Tiger with travelling itch finds home from home

A tiger travelled 270 km from its homestead to establish a new home, baffling experts who are speculating about its migratory route which is dotted by human habitat.

The finding, supported by photographs taken by hidden camera traps, established that the tiger from the Bhadra tiger reserve moved out of its home range and formed a new territory at Dandeli-Anshi reserve.

Scientists and tiger experts in the State are as excited as they are baffled, as the discovery may go to render the camera trap a reliable method to monitor tigers. The finding, resulting from three years of study, began with the camera trapping a four-month-old cub that was photographed along with his sister and mother for the first time at Bhadra in April 2006.In October 2006, a wildlife photographer captured it on camera while it was trying to corner a gaur in the company of another tiger.

The bombshell came in May 2008, when the cub, now a two-year-old, was first pictured at the Dandeli tiger reserve. Yet again in 2009, a camera trap in Dandeli photographed it. The picture was sufficient proof of the migrant tiger having set up its territory over there – 270 km from its native home range.

How did the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) establish that the tiger was from Bhadra?

It is well established that the stripes of the tiger, like human fingerprints, are unique to each animal.

Tigers photographed by camera traps are classified by their stripes for monitoring purposes. The cameras are placed at crucial places where the animal movement is frequent. The traveller-tiger is among 11 individuals trapped by camera at Bhadra, and after it was photographed again at Dandeli, was identified by its stripes. The WCS has created a database of individual photographed tigers.

Scientists say that Indian tigers, governed by the availability of prey, do not migrate for a long distance, unlike the Siberian tiger which tend to travel up 500 kilometres in search of prey.

WCS India director Dr Ravi Chellam said the home range of tiger was believed to be 60 sq km. “This has opened avenues of study, because there is human habitat en route, and it (tiger) could not have travelled as the crow flies,” he said.

By Subhash Chandra NS, Bangalore.

Link - http://www.deccanherald.com/content/...inds-home.html

The present day tiger experts need to look back at history. Anyone who has read the Maneaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett can recollect that the Chowgarh tigress had an area of 1500 square kilometeres of hills, ravines, dense forests and human habitations.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

The Chowgarh Tigress did travel a distance of 1500 square kms but she was a man eater unlike this Tiger that moved from Bhadra to Dandeli traveling around 270 kms. It's quite difficult to ascertain why a normal tiger would travel such a large distance and establish a home range away from Bhadra where the prey base is not that bad at all. It would make sense for the Chowgarh Tigress to move large distances as there would be to many threats for her if she stays put in one place for long and Shikari's would not let her stay in peace in one place for too long. So it makes sense for her to move to different places to launch surprise attacks than in a place where she knows that her life would be threatened.
When tiger sightings goes up and people see them too often I strongly feel as if they are running out of space and their corridors to other connecting forests are not safe at all. Human pressure from all the sides of different PA's are beginning to tell the tales, why would Tigers which are so elusive and prefers to stay away from humans appear so often to be sighted boldly walking on the roads in front of the safari vehicles and so on. What happened to the theories that describe Tigers to be nocturnal's and not diurnal's, as they often sleep the whole day resting and begins patrolling their territories when dusk breaks in and hunting by the night. There is enough evidence to prove that Tigers are as much as diurnal's as they are as nocturnal's, hunting by the day as seen in places like Pench, Ranthambore, Corbett, Bandhavgarh and so on. What happens to places like Namdapha Tiger Reserve, Manas, Nameri and so on do they hunt only in the night as there are hardly any evidences that can clearly state that Tigers in these places hunt in the day as much as they do in the northern landscapes of Pench, Ranthambore, Corbett and so on. I guess the vegetation to quite an extent definitely plays a bigger role in deciding a Tigers behavior whether its a nocturnal one or a diurnal one.

Regards,
Siddhartha

Chowgarh Tigress was a maneater. However, if you look at the total number of kills vs the time frame, the human species was not the primary prey.

It is absolutely not right to draw a conclusion that this tigress was hiding from hunters and hence had to move a greater distance. Unlike the maneating leopard of Rudraprayag, there were very few hunters who had tried to hunt the Chowgarh tigress. The reason is Rudraprayag was on the busy pilgrim route where as Chowgarh was a remote area.

If the preybase is not good, then the tiger has to move longer distances in search of prey. Adolescent tigers move greater distances in search of a suitable territory. Most often they come in contact with humans and get killed. It is good that the Bhadra tiger could move and find a territory.

Tiger is diurnal in nature. It hunts both during the day as well as night. It is due to the relentless persecution at the hands of man, that forced it to change its habit. In the late 1800s, a tiger could be found very close to villages, in small patches of forests and ravines.

