TIGERS AND HUMANS: TOURISM, TIGER HUNTS, STUDIES

TIGERS AND HUMANS

Tigers ranked near the top in a survey in the early 2000s on the world’s favorite animals. They have been deified in religions and starred in ancient myths and folk tales and have served as a symbol for nations, baseball teams, breakfast cereals and oil companies. Explaining mankind's fascination with tigers and other dangerous animals the eminent biologist E.O. Wilson once wrote: "We're not just afraid of predators, we're transfixed by them, prone to weave stories and fables and chatter endlessly about the them, because fascination creates preparedness and preparedness, survival. In a deeply tribal sense, we love our monsters."

Humans utilize tigers for the pet trade, food, ecotourism, research and education Their body parts are source of valuable materials, primarily used in traditional Chinese medicine. Live tigers are of economic importance in zoos where they are displayed to the public and in wildlife areas where they may bring in tourism. Tigers are illegally killed for their fur to make rugs and wall hangings. For more than 3000 years traditional Chinese medicine has used tiger parts to treat sickness and injury. The humerus (upper leg bone), for example, has been prescribed to treat rheumatism even though there is no evidence that it works. Some believe that tiger bones will help them become as strong and ferocious as the tiger. Normally tigers avoid human contact, but sometimes they kill people. Because human populations are rapidly increasing, competition over natural resources is increasing pressure on tigers and their habitat and increasing the likelihood of negative human-tiger interactions. [Source: Kevin Dacres, Animal Diversity Web (ADW)]

Tigers are greatly admired in Asia. There are symbols for South Korea, where tigers don’t even exist anymore, and India. The Hindu goddess Durga used a tiger as here mount. Siva, the Hindu god of destruction, sat in a tiger skin. In China, the tiger is the 12th sign on the Chinese calendar and is widely regarded as a auspicious. Tigers have been known in the West at least since Roman times. Tigers brought in from Turkey were featured in gladiator battles and were used as mascots. Bacchus was pictured on a mosaic riding a chariot pulled by tigers. Nero kept a whole stable of them. In modern times tigers have popped in Winnie the Pooh stories and in Calvin and Hobbs comic strips.

Among the people who live around tigers, tigers are regarded as a blessing for keeping wild boar and deer from devouring crops and a curse for occasionally killing people and installing fear in places where they roam. By the same token, tigers have had enough bad experiences with humans to stay clear of them. For the most part tigers avoid encounters with humans

Websites and Resources on Animals: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; BBC Earth bbcearth.com; A-Z-Animals.com a-z-animals.com; Live Science Animals livescience.com; Animal Info animalinfo.org ; World Wildlife Fund (WWF) worldwildlife.org the world’s largest independent conservation body; National Geographic National Geographic ; Endangered Animals (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species) iucnredlist.org

Book: "Man-Eaters of India" by Jim Corbett (1957, Oxford University Press)

The Tiger By William Blake

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright
In the forest of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What hand dare seize thy fire?

And what shoulder, & what art
Could twist the sinews of the heart?
And why thy heart began to beat
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace was the brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare us terrors grasp?

When the stars threw down the spears
And the water’d heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger Tourism in India

Corbett National Park — one of India's finest tiger reserve — is located in the foothills of the Himalayas in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, Project Tiger was launched in Corbett National Park in 1973 when the tiger population in the park was 44. Since then the number of tigers in the park, named after the famous British hunter Jim Corbett, has increased to about 175.

Vijay Joshi of Associated Press wrote in 2007: Visitors to Corbett National Park — about 160,000 come every year — usually spend two days at the lodge. Lodge officials arrange elephant and Jeep safaris that set out twice a day — once at dawn and again before dusk when most animals come out to hunt or forage. Elephant safaris are highly popular and get booked days in advance. We were slow in booking and had to settle for the Jeep. [Source: Vijay Joshi, Associated Press, April 3, 2007]

in Ranthambore National Park

“Our first day proved to be fruitless. Riding in an open Jeep, we crisscrossed the dirt tracks across the dry brown grasslands and stopped at a spot where a tiger was seen a day before. But patience proved futile and as dusk began to approach we hurried back to the lodge before the curfew. Big mistake. M.C. Klaarwater, a young Dutch engineer on his second trip to India, lingered and came across a frolicking tiger, leaping over the grass, its black-tipped tail up in the air. He even had pictures to prove it. That evening M.C. proved to be the most popular man at the lodge with all residents lining up to see the pictures on his digital camera.

