Tiger Predation on Bears

[mountainlord]

This thread is for the sole purpose of providing good quality and reliable info and accounts about tiger predation on bears, and to clear up many misconceptions about this topic. In some countries where bears inhabit, their considered as apex predators. But in the same forest as tigers, bears are on the menu. 

Throughout history, tigers have always been well known for being a fearsome....



archive.org/details/naturesdeadliest00silb?q=tigers


Food-Chain of the Russian Far East Eco-system


The tiger hunts and kills every single creature in the forest:



Amur tigers are at the top of their food-chain, these tigers have even been reported to eat brown and black bears.

berrysiberiantiger.weebly.com/diet.html


Another Amur tiger food-chain diagram:



Tigers attack and eat grizzly bears and black bears.

Amur tigers are at the top of the food-chain in the Siberian eco-system and have no natural predators.

www.bioexplorer.net/what-do-tigers-eat.html/#Diet_of_Siberian_Tiger

[mountainlord]

Scientific data and studies proving that bears are a very important food source for tigers, especially in the summer months.

Here's a scientific study reported by leading Amur tiger biologists, Dale Miquelle, Linda Kerley etc... showing that tigers consumed more bears than wild boars during the snow-free period:

Across all sites, tiger diet varied seasonally, with tigers consuming more bear, and less wild boar biomass during the snow-free months:





In addition, bears constituted a significantly higher proportion of tiger diet in the summer, and while not significant, badgers increased in the diet of tigers during the snow-free period as well...


The increased predation on bears and badgers is likely due to their increased availability following emergence from hibernation and the increased vulnerability of their young, although tigers do prey on adult bears. Amur tiger predation on bear is not a new phenomenon, but our results, in addition to identifying seasonality in tiger predation of bears, also suggests that bears constitute a relatively large portion of tiger diet, particularly during the snow-free period...





www.researchgate.net/profile/Dale_Miquelle/publication/275837048_A_comparison_of_food_habits_and_prey_preference_of_Amur_tiger_Panthera_tigris_altaica_Timmink_1984_at_three_sites_in_the_Russian_Far_East/links/56635fe908ae418a786bb13d.pdf


Here's a scientific study showing that tigers killed adult brown bears OUTSIDE their dens, and not during hibernation:

Although tigers prey on adult Brown bears, we did not detect predation by tigers on denned brown bears. Brown bear selection of den site and den type may reduce risk of predation by tigers because tigers infrequently used such high elevations (J. Goodrich, Wildlife Conservation Society, unpublished data) and brown bears could likely defend the narrow tunnel at the entrance of an excavated den..





A radio-collared adult male tiger killed and ate a radio-collared adult male Asiatic black bear:




www.researchgate.net/publication/242275352_Denning_ecology_of_brown_bears_and_Asiatic_black_bears_in_the_Russian_Far_East


More data showing that bears comprise a large significant portion of the tigers diet. Claws of ADULT BEARS were found repeatedly in the excreta of tigers:





The suggestion that tigers attack bears only when there is an insufficient amount of its usual food, is not quite correct. Since attacks take place also at their high numbers.




From one of the leading Amur tiger biologists - Linda Kerley

Her email regarding tiger predation on bears: (The quality of her email is poor)

I have been studying tiger food habits for the past 14 years and have found several bears killed and eaten by tigers. Some tigers specialize in eating bears and they will kill both Asiatic black bears and LARGER Brown bears. We radio-collared one male tiger who ate bears all summer and lost weight in the winter presumably because he couldn't find his favourite food. Recently, people have been killing bears because of an increased demand for bear feet and gall bladders, and I worry that this will effect tigers as well because bears are an important food source for tigers in summer.

I've seen tigers prey on all shapes and sized of black bears and up to the LARGEST and HEALTHIEST female brown bears.





Brown bear killed and devoured by a tiger:

[mountainlord]

Account from renowned wildlife biologist and senior scientist - Joel Berger


Joel Berger who visited the Russian Far East reported a case of an adult Brown bear (400-500 lbs) that was killed by a tiger:




books.google.co.uk/books?id=IqoL6t2wYVUC&pg=PA137&dq=Tiger+taking+down+a+brown+bear&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiDrqSYvJjfAhWpSxUIHR0BAp84FBDoAQg4MAM#v=onepage&q=Tiger%20taking%20down%20a%20brown%20bear&f=false


From wildlife naturalist and explorer - Paul Rosolie


The Amur tiger dominates the Brown bears and wolves that share their range:



books.google.co.uk/books?id=ykiGAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA164&lpg=PA164&dq=tiger+predation+on+brown+bear+new+accounts&source=bl&ots=wBALmV0QlP&sig=VAA6N77spBAl4VrSZsTBv4uyXnM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiE0KPgw4veAhUJDsAKHUnnDjw4FBDoATABegQICRAB#v=onepage&q=tiger%20predation%20on%20brown%20bear%20new%20accounts&f=false

[mountainlord]

Large Brown bears killed by tigers


A light tiger killed a large brown bear, and lived near it for about 10 days, until it was eaten:



translate.google.com/translate?depth=1&ei=yhlkSsf9KeOgjAf4r7zvDw&hl=en&nv=1&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dwcs%2Brussia%2Btiger%2Bmonograph%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ru&sp=nmt4&u=https://russia.wcs.org/DesktopModules/Bring2mind/DMX/Download.aspx%3FEntryId%3D3252%26PortalId%3D32%26DownloadMethod%3Dattachment&xid=17259


Note - "Large Brown bears" usually refer to males, which indicates that this large Brown bear was likely a large male bear.


