Comments on: Tigers In Mysterious America

By: shumway10973

shumway10973 — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:57:41 +0000

So much for Britain being the home of the mystery cats. One would think tigers would be easy to see, but if there is a handful doing the brown color bit…that might cause some alarm. Captive tigers (if from a caring place) could easily be like that black “panther” trying to get into the house. Any cat person could see it just wanted to be home with food. It would be difficult for them to “resort” back to hunting anything substantial enough to not go hungry.
Did past zoos and circus (not to mention the people owning before any laws against it) either allow or never looked for the tigers that “escaped”? get enough of them finding each other (let alone any other large enough cat) and we will start breeding. When the #’s are down in most species, the closest thing(y) will do the job just fine. We have massive coyotes at the family ranch because the red wolf bred with the coyotes. We also have king snakes with rattlers and/or fangs because the rattle snake #’s dwindled enough that mortal enemies mated. There’s no guarantee what the babies have–poison or no poison.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:30:47 +0000

A tiger that was born and raised in captivity is going to face quite a few problems as well as pose a number of potential risks when released into the wild.

Captive bred tigers are known to pose challenges for release into the wild for several reasons. One is that tiger mothers teach their young how to hunt and kill. Hunting efficiency in tigers is a learned skill that takes many months of practice and observation with the mother tiger. In a captive environment, not only do many tigers reject their young, which causes the young to be hand raised by humans, but also there is no need to hunt and therefore no reason for them to learn or teach this skill.

This lack of hunting prowess in captive bred tigers is going to pose several problems. First off, taking down large prey is dangerous business, even for an animal as formidable as a tiger. Contrary to what many may think, large prey items such as deer and even livestock are strong and hard to take down, and have the potential to cause grievous injuries on their attackers. It is not easy. Injuries are bad for business for predators. A bad injury can mean loss of territory, starvation and death in the wild. This is why tigers in the wild, indeed most predators in general, tend to go for weaker prey. Now factor in a captive bred tiger with no hunting efficiency and no idea of what it is doing, and it is bound to get itself badly hurt or even killed trying to take down its own prey. It will have the instincts to attack, but not the skill to do it well.

So, now you have a tiger that is going to quite probably get itself hurt trying to take down large prey. This leads us to the next problem, which is that the tiger may decide to try for easier, weaker prey, such as dogs, cats, or people. This happens in the wild quite often with old or injured specimens so a captive bred tiger released into the wild in an area where humans and their pets are present could easily go this route. That or at the very least it may start rooting around in garbage or hanging out near areas where it smells food, which are likely areas where people are.

This leads to yet another problem which is that many captive bred wild animals, such as tigers, are imprinted onto humans. They have relied on us to feed them and care for them, and so have lost much of their natural fear of us. In fact, they tend to equate humans with food. Due to this lack of fear, they are not going to be wary of humans and may even be quite bold to approach us. It is one of the reasons why feral dogs are so dangerous.

So now you have a hungry, quite possibly injured tiger with nowhere to go that has no fear of humans and is not afraid to approach us. It is not a good situation for us, and it is not a god situation for the tiger.

Release programs for captive bred tigers are carefully planned by trained professionals and even then they are not always successful due to the inherit problems associated with such programs. An escaped exotic pet tiger or one released by an irresponsible owner is a danger to itself and those around it.

If there are such tigers at the heart of these sightings reports, I do hope for the sake of local residents and the animals themselves that they are found and captured for everyone’s good.

By: SIRUPAPERS

SIRUPAPERS — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:02:51 +0000

There are four thousand tigers in the wild and five thousand in captivity, the possibility of an escape going un-reported is very likely…save for one thing: animals kept and bred in captivity are unfamiliar with foraging for themselves and often turn to dumpster diving for food. Large exotic pets eating out of garbage cans do not go unnoticed and are usually tracked down quickly. Since most urban dwellers are removed from daily contact with local wildlife I think the occasional missID is to be expected.