Thirsty Tiger

Thirsty Tiger

In the wild, tigers mostly feed on large and medium-sized animals, preferring ungulates weighing at least 90 kg (200 lb).They typically have little or no deleterious effect on their prey populations.Sambar deer, chital, barasingha, wild boar, gaur, nilgai and both water buffalo and domestic buffalo, in descending order of preference, are the tiger's favoured prey in Tamil Nadu, India,while gaur and sambar are the preferred prey and constitute the main diet of tigers in other parts of India.They also prey on other predators, including dogs, leopards, pythons, sloth bears, and crocodiles.
In Siberia, the main prey species are Manchurian wapiti and wild boar (the two species comprising nearly 80% of the prey selected) followed by sika deer, moose, roe deer, and musk deer.Asiatic black bears and Ussuri brown bears may also fall prey to tigers,and they constitute up to 40.7% of the diet of Siberian tigers depending on local conditions and the bear populations.In Sumatra, prey include sambar deer, muntjac, wild boar, Malayan tapir and orangutan.In the former Caspian tiger's range, prey included saiga antelope, camels, Caucasian wisent, yak, and wild horses. Like many predators, tigers are opportunistic and may eat much smaller prey, such as monkeys, peafowl and other ground-based birds, hares, porcupines, and fish.

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Austin Neill
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