[abheekg]

Enjoy these different looks of tigers 6 and 7 shot at water hole number 2 and beside the telia lake.

The second tiger inside the bushes was not more than 3-4 meters away from my gypsy and I had to literally stop one of the overenthusiastic participants from becoming its prey.

Fazal saab there is good news from Pench this time : The Baghin nala tigress has a new litter of 2 cubs . I plan to go over to pench shortly to get some photographic evidence.

Enjoy these pics.















regards,

Dr. A Ghosh
09960332228

[gd1418]

Dr. Ghosh,

Amazing pictures.. Does your workshop not bring you to Northern side? For example corbett, Rajaji, Sariska etc.?

[ampere]

Amazing photos ! I know a couple of folks in my office who do this almost like a profession. Really difficult to maintain your tools and keep them intact as well.

But the results are for all of us to see!

[fazalaliadil]

Dr, Ghosh,
That's great news about the Pench tigress, I should have been there by now...tied up here till my nose.
The photographs are a treat, the 3rd tiger closeup, through the foliage is a front page material. The sloth bears look tooooo cute. Just that their black coat absorbs so much light, it makes the camera reading run for cover.
Great time, continue.
Addy,
Thanks, wish there were such ghosts which would haunt and scare poachers, we desperately need these ghosts today.
Regards,

[srikanthpotluri]

absolutely great photos and news thanks for sharing.

[JackSparrow]

Dr.Ghosh,

I have a question? The other day I was watching a program on animal planet and I was shocked to know that tigers in the USA are being euthanized. Over breeding was the main reason behind this and there were ads where people were giving away their tigers for free. My question is, is there any way that we can bring them to India and release them in the wild. That way atleast we could save them. I know there is some rules with animals being imported but could it be done?

[traveloholic]

I belive this would result in cross-breeding. I was reading somewhere about the tigers in Ranthambore, which have mixed genes & are not Original Bengal Tigers.

Each Tiger has different built-up, look different & have adapted themselves to the surroundings, for ex: Siberian Tiger is accustomed to the snow around and is white, unlike our Bengal Tigers, which have a Dark Golden color.

Can Dr.Abheek or Mr.Fazal throw some more light on this?

[fazalaliadil]

Originally Posted by JackSparrow

Dr.Ghosh,

I have a question? The other day I was watching a program on animal planet and I was shocked to know that tigers in the USA are being euthanized. Over breeding was the main reason behind this and there were ads where people were giving away their tigers for free. My question is, is there any way that we can bring them to India and release them in the wild. That way atleast we could save them. I know there is some rules with animals being imported but could it be done?

Jack,
There is no dearth of captive bred tigers in India too, as you know our zoo's are overflowing with them. Should we need to release them in the wild then we have enough stock to fill our parks and reserves. The catch is that captive bred tigers lack the training and skill to hunt down prey that moves at 60 kmph in the wild, as they like their parents have been spoon fed since birth by their caretakers.
Another setback here is the gene-pool which is in bad shape due to inbreeding since decades in zoo's, which means that the negative genes are multiplied in the offspring and the hereditary diseases too.

The same applies to the tigers you are proposing to import from abroad.

In the wild, nature has a way of eliminating or minimizing these deficiencies by fight to mate system, where a male usually has to fight another male to mate, this ensures that the strongest genes are passed on to the offspring.
In captive breeding the mate is selected not by the tigress, but man.

Originally Posted by traveloholic

I belive this would result in cross-breeding. I was reading somewhere about the tigers in Ranthambore, which have mixed genes & are not Original Bengal Tigers.
Can Dr.Abheek or Mr.Fazal throw some more light on this?

traveloholic,
There are many sub-species in Panthera Tigris, Bengal, Malayan, Sumatran, Siberian, South China tiger and the extinct species are Bali, Javan and Caspian.
Your mention about cross breeding applies when the Bengal Tiger is mated with another sub-species from the above.

If there is a mixed strain like you have read in the Ranthambore tiger, it must have taken place many centuries ago or due to some mutation or artificial insemenisation. The last one can be ruled out as there is no record that artificial insemenisation has been practiced on Indian wild tigers.
Regards,

[traveloholic]

The catch is that captive bred tigers lack the training and skill to hunt down prey that moves at 60 kmph in the wild, as they like their parents have been spoon fed since birth by their caretakers.

Fazal Saab, I remember reading once that they are attempting to release the captive bred tigers in the wild by giving them the required training, something sort of a Pre-School training before the child goes to School.

