IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Kumar, A. | |
| All tigers are not the same | |
| 2007 Sanctuary Asia: 72-73 | |
The classic method used by a tiger to kill wild prey is: Place one paw on the ground, most of the body on the back of the prey and then use the mouth to grasp the lower part of the neck from the opposite side and bite into the windpipe. The prey would then fall, break its vertebrae and die almost instantly. The grip on the neck is not released until the hoofs and antlers stop flailing. Having personally seen this skill in use, one can say, it is not a genetically acquired ability but a learnt skill. So, can such lessons be learnt far from the wilderness, in captivity? Can a captive-bred tiger survive in the wild? Are wild and captive-bred tigers the same species? Taxonomically, yes, both are the same species, _Panthera tigris_. But in every other sense, the answer is an emphatic "no." While wild tigers can become captive, tigers raised in captivity cannot become truly wild. The reason is behaviour specific to tigers and possibly leopards (with rare exceptions, where leopards brought up in captivity have gone back to the wild). The one and only experiment of returning a zoo-bred female tiger cub back to the wild has not been successful and has been highly criticised. |
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