“With renewed vigor, despite near freezing temperatures, we set out at dawn the next day to the same spot and parked ourselves. The stillness of dawn was soon broken by jungle sounds. To us they were just sounds. To our guide, the language was jungle telegraph: a Sambhar deer was alerting its herd and another species, a barking deer, had issued its warning as well. "It's definitely somewhere here," the guide whispered, urging everybody to keep still and quiet. As the minutes ticked away, The warning calls became more frequent. Soon, the white-and black furred Langur monkeys, perched atop tall Sal trees, joined the chorus with loud "keeee... keeee." They could clearly see the tiger from their vantage point.

“Tension mounted as the monkeys' shouts became cacophonous. The tiger was certainly there, but where was it going to emerge from? Suddenly, we all saw a flash of orange and black in the thick shrubs under the trees. Cameras trained and eyes peeled we tracked the blurred patches of galloping color. The rustling through the dry bushes was loud and clear.A gasp went up among the assembled audience — many more people had arrived by then in Jeeps including M.C. — as the majestic tiger bounded through the forest, onto the road in front of us, 50 yards away, before disappearing into the foliage again.

“A young woman squealed with excitement. Men said "wow" in hushed tones, and immediately began to look at their camera screens to see if the moment was trapped in digital magnificence. I did too. And realized with great chagrin that I had set the camera on manual and shot on extreme slow shutter speed. The picture turned to be shaky and blurred. M.C., on the other hand, wisely relied on automatic and got a series of terrific images. He was once again a popular guy back the lodge. Never mind. What I saw that day through my camera's viewfinder will be printed in my memory forever.

Living in Tiger Country

Some say Paduang women began wearing coils around their necks as protection from tigers

Reportedly from Sariska Tiger Reserve, India,Mark Magnier wrote in the Los Angeles Times, “Mention tigers to the residents of Indok Village and you elicit an immediate growl. The community of 300 families on the periphery of the Sariska Tiger Reserve says it has lost 20 cows and water buffalo in the last several months and 1,000 in a generation. For those living at subsistence level and measuring their wealth in hooves, that's seen as a pretty good reason to hate tigers---and their protectors. [Source: Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times, September 8, 2009]

"When the tigers attack our livestock, we're never compensated," said Buddhalal Meena, a farmer in his 40s dressed in a dirty undershirt, jabbing the air with a scythe to make a point. "But if our livestock enter the forest, even though we've lived here for centuries, they levy fines. We never do anything wrong, but we're the ones who suffer." [Ibid]

“The government-run Sariska has a huge stake in reducing the ire of the tigers' human neighbors. In 2005, the reserve discovered that it had no tigers left after poachers made off with the last one. Although villagers say they stopped losing cattle, the ensuing firestorm over the tigerless tiger reserve brought media ridicule, parliamentary inquiries and threats of funding cuts to Sariska. [Ibid]

“Villagers in Indok said they wished the tiger well, but not at their own expense. No one from the reserve has ever come and listened to their concerns, they said. Moreover, villagers are never hired for park jobs and farmers whose livestock enters the forest are forced to pay fines of $12 to $50, a substantial amount to them. The villagers said park workers created fake citations and pocketed the money. [Ibid]

Sharma said tensions and unfounded allegations were inevitable when tigers and humans lived in close proximity. But the villagers don't buy it. "We keep fences around our animals -- why can't they keep fences around theirs?" said Inder Kumer Meena, 24, a farmer. "All I can say is the government cares more about animals than it does about us."

