Wildlife Assignment

+923026243208

M.Mubashar Ali

Bs Zoology

6th Semester

Roll# 1

Bengal

tiger

CONTENTS Bengal tiger

Scientific classification

Interesting Information

Distribution and habitat India

Bangladesh

Nepal

Bhutan

Ecology and behavior

Hunting and diet

Reproduction and lifecycle

Bengal Tiger Current Status

Threats THE LOSS OF HABITAT FOR TIGERS

Population

Competition

Poaching

Human-tiger conflict

Tiger conservation

In India

In Bangladesh

In Nepal

Ex situ

INTRODUCTION The Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris) is the largest species.

It is also called The Royal Bengal tiger (Panthera tigristigris), the national animal of India.

The Bengal tiger's coat is yellow to light orange, withstripes ranging from dark brown to black.

The tail is orange with black rings.

It has exceptionally teeth with canines are the longestamong living felids

In zoos, tigers have lived for 20 to 26 years, which alsoseems to be their longevity in the wild.

They are territorial and generally solitary butsocial animals, often requiring large areas of habitatthat support their prey requirements.

Figure : Bangal tiger

Male Bengal tigers have an average total length of270 to 310 cm (110 to 120 in) including the tail, whilefemales measure 240 to 265 cm (94 to 104 in) onaverage.

The average weight of males is 221.2 kg , while that offemales is 139.7 kg .

The Royal Bengal Tiger of India is justifiably called the'King of the Jungle’ because it is is a super predator andimportant member of the carnivores that once roamedand dominated all of South East Asia.

Tigers lead solitary lives, and the courtship period, andassociation between mother and cub is their onlyinteraction and association.

Tigers are entirely different in their hunting habitsfrom lions, and hence they are mutually exclusive intheir distribution.

Tigers rest during the day in the shade, and begin tohunt for food at dusk.

The Bengal Tiger is also known for its mutations,producing the gorgeous White Tigers that are kept incaptivity around the world. These are white with greyor brown stripes.

A far less commonly known mutation of the Bengal isthe Black Tiger, this tiger’s fur is a very dark charcoal orblack in colour with light yellow or white stripes.

Figure: white mutant tiger

Scientific classification

Kingdom Animalia

Phylum Chordata

Class Mammalia

Order Carnivora

Family Felidae

Binomial name Panthera tigris

Common name Bengal tiger

Interesting Information

White tigers are not a separate species, but the resultof genetic mutation..

The Bengal tiger often walks backward into water tokeep a watchful eye on its surroundings.

Can kill a buffalo weighing nearly four times its ownweight.

Most water-loving,It will even chase prey into thewater.

The roar of a Bengal Tiger can be heard 2 miles away.

Bengal Tigers Purr .Domestic cats purr whenbreathing in as well as out, Tigers purr only whenbreathing out.

Tigers, unlike many other cats, often eat meat that hasbegun to putrefy.

A Tiger is a voracious eater. It can kill the equivalent of30 buffalos a year, and eat 65 pounds of meat in anight.

Distribution and habitat

Tigers appear to have arrived in Sri Lanka about20,000 years ago.

In 1929, the British taxonomist Pocock assumed thattigers arrived in southern India too late to colonize SriLanka, which earlier had been connected to India bya land bridge.

Tigers inhabit tropical moist evergreen forests ,tropicaldry forests , tropical and subtropical moist forests,mangroves, subtropical and temperate upland forests,and alluvial grasslands

(a)India Good tiger habitats in subtropical and temperate

upland forests include the Tiger ConservationUnits (TCUs) Manas-Namdapha. TCUs in tropical dryforest include Hazaribagh NationalPark, Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve, Kanha-Indravati corridor, Orissa dry forests, Panna NationalPark,Melghat Tiger Reserve and Ratapani TigerReserve.

The TCUs in tropical moist deciduous forest areprobably some of the most productive habitats fortigers and their prey, and include Kaziranga-Meghalaya, Kanha-Pench, Simlipal and Indravati TigerReserves.

The total tiger population has been estimated at 1,411individuals ranging from 1,165 to 1,657 adult and sub-adult tigers of more than 1.5 years of age.

in the Shivaliks–Gangetic flood plain landscape thereare six populations with an estimated population sizeof 259 to 335 individuals occupying 5,080 squarekilometers (1,960 sq mi) of forested habitats, which arelocated in Rajaji and Corbett national parks.

in the Central Indian highlands there are 17populations with an estimated population size of 437to 661 individuals occupying 48,610 square kilometresof forested habitats, which are located in thelandscapes of Kanha-Pench, Sanjay-Palamau.

In the Eastern Ghats landscape there is a singlepopulation with an estimated population size of 49 to57 individuals occupying 7,772 square kilometerslocated in the Srivenkateshwara National Park.

In the Western Ghats landscape there are sevenpopulations with an estimated population size of 336to 487 individuals occupying 21,435 square kilometres .

