Bengal tiger

Bengal Tiger Bengali: বাঘ Hindi: बाघ
Captive Bengal tiger
Conservation status
Endangered (IUCN 3.1)[1]
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),^{[citation needed]} is a subspecies of tiger primarily found in Bangladesh and India. They are also found in parts of Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and southern Tibet. The Bengal tiger is one of the largest and the most numerous of the tiger sub-species, with about 1,411 wild tigers being reported by the Government of India's National Tiger Conservation Authority.^[2][3][4]

Once found throughout the Indian subcontinent, the Bengal tiger's natural habitat has drastically reduced due to their increasing interactions with humans.^[5] Most tigers in India, home to about 50% of the world's tiger population, are fragmented into many small isolated populations making them vulnerable to extinction.^[6]

It has traditionally been considered the second largest subspecies after the Siberian tiger.^[7] It is the most common tiger subspecies, living in a variety of habitats, including grasslands, subtropical and tropical rain forests, scrub forests, wet and dry deciduous forests, and mangroves. Recently, it has been sighted above 4500 masl in Bhutan. The Bengal subspecies P. tigris tigris is the national animal of Bangladesh, while at the species level, the tiger Panthera tigris is the national animal of India ^[8].

Physiology

Previously it was considered the second largest subspecies, behind the Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), however a recent study suggests that maybe this subspecies could be, in average, the largest of the tigers.^[9] The total length for the males is of 270-310 cm meanwhile those of the females is of 240-265 cm;^[10] the tail measure 85-110 cm of long and the height at the shoulders is of 90-110 cm.^[11] The average weight is of 221.2 kg (487.7 lb.) for the males and 139.7 kg (308 lb.) for the females,^[12] however those who inhabit the north of India and Nepal have an average weight of 235 kg (518 lb.) for the males and 140 kg (308.6 lb.) for the females.^[13]

Officially, the heaviest Bengal tiger with confirmed weight was a male of 258.6 kg (570 lbs) and was shot in Northern India in 1938;^[14] however, the heaviest male captured by a scientist at this time is a male of 270 kg (595 lb), tagged in Nepal in 1984.^[15] The largest Bengal tiger, measured between pegs, was a male hunted by Archibald Dunbar Brander, which measured 221 cm of head and body length, 150 cm of chest girth, a shoulder height of 109 cm and a tail of just 81 cm, maybe cut off by a rival male. This specimen couldn’t been weighed, but it was calculate in no less than 270 kg.^[16] Finally, according with the Guinness Book of Records, the heaviest tiger know was a huge male hunted in 1967, it measure 322 cm in total length between pegs (338 cm over curves) and weighed 388.7 kg (857 lb.). This specimen was hunted in the north of India by David Hasinger and is actually in exhibition in the Smithsonian Institution, at the Mammals Hall.^[17]

In the beginning of the 20 century, there was reports of big males measuring about 360 cm. in total length, however there was not scientific corroboration in the field and it’s probable that this measurements were taken over the curves of the body. ^[18]

They are able to stay out in cold weather, because their skin is able to handle the temperature all over in any kind of weather. Its coat is yellow to light orange, and the stripes range from dark brown to black; the belly is white, and the tail is white with black rings. A mutation of the Bengal subspecies — white tigers — have dark brown or reddish brown stripes on a white background color, and some are wholly white. Black tigers have tawny, yellow or white stripes on a black background color. The skin of a black tiger, recovered from smugglers, measured 259 cm and was displayed at the National Museum of Natural History, New Delhi. The existence of black tigers without stripes has been reported but not substantiated.^[19]

The Bengal tiger's roar can be heard for up to two miles (three kilometers) away.^[20]

Genetic Ancestry

The 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 these tigers arrived in India approximately 12,000 years ago. This recent history of tigers in the Indian subcontinent is consistent with the lack of tiger fossils from India 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.^[21][22] However, a recent study of two independent fossil finds from Sri Lanka, one dated to approx. 16,500 ybp, tentatively classifies them as tiger.^[23]

Diet

Bengal tigers are classified as obligate carnivores, meaning that they have a diet of strictly meat. Bengal tigers eat a variety of animals found in their natural habitat, including deer (sambar, chital, barasingha, hog deer and muntjac), wild boars, water buffalo, gaur, nilgai antelope, and occasionally other ungulates (such as Nilgiri tahr, serow and takin, where available); tigers have also been observed eating small prey, such as monkeys, hares, birds (primarily peafowl), and porcupines, but large and medium-sized ungulates provide the majority of biomass consumed by tigers, and are essential for their survival.^{[24][25][26][27][28]} Bengal tigers have also 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 the tiger's diet. Adult elephants and rhinoceroses are too large to be successfully tackled by tigers, but such extraordinarily rare events have been recorded: famous Indian hunter and naturalist Jim Corbett described an incident where two tigers fought and killed a large bull elephant.^[29] Due to the encroachment of humans on the Bengal tiger's habitat, Bengal tigers also eat domestic cattle, and if injured, old, or weak enough, humans. When a tiger consumes human flesh, it becomes known as a man-eater and will prey on humans. The nature of the Tiger's hunting method and prey availability results in a "feast or famine" feeding style. Tigers gorge themselves often consuming 18–20 kg (40-60 lbs) of meat at one time as they may not be successful hunting again for several days.^[30] Bengal tigers prey on vulnerability, so they attack the last animal at the end of a herd, kill it, and then drag the animal's carcass to a safe location to consume it.^[31]

