I'm Coming For You

by Annette Hugen

Title

I'm Coming For You

Artist

Annette Hugen

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

The Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is the most numerous of the tiger subspecies. By 2011, the total population was estimated at fewer than 2,500 individuals with a decreasing trend. None of the Tiger Conservation Landscapes within the Bengal tiger's range is considered large enough to support an effective population size of 250 adult individuals. Since 2010, it is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.[1] An example of Charismatic megafauna, the Bengal tiger is the most familiar tiger subspecies, as well as the second largest subspecies, after the Siberian tiger. By 2010, Bengal tiger populations in India were estimated at 1,706–1,909. As of 2014, they had reputedly increased to an estimated 2,226 individuals.
Bengal tigers number around 440 in Bangladesh and 163–253 in Nepal. Prior censuses placed the tiger population in Bhutan at around 65–75 individuals. In 2015, it was estimated that 103 Bengal tigers were living in the country.

The Bengal, Caspian, and Siberian tigers rank among the biggest cats.The Bengal tiger is the national animal of both India and Bangladesh.

The Bengal tiger's coat is yellow to light orange, with stripes ranging from dark brown to black; the belly and the interior parts of the limbs are white, and the tail is orange with black rings. The white tiger is a recessive mutant of the Bengal tiger, which is reported in the wild from time to time in Assam, Bengal, Bihar, and especially from the former State of Rewa. However, it is not to be mistaken as an occurrence of albinism. In fact, there is only one fully authenticated case of a true albino tiger, and none of black tigers, with the possible exception of one dead specimen examined in Chittagong in 1846.

Male Bengal tigers have an average total length of 270 to 310 cm (110 to 120 in) including the tail, while females measure 240 to 265 cm (94 to 104 in) on average. The tail is typically 85 to 110 cm (33 to 43 in) long, and on average, tigers are 90 to 110 cm (35 to 43 in) in height at the shoulders. The weight of males ranges from 180 to 258 kg (397 to 569 lb), while that of the females ranges from 100 to 160 kg (220 to 350 lb). The smallest recorded weights for Bengal tigers are from the Bangladesh Sundarbans, where adult females are 75 to 80 kg (165 to 176 lb). Bengal tigers have exceptionally stout teeth, and the canines are the longest among all living felids; measuring from 7.5 to 10 cm (3.0 to 3.9 in) in length.

Tigers are carnivores. They prefer hunting large ungulates such as chital, sambar, gaur, and to a lesser extent also barasingha, water buffalo, nilgai, serow and takin. Among the medium-sized prey species they frequently kill wild boar, and occasionally hog deer, muntjac and grey langur. Small prey species such as porcupines, hares and peafowl form a very small part in their diet. Because of the encroachment of humans into their habitat, they also prey on domestic livestock.

In Nagarahole National Park, the average weight of 83 tiger kills was 401 kg (884 lb). This sample included several gaurs weighing upwards of 1,000 kg (2,200 lb). Gaurs were the most preferred choice of prey by tigers in Nagarahole, making up 44.8% of all tiger kills. Sambar deer were the second most preferred and made up 28.6% of all tiger kills. In Bandipur National Park, gaur and sambar together also constituted 73% of their diet.

In most cases, tigers approach their victim from the side or behind from as close a distance as possible and grasp the prey's throat to kill it. Then they drag the carcass into cover, occasionally over several hundred meters, to consume it. The nature of the tiger's hunting method and prey availability results in a "feast or famine" feeding style: they often consume 18–40 kilograms (40–88 lb) of meat at one time.

Bengal tigers have 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 their diet. They rarely attack adult elephants and rhinoceroses but such extraordinarily rare events have been recorded. The British-Indian hunter and naturalist Jim Corbett also described an incident of two tigers fighting and killing a large bull elephant. If injured, old or weak, or their normal prey is becoming scarce, they may even attack humans and become man-eaters.

The most significant immediate threat to the existence of wild tiger populations is the illegal trade in poached skins and body parts between India, Nepal and China. The governments of these countries have failed to implement adequate enforcement response, and wildlife crime remained a low priority in terms of political commitment and investment for years. There are well-organised gangs of professional poachers, who move from place to place and set up camp in vulnerable areas. Skins are rough-cured in the field and handed over to dealers, who send them for further treatment to Indian tanning centres. Buyers choose the skins from dealers or tanneries and smuggle them through a complex interlinking network to markets outside India, mainly in China. Other factors contributing to their loss are urbanization and revenge killing. Farmers blame tigers for killing cattle and shoot them. Their skins and body parts may however become a part of the illegal trade. In Bangladesh, tigers are killed by professional poachers, local hunters, trappers, pirates and villagers. Each group of people has different motives for killing tigers, ranging from profit, excitement to safety concerns. All groups have access to the commercial trade in body parts.

The illicit demand for bones and body parts from wild tigers for use in Traditional Chinese medicine is the reason for the unrelenting poaching pressure on tigers on the Indian subcontinent. For at least a thousand years, tiger bones have been an ingredient in traditional medicines that are prescribed as a muscle strengthener and treatment for rheumatism and body pain.
Between 1994 and 2009, the Wildlife Protection Society of India has documented 893 cases of tigers killed in India, which is just a fraction of the actual poaching and trade in tiger parts during those years.
In 2006, India's Sariska Tiger Reserve lost all of its 26 tigers, mostly to poaching. In 2007, police in Allahabad raided a meeting of suspected poachers, traders and couriers. One of the arrested persons was the biggest buyer of tiger parts in India who used to sell them off to the Chinese traditional medicinal market, using women from a nomadic tribe as couriers. In 2009, none of the 24 tigers residing in the Panna Tiger Reserve were left because of excessive poaching. In November 2011, two tigers were found dead in Maharashtra: a male tiger was trapped and killed in a wire snare; a tigress died of electrocution after chewing at an electric cable supplying power to a water pump; another tigress was found dead in Kanha Tiger Reserve landscape — poisoning is suspected to be the cause of her death.

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August 13th, 2017

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