In the Brahmaputra flood plains and north-easternhills tigers occupy 4,230 square kilometres(1,630 sq mi) in several patchy and fragmented forests;

In the Indian Sundarbans tigers occupy about 1,586square kilometres (612 sq mi) of mangrove forest.

(b)Bangladesh Tigers in Bangladesh are now relegated to the forests of

the Sundarbans and the Chittagong Hill Tracts .

As of 2004, population estimates in Bangladesh rangedfrom 200 to 419, mostly in the Sunderbans.

From October 2005 to January 2007, the first camera-trapsurvey was conducted across six sites in the BangladeshSundarbans to estimate tiger population density. Theaverage of these six sites provided an estimate of 3.7 tigersper 100 km2 .

The Bangladesh Sundarbans is an area of5,770 km2 (2,230 sq mi) it was inferred that the total tigerpopulation comprised approximately 200 individuals.

(c)Nepal

The largest population lives in Chitwan National Park.

As of 2009, an estimated 121 breeding tigers lived in

Nepal. By 2010, the number of adult tigers had reached 155.

Between February and June 2013, a camera trapping survey was carried out in the Terai covering an area of 4,841 km2 (1,869 sq mi) tiger habitat. The country’s tiger population was estimated at 163–253 breeding adults comprising about 127 tigers in the Chitwan-Parsa protected areas.

(d)Bhutan

As of 2005, the population in Bhutan is estimated at 67–81 individuals.

Tigers occur from an altitude of 200 m (660 ft) in the subtropical Himalayan foothills in the south along the border with India to over 3,000 m (9,800 ft) in the temperate forests in the north, and are known from 17 of 18 districts.

Ecology and behavior

The basic social unit of the tiger is the elemental oneof mother and offspring.

Adult animals congregate only on transitory basiswhen special conditions permit, such as plentifulsupply of food. Otherwise they lead solitary lives,hunting individually for the dispersed forest and tallgrassland animals

They establish and maintain home ranges. Residentadults of either sex tend to confine their movements toa definite area of habitat.

Male tiger home range is about 200 km2 in summerand 110 km2 in winter

Included in his home range were the much smallerhome ranges of two females, a tigress with cubs and asub-adult tigress. They occupied home ranges of16 to 31 km2.

A male tiger keeps a large territory in order to includethe home ranges of several females within its bounds,so that he may maintain mating rights with them.

Hunting and diet Tigers are carnivores . They prefer hunting such

as chital , deer , gaur , and to a lesser extentalso barasingha, water buffalo, nilgai, serow and takein.

Among the medium-sized prey species they frequentlykill wild boar, and occasionally hog deer, muntjacand Gray langur.

Small prey species such as porcupines, haresand peafowl form a very small part in their diet.

They also prey on domestic livestock.

Tigers approach their victim from the side or behindfrom as close a distance as possible and grasp the prey'sthroat to kill it.

The nature of the tiger's hunting method and preyavailability results in a "feast or famine" .

Feeding style often consume 18–40 kilograms of meatat one time.

Bengal tigers have been known to take other predators,such as leopards, wolves, jackals, foxes, crocodiles.

Adult elephants and rhinoceroses are too large to besuccessfully tackled by tigers.

Reproduction and lifecycle The tiger in India has no definite mating and birth

seasons.

Most young are born in December and April. Younghave also been found in March, May, October andNovember .

Males reach maturity at 4–5 years of age, and femalesat 3–4 years.

A tigress comes into heat at intervals of about 3–9weeks, and is receptive for 3–6 days.

After a gestation period of 104–106 days, 1–4 cubs areborn in a shelter situated in tall grass, thick bush or incaves.

Newborn cubs weigh 780 to 1,600 g and they have a thick wooly fur that is shed after 3.5–5 months.

Their eyes and ears are closed. Their milk teeth start to erupt at about 2–3 weeks after birth, and are slowly replaced by permanent dentition from 8.5–9.5 weeks of age onwards.

They suckle for 3–6 months, and begin to eat small amounts of solid food at about 2 months of age.

At this time, they follow their mother on her hunting expeditions and begin to take part in hunting at 5–6 months of age.

At the age of 2–3 years, they slowly start to separate from the family group

Bengal Tiger Current Status Bengal tiger is found mainly in the Indian subcontinent,

occupying the Bengal region. A small proportion of thetotal population is also seen occupying southern Nepal,Bangladesh, Bhutan, Tibet and western Myanmar.

the status of the Indian Bengal tiger in 1995 was estimatedto be around 3,250 to 4,700, throughout the Asiancontinent.

'Project Tiger' was undertaken, in order to improve thedismal situation. In the year 1989 by the officials of ProjectTiger and Wildlife Institute of India, It revealed that thenumber of tigers had increased to approximately 4,334.

As per the present status of the Indian Bengal Tiger, thepopulation of the species is around 3,000 to 3,500.

Threats

Over the past century tiger numbers have fallendramatically, with a decreasing population trend.