Large Brown bear killed by a tiger





You can clearly see the bear is large in size:

[mountainlord]

The Siberian tiger is able to overcome the huge males of the Russian brown bear:

[mountainlord]

Dale aka M20, the habitual bear-killing tiger


Dale also known as "M20" aka "Dima"... killed FOUR adult female brown bears and one adult male Himalayan black bear:





Out of the four adult brown bears "Dale" killed, only ONE gave him a tough fight, the other bears were killed with no problems: (1997)






Now, in 2001 another different tiger also attacked and killed a large similar-sized adult female Brown bear and killed her after a fight.


Dale (M20) kills an adult male Black bear


The bear tried escaping up a tree, but Dale jumped, pulled him off and killed and ate him for 5 days:



translate.google.com/translate?depth=1&ei=yhlkSsf9KeOgjAf4r7zvDw&hl=en&nv=1&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dwcs%2Brussia%2Btiger%2Bmonograph%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ru&sp=nmt4&u=https://russia.wcs.org/DesktopModules/Bring2mind/DMX/Download.aspx%3FEntryId%3D3252%26PortalId%3D32%26DownloadMethod%3Dattachment&xid=17259


The project tiger nicknamed "Dale" dined regularly on bears:



archive.org/details/tigersinsnow00matt?q=tigers+of+the+snow


Now, "Misha" a totally different tiger killed TWO large equal-sized adult female Brown bears, with no problem:




www.nfwf.org/finalreports1/9144_1998-0093-056.03.pdf

So I have clearly proven, that Dale killed FOUR adult female Brown bears, Misha killed TWO adults and another tiger (2001) killed another similar-sized adult female Brown bear in a fight. Thats SEVEN adult female brown bears killed and eaten by tigers.

[mountainlord]

Tiger hunts down, attacks and mauls a huge brown bear


A Russian hunter/biologist trailed a tiger that was hunting down a huge brown bear:





At one point he turned aside and describing a semicircle obviously headed to intercept the bear. Tigers always do that...





There was blood on the snow, and tufts of the bear's coat all over the place:




I couldn't find the rest of the account, so I don't know if the bear was killed or not, but it shows that a tiger intentionally hunted down, attacked and badly mauled a huge Brown bear. There was signs of the bears blood and fur all over the place but no signs of the tigers fur. Clearly indicating that the huge bear was the only one that was severely mauled and injured.

A "huge Brown bear" is most definitely referring to a very large MALE bear. Only the males of this species reach huge sizes.

Amur tigers are also well known for hunting 'large' and 'larger' Brown bears, (Confirmed and documented by biologists/experts) which also clearly indicates that large adult male Brown bears are also hunted, killed and eaten. At least on occasion.

[DonaldCengXiongAzuma]

I believe this account belongs here.

[DonaldCengXiongAzuma]

[DonaldCengXiongAzuma]

From Carnivora.

Tiger predation on sloth bear.

[mountainlord]

Tiger kills and eats a very large male Brown bear

Account reported by the great biologist/zoologist - V.Mazak

In his book he reported a case where a tiger had killed and eaten a very large male Brown bear along the Sungari river in Manchuria:





This is the English translation of the German writing/paragraph marked in red on the page.

Mazak added:

To complete the information on this giant tiger, I should perhaps mention that Jankowski wrote that the tiger had killed and eaten a very large male brown bear a few days before he was shot, of which only a leg and the head, found by Jankowski, remained."...






This is the tiger that killed and ate the huge male brown bear, shot by the hunter 'Jankowski':





The bear was killed by the tiger in the summer of July 1943. - So this was NOT a hibernating bear.


Here’s a sketch from Mazak, depicting a tiger killing an adult male brown bear:





Another depiction of a tiger killing an adult male Brown bear:

[DonaldCengXiongAzuma]

/\ Do you have an english translation for the whole article? The tiger seems to be huge judging by the weights given.

[mountainlord]

Nov 27, 2019 8:15:17 GMT 5 DonaldCengXiongAzuma said:

/\ Do you have an english translation for the whole article? The tiger seems to be huge judging by the weights given.

No, unfortunately Mazak's book was only published in German, not English. But yes, the tiger was a monster. Jankowski and Mazak stated that the tiger was no less than 300 kg, possibly more. The tiger measured 11 feet and 6 inches in length. They had to cut it up into pieces (40 kg each) just to carry it out of the forest.

That tiger is mentioned in this link here: 

books.google.co.uk/books?id=FPmLjw2ukfAC&pg=PA157&dq=amur+tigers+and+brown+bears&hl=fi&sa=X&ved=

[mountainlord]

Tiger hunting down a large brown bear


We sped along, and as a result almost missed a tiger spoor - yet another one, and in this case along the path. It was following the fresh bear track!...







books.google.co.uk/books?id=SoAM4GvUsooC&pg=PA145&dq=We+sped+along,+and+as+a+result+almost+missed+a+tiger+spoor,+yet+another+one,+and+in+this+case+along+the+path.&hl=en&sa=X&ved=

[mountainlord]

Tiger kills and eats a full-grown Sun bear


The whole of the bears hind-quarters up to the middle of the body had been devoured!





archive.org/details/journalofbombayn121900bomb/page/786?q=bear+killed+by+a+tiger


On a hill-top, the remains of two bears were found that were killed and eaten by tigers:





archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.221321/page/n85?q=the+tiger+hunters


Tiger attacks, kills and eats a large bear

The sand showed ample evidence of there having been a fierce struggle between it and a tiger, which in the end had come off victorious and made a meal off his foe. - The bear was a large one.




archive.org/details/JBNHS19_4/page/n205?q=the+sand+showed+ample+evidence+of+there+having+been+a+fierce+struggle+between+it+and+a+tiger