Studying Tigers

picture of Sumatran tiger taken with a camera trap

Tigers have traditionally been tracked with elephants, immobilized with dart guns loaded with tranquilizers and outfit with radio collars so their movements could be tracked.

Tigers spend a good portion of their time concealed in dense bush. Tigers not seen outright can be tracked by listening for the alarm calls of languors, deer and birds and by looking out for paw prints and drags of a kill.

Tigers are captured for scientific purposes, similar to the way they were hunted by Nepalese aristocrats. Once a tiger has been located trackers fan out with 300-yard-long strips of white cloth and direct the tiger through a V-shaped funnel where they are shot with tranquilizing darts.

Tiger censuses are sometimes conducted by making plaster casts of tiger printers which enable researchers to tell one animal from another. Some wildlife officials shun the use of modern methods, like radio collars, because they considered the collars to be uncomfortable on the animals.

Counting Tigers in India

Rama Lakshmi wrote in the Washington Post, “Adding up wild tigers is a major undertaking that the Indian government completed in March 2011 after a yearlong $2 million sampling exercise with 470,000 forest foot patrols and 880 hidden cameras. The cat count, conducted every four years, estimated that the number of tigers in the wild in India has gone up from 1411 in 2006 to about 1706. The government is also investigating and reporting their deaths by sending a ranger team accompanied by independent observers every time a tiger carcass is found. [Source: Rama Lakshmi, Washington Post, April 24, 2011]

“Not too long ago, India counted its tigers through the old paw-print method. But after reports that the method was prone to human errors and fraud, officials adopted camera trapping for the first time in 2006 during the previous census. In the current 2010 census, about 550 individual tigers were identified from photographs based on their unique stripe patterns.”There were three phases. First, we physically collected data about tiger presence through paw prints and scratch marks on trees. Then we examined the condition of the prey and used satellite mapping to assess forest cover. And finally we used camera traps in representative areas,” said B.K. Singh, chief wildlife warden of Karnataka.

Bengal tiger range

“But some conservationists say that about 13 areas sampled this time were not included in the 2006 estimate. And these account for 288 of the 295 additional tigers reported. There were also reports that a few cameras malfunctioned and had to be replaced, thereby increasing the odds for data distortion. The cameras also showed a time lag, with photographs taken only after the tiger had walked away from most of the frame. In many places, the government survey kept the cameras on for more than the recommended 45 days in one spot.

But not everyone is impressed. “Tigers have a very high birth and death rate. You cannot track the decline and survival of the tiger population in surveys conducted every four years. The government should conduct annual surveys using cameras in a more intensive manner,” said K. Ullas Karanth, director of Center for Wildlife Studies and a pioneer in India in using camera traps to monitor tigers in the southwest state of Karnataka. “Since various threats faced by tigers do not appear to have diminished in last four years, it is difficult to explain the claimed reversal of the decline of tigers.”

Nepal Scientists to 'Poo-Print' Tigers

In October 2011, AFP reported: Scientists in Nepal are to build up the world's first national DNA database of the endangered Bengal tiger by collecting and recording a unique genetic fingerprint from each adult's faeces. Conservationists have relied in the past on the old-fashioned technique of photographing the big cat and recording footprints to study the population But the Center for Molecular Dynamics Nepal (CMDN) told AFP a two-year Tiger Genome Project would gather a raft of vital behavioural and genetic information to help conservationists better understand the species.[Source: Frankie Taggart, AFP, October 21, 2011]

"The whole idea is to scoop all the poop and get a genetic database of all the tigers in Nepal," said CMND researcher Diwesh Karmacharya. "In the past they used to use pugmarks -- which are the footprints -- and then they started using individual cameras," said Karmacharya. "There was a census done in 2009 and in 2010 and both used camera trapping. "They both worked really well but the information you get is not too detailed. You won't be able to tell more than how many tigers you have in the area of the survey."

tiger hunt tools

“He said feces would enable researchers to glean the sex of individuals as well as the areas they had come from and a whole host of behavioural information, such as breeding habits. Karmacharya said that although other countries such as India had collected genetic information on Bengal tigers in the past, this would be the first systematic survey of a country's entire population. "The idea is to figure out whether the current boundaries are effective in housing a healthy genetic population of tigers," he said. The information will also help assess the percentage of males and females and whether tigers found dead in the border areas were from Nepal or India.

Tiger Hunting

Tiger hunting was mainly big in India and to a lesser extent in Indonesia. Dutch and British colonists in those countries sometimes killed tigers to assert their supremacy over local deities but mainly it was done for sport.. Tigers were never hunted by Southeast Asian people because many of them believed that tigers have human souls.

Tiger hunting was a passion for both the British and Indian elite. A century ago, India had about 100,000 tigers, and maharajas and British sahibs would dispatch dozens of them in a single hunt. A number of sports hunting companies called shikar were created to meet the demand. Captain James Forsyth of Bengal Staff wrote in 1871 that "although there is much in the sport of tiger-hunting that renders it inferior as a mere exercise...yet there is a stirring of the blood in attacking an animal before whom every other beats of the forest quails, an unarmed man is helpless as the mouse under the paw of the cat."

Col. Jim Corbett, the son of low-ranking Raj official, is regarded as the greatest hunter of man-eatoing tigers. Between 1920 and 1941, he killed 50 tigers responsible for killing over 2,000 people. Among his trophies was the notorious Champawat man-eater. In Man Eaters of Kumaon, Corbett wrote the tiger “killed two hundred human beings, and during the four years she had been operating in Kumaon had added two hundred and thirty-four. [Book: "Man-Eaters of Kumaon" by Jim Corbett (Oxford University Press, 1946)]

In the early 20th century thousands of tigers were claimed by European trophy hunters. After independence in 1947, thousands more were claimed by the Indian elite, When Queen Elizabeth visited India in 1960 she accompanied here husband on a tiger hunt in Ranthambhore. Tiger hunting was banned in 1970.

Maharajah Tiger Hunt in India and Tiger Snare in Burma

Maharajahs shot dozens, sometimes hundreds, of tigers each and decorated their palaces with tiger pelts and tiger heads and posed in front of piles of dead tigers. The Maharajah of Surguju was a very old man when he shot his 1,100th tiger with a rifle balanced on a stick. When he died he had killed 1,157 tigers, many from the backs of elephants. Tiger were still numerous enough in the 1950s when 130 were taken in a single hunt in northern India.

Maharajahs used to hunt tigers with hundreds of helpers and dozens of elephants. They often hunted tigers using several hundred stick-carrying beaters who called out "Bagh! Bagh!"---tiger! tiger! to flush the tiger out of the forest to a place where Maharajis and British sahibs waited on the backs of elephants and special hunting towers o mow dpwn the tiger when it appeared.

Sometimes tethered goats and other animals were used to attract tigers. One maharajah reportedly used elderly widows and small chidlren as bait. Nepalese aristocrats developed a technique later adopted by British hunters in which roles of white cloth, which tigers reportedly will not cross, where laid out to funnel tigers to an area where hunters waited.

“What was to be done about the tiger?"Joseph Rock asked in his March 1922 article, "Hunting the Chaulmoogra Tree." In Burma (now Myanmar) on an expedition to gather rare seeds, Rock — a legendary explorer and botanist — visited a village terrorized by this wild cat. Two women had been killed, another badly wounded, and a two-year-old girl was missing. "All we found was a trail of blood which led into the forest," Rock wrote. [Source: Margaret G. Zackowitz, National Geographic, April 2004]

"I shall never forget how the poor husbands of the slain women worked on that trap," Rock recalled of the snare the villagers set. It got results. "The captured creature's rage was terrible to behold," and after "only a few minutes . . .20 spears ended its savage existence." The next day the grieving villagers woke to find "the sky still weeping over all this tragedy."

Huntiing the extinct Javan tiger

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated January 2025