IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Sunquist, M. | |
| What is a tiger? Ecology and behavior | |
| 2010 Book Chapter | |
The first radio-tracking study of tigers (_Panthera tigris_) was launched in 1973 in Chitwan National Park, Nepal. At the time, we knew in general terms how tigers made a living, but had little knowledge of the details or an appreciation of the important relationship between ecology and their social-spatial system. Specifically, we were interested in the following questions: In what way do individuals utilize their home range space with regard to resources? What are the patterns of movement exhibited by individuals relative to each other? What mechanisms are involved in spacing behavior? What factors may predispose or constrain individuals to particular patterns of spacing behavior? What is the relationship between home range size and the distribution and abundance of resources? The answers to these questions, and many others examined over the past three decades, provide new insights into the tiger's ability and flexibility to persist in current and changing landscapes. These insights come from a variety of sources, including long-term telemetry studies of tigers in southern Nepal and the Russian Far East, sites with vastly different ecological conditions, as well as from long-term monitoring of tiger and prey populations in Nagarahole National Park, India, and from dietary studies and prey density estimates at other sites in India. The development of camera-trapping techniques has also provided the first reliable density estimates of tiger populations in the lowland tropical rainforests of Thailand, Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia, and Laos. In short, we have a much better idea of what makes the tiger such a remarkable carnivore. In this chapter, I synthesize these studies to describe what we know today about tiger behavior and ecology. I begin by describing the tiger's basic skill set, then review predatory behavior and ecology, followed by population ecology, and conclude with some thoughts about research directions. |
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