None of the Tiger Conservation Landscapes within theBengal tiger range is large enough to support aneffective population size of 250 individuals.

Habitat losses and the extremely large-scaleincidences of hunting are serious threats to thespecies' survival.

Following are the factor which reduce tigerpopulation.

(a) THE LOSS OF HABITAT FOR TIGERS

In order to live in the wild, tigers need water to drink,animals to hunt, and vegetation in which to hide.

As the mountains, jungles, forests, and long grassesthat have long been home to tigers disappear.

Agricultural expansion, timber cutting, new roads,human settlement, industrial expansion andhydroelectric dams push tigers into smaller andsmaller areas of land.

These forest fragments are surrounded by rapidlygrowing and relatively poor human populations,including increasing numbers of illegal hunters.Without wilderness, the wild tiger will not survive.

(b)Population

Asia's explosive population growth demands that moreand more land be converted to agriculture.

In India, where about 60 per cent of the world's wildtigers still roam, the human population has grown by50 percent in the past 20 years.

Destroy forest that inhabit by tigers.

(C)Competition

As tigers compete with humans and industry for land,they find less and less to eat.

Local people hunt the same prey as tigers do, pressingtigers to resort to domestic animals and, on rareroccasions, even humans.

Threatened villagers often poison, shoot, or snare theencroaching tigers

(d)Poaching The most significant immediate threat to the existence

of wild tiger populations is the illegal trade in poachedskins and body parts between India, Nepal and China .

Buyers choose the skins from dealers or tanneries andsmuggle them through a complex interlinking networkto markets outside India, mainly in China.

Their skins and body parts may however become a partof the illegal trade.

The demand for bones and body parts from wild tigersfor use in Traditional Chinese medicine is the reasonfor the unrelenting poaching pressure on tigers on theIndian subcontinent

(e)Human-tiger conflict The region affording habitat where tigers have

achieved their highest densities is also one which hashoused one of the most concentrated and rapidlyexpanding human populations.

At the beginning of the 19th century tigers were sonumerous it seemed to be a question as to whetherman or tiger would survive.

. It became the official policy to encourage the killingof tigers as rapidly as possible, rewards being paid fortheir destruction in many localities.

In the Sundarbans, 10 out of 13 man-eaters tigerrecorded in the 1970s were males.

Tigers in the Sunderbans presumably attackedhumans who entered their territories in search ofwood, honey or fish, thus causing them to defend theirterritories.

In December 2012, a tiger was shot by the Kerala ForestDepartment on a coffee plantation on the fringes ofthe Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary. Chief WildlifeWarden of Kerala ordered the hunt for the animal aftermass protests erupted as the tiger had been carryingaway livestock.

Tiger conservation An area of special interest lies in Landscape in

the Himalayan foothills of northern India andsouthern Nepal, where 11 protected areas comprisingdry forest foothills and tall-grass savannas harbortigers in a 49,000 square kilometres landscape.

The approach has been successful in reducingpoaching, restoring habitats, and creating a localconstituency for conservation.

WWF form a global campaign, Save Tigers Now, withthe goal of building political, financial and publicsupport to double the wild tiger population by2022.Save Tigers Now started its campaign in 12different WWF Tiger priority landscapes, since May2010.

(a)In India

Main article: Project Tiger In 1972, Project Tiger was launched aiming at ensuring

a viable population of tigers in the country andpreserving areas of biological importance .

The selection of areas for the reserves represented asclose as possible the diversity of ecosystems across thetiger's distribution in the country.

Funds and commitment were mustered to support theintensive program of habitat protection andrehabilitation under the project.

More than 1100 tigers were estimated to inhabit thereserves by 1984.

The Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 enablesgovernment agencies to take strict measures so as toensure the conservation of the Bengal tigers.

Because of dwindling tiger numbers, the Indiangovernment has pledged US$153 million to furtherfund the Project Tiger initiative, set-up a TigerProtection Force to combat poachers.

In January 2008, the Government of India launched adedicated anti-poaching force composed of expertsfrom Indian police, forest officials and various otherenvironmental agencies.

(b)In Bangladesh

Wild Team is working with local communities and theBangladesh Forest Department to reduce human-tigerconflict in the Bangladesh Sundarbans.

Wild Team has also set up 49 volunteer VillageResponse Teams that are trained to save tigers thathave strayed into the village areas and would beotherwise killed.

Wild Team also works to empower local communitiesto access the government funds for compensating theloss/injury of livestock and people from the conflict.

(c)In Nepal

The government aims at doubling the country's tigerpopulation by 2022.

In May 2010, decided to establish Banke National Parkwith a protected area of 550 square kilometres , whichbears good potential for tiger habitat.

Ex situ

Bengal tigers have been captive bred and widelycrossed with other tiger subspecies.

Indian zoos have bred tigers for the first time being atthe Alipore Zoo in Kolkata.

The 1997 International Tiger Studbook lists theglobal captive population of Bengal tigers at 210individuals that are all kept in Indian zoos, except forone female in North America.

THE END