Reproduction

Mating can occur at any time, but happens to be usually between November and April. The females can have cubs at the age of 3–4 years; males reach maturity in about 4 years. After the gestation period of 103 days, 2-5 cubs are born. Newborn babies weigh about 1 kg (2.2 lb) and are blind and helpless. The mother feeds them milk for 6–8 weeks and then the cubs are introduced to meat. The cubs depend on the mother for 1.5 years and then they start hunting on their own^[2][32].

Poaching

The Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) works with government enforcement agencies to apprehend tiger poachers and traders throughout India. WPSI also makes every effort to investigate and verify any seizure of tiger parts and unnatural tiger deaths that are brought to their notice.

The following figures represent only a fraction of the actual poaching and trade in tiger parts in India. The central and state governments do not systematically compile information on tiger poaching cases and the details come from reports received by WPSI from enforcement authorities, work carried out by WPSI, and other sources.

To date, WPSI has documented the following cases:

Figures Obtained from ^[33]

WPSI also has records of a large number of tigers that were "found dead". Without verification of poaching evidence these deaths have not been included in the above figures. To reach an estimate of the magnitude of the poaching of tigers in India, it may be interesting to note that the Customs authorities multiply known offences by ten to estimate the size of an illegal trade.

The illicit demand for bones from wild tigers for use in traditional oriental medicine, coupled with the international trade in tiger skins, continues to be the main reason for the unrelenting poaching pressure on tigers in India. There is virtually no demand for either bones or skins of tigers within India^[34].

Population

The current population of wild Bengal tigers in the Indian subcontinent is now estimated to be between 1,300 and 1,500.^[36] Of these, 1,411 are found in the wild in India^[37] while about 280 are found in Bangladesh, mostly in the Sunderbans.^[38] Over the past century tiger numbers have fallen dramatically. Of eight sub-species alive in 1900, three are now extinct and we have lost over 90 per cent of wild tigers.^[39]

Traditionally tiger censuses in India have been carried out by collecting plaster casts of pugmarks (usually of a tiger’s left hind foot) found in an area during a specified time. These are then analysed, along with movement and other data, to deduce the tiger population. However, this method has long been criticised by scientists and conservationists for being too subjective and open to error. The Digital Pugmark technique is also based on the theory that each tiger leaves a distinctive set of pugmarks. The difference is that the use of the software PUGMARK 1.0 eliminates human error. Digital photographs of a series of pugmarks and stride and straddle measurements, where a tiger has walked in a normal gait, and a GPS location, are taken from a single pugmark trail. This data is then entered into a computer which calculates the values of several variables from the photographs. Statistical analysis of the data creates a ‘profile’ of the tiger, which can be used to identify it from other pugmarks.^[40]

While the Project Tiger initiative launched in 1972 initially reversed the species' population decline, the decline has resumed in recent years; India's tiger population decreased from 3,642 in the 1990s to just over 1,400 from 2002 to 2008.^[41] Since then, the Indian government has undertaken several steps to reduce the destruction of the Bengal tiger's natural habitat in India. In May 2008, forest officials at the Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan, India spotted 14 tiger cubs.^[42] In June 2008, a tiger from Ranthambore was successfully reintroduced to the Sariska Tiger Reserve.^[43]

Habitat losses and the extremely large-scale incidences of poaching are serious threats to species survival. Poachers kill tigers not only for their pelts, but also for body parts used 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 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 the decline of the tigers. In Bangladesh , retired Indian Army personnel are being recruited to save the Bengal tiger from bobadas

India probably lays claim to about two-thirds of the world's wild tigers, according to the Cat Specialist Group. But Indian censuses of wild tigers have relied on the individual identification of footprints (known as pug marks), a method widely criticized for its inaccuracy.^[44]

An area of special interest lies in northeast India where 11 protected areas are found in the Terai Arc, comprising dry forest foothills and dune valleys at the base of the Himalayas. "The whole idea," says Seidensticker, "is to maintain the connection between them, to create a necklace (of habitat) along the Nepal-India border, involving 1,000 miles from the Royal Chitwan National Park to Corbett National Park."

Once a royal hunting reserve, Chitwan became a national park in 1973. New economic incentives give villagers a direct stake in this renowned tourist attraction, with more than a third of revenues from park entrance fees being returned to the 300,000 people living in 36 villages in the surrounding buffer zone. As a result, locals are now creating and managing tiger habitat and consider themselves guardians of their tigers.

Rivaling Chitwan for the title of the world's best tiger habitat is the Western Ghats forest complex in southwestern India, an area of 14,400 square miles stretching across several protected areas. The challenge here, as throughout most of Asia, 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 Nagarhole National Park in southwestern India. A voluntary if controversial resettlement is underway with the aid of the Karnataka Tiger Conservation Project led by Ullas Karanth of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Nepal, with a maximum of 200 tigers split into three isolated and vulnerable sub-populations, reports stability after a serious decline.

To the east of Nepal, in Bhutan, scientists in this small Buddhist kingdom have evidence of a richer tiger population than previously estimated. Camera traps snapped photos of a wild tiger high in the Himalayas, at the surprising elevation of 13,000 feet. This offers new possibilities for suitable tiger habitat.^[45]

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 that zoo-bred, hand-reared tigers can 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.^{[46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]}

Conservation Efforts

A Bengal tiger roams around in Ranthambore National Park, Rajasthan, India. Because of dwindling tiger numbers, the Indian government has pledged US$153 million to further fund the Project Tiger initiative, set-up a Tiger Protection Force to combat poachers, and fund the relocation of up to 200,000 villagers to minimize human-tiger interaction.^[56]

India

The WII estimates showed that tiger numbers had fallen in Madhya Pradesh by 61%, Maharashtra by 57%, and Rajasthan by 40%. The government's first tiger census, conducted under the Project Tiger initiative begun in 1973, counted 1,827 tigers in the country that year. Using that methodology, the government observed a steady population increase, reaching 3,700 tigers in 2002. However, the use of more reliable and independent censusing technology (including camera traps) for the 2007-2008 all-India census has shown that the numbers were in fact less than half than originally claimed by the FD.^[57]

Tiger scientists in India, such as Raghu Chundawat and Ullas Karanth, have faced a lot of criticism 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 (collaring the tigers). Ullas has been instrumental in using camera traps. 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 [5]. In the story, noted wildlife expert George Schaller was 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."

Re-wilding project in South Africa

There is a Bengal tiger re-wilding project started by John Varty in 2000. This project involves training captive-bred Bengal tiger cubs 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 trainer and zoologist), have to teach them how to stalk, to hunt, and, most importantly, to associate hunting with food.

It is claimed that two Bengal tigers have already succeeded in re-wilding, and two more tigers are currently undergoing their re-wilding training. 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 re-wilding project are not purebred Bengal tigers and should not be used for breeding. 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 suppose these four are not among them.^[58] 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.^[59] It is important to note that Ron and Julie (two of the tigers) were bred in the USA and hand-raised at Bowmanville Zoo in Canada^[60], while Seatow and Shadow are two tigers bred in South Africa.^[61]

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.^[62] In short, these tigers do not have any genetic value.^[62]

The documentary has been proven to be a fraud.^[63] The tigers are unable to hunt, and the film crew chased the prey up against the fence and into the path of the tigers just for the sake of dramatic footage. Cory Meacham, a US-based environmental journalist mentioned that "the film has about as much to do with tiger conservation as a Disney cartoon." In addition, the tigers have not been released—and indeed still reside in a small enclosure under constant watch and with frequent human contact. The Discovery documentary contains footage that its maker, John Varty, has admitted on affidavit to be false. Conservationists fear that the public will be misled in this cynical fashion.^[64]

In popular culture

• Cincinnati's main American Football team is named the Cincinnati Bengals.
• The MLB team the Detroit Tigers are nicknamed the Bengals.
• The team from Kolkata in the Indian Cricket League is called the Royal Bengal Tigers.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Panthera tigris tigris

Wikispecies has information related to: Panthera tigris tigris

• Information Resources on Tigers, Panthera tigris: Natural History, Ecology, Conservation, Biology, and Captive Care, AWIC Resource Series No. 34, April 2006, Compiled by: Jean Larson, Animal Welfare Information Center, USDA, ARS, NAL, 10301 Baltimore Avenue, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA. E-mail: awic@nal.usda.gov
• All about Bengal tigers from Save The Tiger Fund
• Sundarbans Tiger Project Research and conservation of tigers in the largest remaining mangrove forest in the world
• Cat Specialist Group on Bengal Tigers
• Tiger Facts
• Discovery Channel website quoting critics of the Tiger Canyons Project (South Africa)
• Chinese Tigers Learn Hunting, Survival Skills in Africa, Leon Marshall in Johannesburg for National Geographic News, March 2, 2005. (An absurd example being given to India regarding safeguarding her Bengal tigers by China. Chinese demand for tiger bones and meat for use in Traditional Chinese Medicine TCM has led to severe decline in Bengal tiger population in India through large scale illegal poaching)
• 21st Century Tiger
• The four faces of the Bengal tiger Picture series, The Guardian, Accessed April 15 2009