Check out the new AOL Mail!

>







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