[JackSparrow]

Hi Fazal & Traveloholic,

I too have seen a program on television where captive bred Siberian tigers were trained to hunt for themselves and released in Africa. I'm not sure if it was successful but attempts have been made.
Fazal, I didn't know that we had many tigers in our zoo's. If Siberian tiger could be trained to live in the wild and that too in Africa then why not our Royal Bengal tigers.
Does anyone know if there has been any kind of initiative from the officials to do this?

[gd1418]

The only known instance of raising a tiger cub by a human and then releasing it into the wild successfully, that comes to my mind is about the tigress Tara in Dudhwa by 'Billy' Arjan Singh.

He recently passed away unsung. All his life he fought for Tiger conservation and he himself was accused of spoiling the gene pool at Dudhwa by introducing Tara as she was part Siberian.

It is said that quite a few of the Tigers in Dudhwa are Tara's offsprings.

[fazalaliadil]

Originally Posted by JackSparrow

Hi Fazal & Traveloholic,

I too have seen a program on television where captive bred Siberian tigers were trained to hunt for themselves and released in Africa. I'm not sure if it was successful but attempts have been made.
Fazal, I didn't know that we had many tigers in our zoo's. If Siberian tiger could be trained to live in the wild and that too in Africa then why not our Royal Bengal tigers.
Does anyone know if there has been any kind of initiative from the officials to do this?

Jack,
It is possible and also can be successful should captive bred tigers introduced into the wild. There are various methods to ensure the success rate like, training the tiger to adapt to a new life in the wild, fend for their own food etc.
The proposed intermediary environment has to be something between a jungle and a zoo where live prey needs to be introduced to the tigers who should be in their adolescence learning age.
Monitor their behavior pattern and select which ones graduate and can be finally released into the actual wild after their zoo/ jungle environment phase.
Also keeping in mind that the are not siblings or closely related as this would degenerate the gene pool of the future generations.

Our zoos are overflowing with tigers, to an extent that inbreeding is rampant. Orissa zoo had about 26 tigers, an epidemic had wiped out about a dozen in one go about 6 years back. Hyderabad zoo has over 18 as of now.
The problem is not relocating them into the wild but ensuring that they are not killed after their introduction. The tiger is a human shy animal, the zoo bred tigers are not as they should be which will bring them closer to human settlements along fringe areas of forests and chances are that they will prey on cattle as they are easy prey as compared to the wild herbivores, thus escalating man animal conflict and result in the tiger being killed or poisoned as vendetta killing by the herdsmen or villagers.
Poaching is another factor apart from the various ones such as loss of habitat, depleting prey base etc. that are driving our tigers to extinction rapidly.

Before introducing zoo bred tigers we should first save our free roaming tigers or both will meet the same fate.

Originally Posted by gd1418

The only known instance of raising a tiger cub by a human and then releasing it into the wild successfully, that comes to my mind is about the tigress Tara in Dudhwa by 'Billy' Arjan Singh.

He recently passed away unsung. All his life he fought for Tiger conservation and he himself was accused of spoiling the gene pool at Dudhwa by introducing Tara as she was part Siberian.

It is said that quite a few of the Tigers in Dudhwa are Tara's offsprings.

gd1418,
Undoubtly, Billy Arjan Singh was till his last a dedicated tiger conservationist. The Tara incident too was a disaster, due to the fact that the Siberian/ Bengal Hybrid legacy will only continue in Dudhwa.
Regards,

[JackSparrow]

Originally Posted by fazalaliadil

Before introducing zoo bred tigers we should first save our free roaming tigers or both will meet the same fate.

This is absolutely true.

[abheekg]

If it can add to the discussion and help in some way, we in Nagpur are trying to rear 3 tiger cubs which were found abandoned in chandrapur about 8 months back. The mother was reportedly missing.


On a separate note, I am back from Nagzira where I saw the biggest ever male tiger that I have ever seen apart from a tigress and a 6 month old cub.

Its surely raining tigers in all these parks.

I will be going back to tadoba again this weekend on the 3rd and 4th April.
Let me know if anyone wants to join me. You will only have to share the petrol charges and I will be staying in a very basic village hut on saturday night.

Call me up on 09960332228 if anyone is interested.

Enjoy these recent pics in the meanwhile.











regards,
Dr. A Ghosh

[fazalaliadil]

Dr. Ghosh,
Great going.
What is the cub after on the tree trunk, is it a salt lick?
Is it confirmed that the mother has abandoned the cubs or is she missing? How old are they?
Wish I could be there too.
Your last pic can also be featured in the Official theme photography thread where the current topic is backlit.
Regards,