Expert: Jonathan Wright - 3/22/2005

Question
These are the questions from the group of students taht are
doing a website on Bengal Tigers.  Please email me back your
answers.  Also if you could include a little bit about yourself so
they can tell people about what you do.  We would also like
permission to link this website to their website.  Thank you for
your time.  Here are the questions:
1.  How do Bengal Tigers react when people are around?
2.  Have you even been in contact with a Bengal Tiger?
3.  Why do people hunt Bengal Tigers?
4.  What are the main sources of food for the Bengal Tigers?
5.  What are ways that we can help save the Bengal Tiger from
extinction?

Thank you so much!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Figueroa

Answer
Dear Mrs Figueroa

Thanks for your questions. I have used various publications and websites to compile the answers.

I have used the following websites: http://www.bengal-tigers.org/ http://www.oaklandzoo.org/atoz/azbentig.html, http://www.bengaltiger-tours.com/abtigers.html http://education.vsnl.com/bengaltiger/ http://www.caribbeangardens.com/Plants_Animals/animal%20files/tiger.htm
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/3785/bengaltiger.html http://www.mtsu.edu/~jpurcell/Walker/Wildlife/tigers.html http://www.bangalinet.com/bengaltiger.htm
http://www.petsencyclopedia.com/critterpages/mammals/exotic_cats/ECT1555.shtml

1.   How do Bengal Tigers react when people are around?

Tigers rarely attack people. They are usually good-tempered and prefer to avoid people and generally give a wide berth to people. Even when provoked, tigers normally give a warning growl and allow the intruder to back off. Tigers may object if a person comes too close to cubs or a kill. If a growl is not effective, the tiger may make a short rush, accompanied by terrifying roars. The tiger will only attack if an intruder ignores these warnings.

Some tigers prey on people. This is usually because the tiger has been compelled to adopt an alien diet, due to injury (such as those due to gunshot wounds or porcupine quills), old age or fights with other tigers. These tigers are not afraid of people and will attack, rather than avoid, people. Alexander the Great complained that tigers attacked his convoy as his armies marched eastward toward the Indus River. Some people wear masks on the backs of their heads, because tigers usually attack from behind.

2.   Have you even been in contact with a Bengal Tiger?

I have seen a few Bengal tigers in zoos, even though they seem to be less abundant in zoos than are Sumatran and Amur (Siberian tigers). A few years ago, a group of London Zoo Volunteers were taken behind the scenes of the tiger enclosure. A keeper called in individual Sumatran tigers into a ‘squeeze cage', where we were able to stroke the females. The male, Martin, was much more ferocious and none of us attempted to stroke him. So, I've stroked Siberian tigers, but not Bengal tigers.

3.   Why do people hunt Bengal Tigers?
Tigers are hunted for sport and for their skin and other body parts. Killing or capturing tigers brought honour and status to hunters, as hunters risked their lives due to having relatively primitive weapons. In the middle of the 18th century, firearms become more proficient and tigers were considered to be pests and an obstacle to the advance of civilisation and agriculture. The tiger came to symbolise evil and to be destructive and treacherous. This led to hunting tigers being a humanitarian pursuit, enjoyed by army officers.

Tigers are killed for their skins and rugs and many tigers are being killed for their body parts, which are used in superstitious rituals or for Oriental medicine. Many body parts are considered to have aphrodisiac properties. Superstition has surrounded tigers for centuries. Necklaces of claws are thought to protect a child from "the evil eye". Whiskers have been considered to be a dreadful poison, which can kill an enemy, when ground up in the animal's flesh (Malaysia), a powerful aphrodisiac (Indonesia), or an aid to childbirth (India and Pakistan). The fat is used as a tonic for rheumatism. If people eat the flesh, it is said that they gain courage and strength. Tiger bones are said to calm fright and cure dysentery, ulcers, rat bite sores and prolapse of the anus. One tiger skeleton may be worth 10 years salary, so people are more likely to become poachers in order to provide money and food for their families. Some cultures believe that powdered tiger bones have medicinal values. Powedered bone may be applied to bones and eruptions under toe nails to protect people against devil possession, boils, scabies, malaria, typhoid fever, bad ulcers and convulsions. Chinese people with rheumatic swellings of joints are often advised to bathe in tiger bone broth. Tiger wine is made from ground tiger bone and is said to give the drinker special strength. A piece of tiger bone on the roof is said to keep devils away and to help cure nightmares. The clavicle or floating collarbone is thought to be a powerful charm against evil. The heart is given to acquire strength, courage and cunning, while the tiger's penis is considered to be an aphrodisiac. If tiger brain is mixed with oil and is rubbed on the body, this is said to cure laziness and acne.

4.   What are the main sources of food for the Bengal Tigers?
Tigers vary their diet according to habitat. They primarily eat animals like wild boars; monkeys; antelopes; goats; young buffalo, gaur and other wild oxen; young elephants and rhinoceroses; rabbits; mice, porcupines and other rodents; badgers; musk deer; gorals; chital, barasingha, sambar, hog deer, sika, roe deer and other deer. Sometimes they also capture fowl and other birds, as well as locusts, crocodiles, lizards, turtles, fishes, frogs and crabs. Bengal tigers can kill large animals, but prefer killing either young, small animals or older animals, since young and old animals are not as fast as the others. When driven by hunger will eat almost anything, including carrion. They may occasionally kill bears, leopards, lynxes, wolves, hyenas and foxes. Sometimes they hunt domestic cattle. Some Tigers may prey on humans, but this is very rare. Tigers which kill humans and cattle are usually  older tigers, sick or injured tigers, which cannot hunt normally, or young adults unable to leave an over-crowded territory.

5.  What are ways that we can help save the Bengal Tiger from
extinction? Obviously, one of the main ways we can help protect tigers is by supporting conservation groups and by not buying tiger skins, tiger skin coats (or the like) or Oriental medicines made from tiger body parts. If people buy tiger products, more tigers will be killed to supply the demand. .  

‘Project Tiger' has established several sanctuaries designed to provide ample habitat and prey for tigers. There are also controls on forestry operations, livestock grazing and poaching. Villages and people have been relocated in order to improve and enlarge the tiger's habitat and the number of prey animals has also increased.

There have been problems with this type of conservation. A few years ago, I saw a TV programme about tiger conservation. Villagers were prevented from growing crops in the reserve. After a time, some of the tigers were poached. WWF complained to the villagers, “Why didn't you stop the poachers?” The villagers replied that, before the reserve was developed, they'd been able to grow crops there. Now the reserve had no benefits for them, so why should they prevent poaching? A compromise was reached, where villagers could grow crops around the boundaries of the reserve and helped conservationists to prevent tiger poaching. This shows the importance of conservationists working with, instead of against, local people. The people of the Buxa are benefiting from investments under the India Ecodevelopment Project, linked to tiger habitat. It is also important to have local people in charge of operations, rather than having ‘foreigners' telling native people how to look after their wildlife. After all, look at much of Europe and North America and the way people are destroying an polluting their natural habitats.

One of the main problems concerns the fact that poor people can obtain much more money from killing tigers than by working in low-paid jobs. Perhaps one of the best ways to help tigers is by enabling people to have enough money to support their families without needing to resort to poaching.

I hope that this has answered your questions.

All the best

Jonathan Wright