Tiger can blend it as easily to the landscape during day, as it can do during the night. Manas, Namdapha and Nameri are more disturbed. So one can easily expect tiger to be more illusive there.

It would have been easier for our tigers and other wildlife, if only our forests had contiguity.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Tigers are known to abandon their kills at times but not all the times when it has been disturbed by humans (Kenneth Anderson) and the Tiger that leaped close to 12 feet to launch an attack at the mahout instead of attacking the elephant (Kaziranga incident) on which he was mounted all of these incidents goes to say how highly developed a Tigers intelligence is. Chowgarh Tigress was a man eater unlike the Bhadra Tiger which moved vast distances inspite of good prey base, a normal tiger usually should not feel threatened by a human being but a man eating tiger who would have survived a shot would definitely be more wary. Tigers can definitely be called diurnals as well as nocturnals as they are equally active at both the times. In 1800s if they were found close to human habitation it was because there were a lot in numbers and it again does not prove that they prefer close to human habitations unlike the Leopard which is at ease in both the dense forest and in the surrounding villages provided there are hills or enough cover around. Nameri and Namdapha are not as disturbed as the other famous Parks because the toll of tourism or over exploitation in the forms of resorts on the peripheries is yet to take place. The only forms of pressure to be seen in Namdapha is poaching by the Lisu Tribes and encroachments near Vijaynagar India's farthest village and most possibly in other areas. It would definitely be a lot safer for our Tigers to roam free if their landscapes are made inviolate as Tigers for sure cannot coexist with the human population.

Having linked corridors is the only solution for our wildlife to exist and thrive. We have seen elephants being killed in their migratory routes. Now the king of the jungle is in question. Its surely is a great feat for the tiger to cover the 270 kms without being noticed and reach the Dandeli Tiger Reserve. I think insufficient prey base at Bhadra can be the reason behind this unthinkable action.

I hope the authorities take notice of this, to take some constructive measures in the future.

I am surprised to hear that the prey base of Bhadra is good. If you visit Bhadra, you will find very few deers and sambars. And they flee even before you can raise your lens. Unlike Nagarhole, Bhadra doesn’t have a good prey density. Neither is the level of protection the same. Poaching continues. Under such conditions, a tiger needs much larger area to survive. Hence, the adolescents have to move away from the reserve seeking a territory.

I am quoting Charles McDougal:
"There is little doubt that relatively high densities were characteristic in the past, when good tiger habitat was far more extensive and continuous, and when there was less pressure from surrounding human populations. Certain choice regions contained incredible numbers. Between 1933 and 1940, Maharaja Judha Shamsher J. B. Rana, Prime Minister of Nepal, and his guests shot 433 tigers in the terai and inner – terai regions of that country. A large number of them were bagged in the Chitawan Valley. In those days there was very little settlement in the valley, which contained roughly a thousand sqare miles of virgin forest and tall grassland, a tiger praradise. During a three week hunt in 1933 no less than 41 tigers were killed. In 1936 the Maharaja had another hunt during which some twenty more were taken from Chitawan. But the biggest hunt was in the winter of 1938-39, staged in the Chitawan Valley and the adjacent tract of terai grassland and jungle to the south-east, near Bhikna Thori. The ten week hunt, to which the Maharaja invited Lord Linlithgow, Viceroy of India, and other distinguished guests, produced an astounding 120 tigers. A careful reading of the account of the hunt written by Smythies indicates that 90-100 of the total were shot in the Chitawan Valley itself. Thus, in three hunts spread over less than a decade, 150-160 tigers were killed in Chitawan. The tiger population cannot have been less than 300, and was probably more. Population losses appear to have been replaced rapidly".

The problem is most of our officials are not even aware that the prey density is much less than it used to be earlier. And hence the number of tigers surviving in a forest patch is much less these days. That is why the Field Director of Kanha was quoted as saying that there are too many tigers in Kanha.

One may have as much love for the tiger or any wild animal; however, the animals harbour a deep distrust for man. Please get down from the safari vehicle and take a step or two towards the animals. You will realise that tiger or for that matter any animal feels threatened by man.

I agree that tiger is intelligent. If someone is waiting near the kill, then normally the tiger doesn’t come back and eat (tigers used to bait is a different proposition though) It would abandon the kill if it finds someone is waiting for it. It may comeback at a later time, when the hunter has left. At times, it completely abandons the kill. However, I am not sure if this point is relevant to the discussion.

Also, I never said that tiger prefers to stay near humans. They were abundant and were also found very close to human settlements. However, they need inviolate spaces. The cub soon after childbirth is very vulnerable when the tigress is away. The tigress shifts the cubs from one place to other if there is any disturbance. And if there is huge amount of disturbance, then the tigress can stop breeding as well. So we definitely need inviolate spaces as well as contiguity among our forests.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi