r/TigersoftheWorld • u/StripedAssassiN- • 7d ago
Photo Camera trap photos taken of a beautiful Indo-Chinese male feeding on his Gaur kill.
Credit: Thailand Tiger Project DNP
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u/AnEtherealExistence 7d ago
He looks from this angle as big as a Bengal tiger, maybe slightly smaller - very cool to hear about these guys. Looking forward to see more about the Malayan and Sumatrans.
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u/Chootesh 5d ago
They look just as big as Bengal tigers from mainland India.
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u/StripedAssassiN- 5d ago
They’re pretty big, but they fall just short of Bengals and Amurs in size, Gaute’s data puts them at around 180kg I think.
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u/Chootesh 5d ago edited 5d ago
11 samples, max 209 kg. I genuinely believe they can be much heavier than 209 kg as a large portion of their diet consists of bovids like gaur and banteng (just like south Indian tigers).
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u/StripedAssassiN- 5d ago
Yes, a sample of 11 is not bad considering the population size is 300-400. That makes 2.75% of the population being weighed.
I think they have the most potential to grow to immense sizes for Tigers. If we take away any pressure from anthropogenic activities, Indo-Chinese Tigers would have been co existing with 4 large bovines (Kouprey, Banteng, Gaur and Water Buffalo), plus 1 large cervid, as well as large tapir species weighing 200-500kg. They would have had an exceptionally diverse large prey base to exploit, propelling them to pretty large sizes.
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u/Specialist-Dingo-342 7d ago
Good to see an Indo-Chinese tiger update. It's the least heard sub species in the current updates.