

Nadya (yes, this Nadya http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3945208/), an Amur tigress at Jungle Cat World lets you know that the big chunk of meat sitting before her does in fact belong to her. I reckon she’s communicated that message fairly well and it’s all an important part of tiger behaviour.
Many tigers in zoos, if raised around people, can be fairly easy going. I’ve always had a pretty good rapport with Nadya too. However, when you introduce the element of food, most tigers will display what is called “food aggression”. This is a deep-seeded aggressive response to others around food which varies between individuals, but can be fairly intense in even the most seemingly docile tigers. Get too close to a tiger’s meal and you may find yourself the subject of attack; occasionally, when tiger attacks occur in zoos, it will be during feeding time, perhaps because a keeper had ventured too close or went in with the animal. Other carnivores will show similar behaviour since being aggressive when it comes to food will often help secure a meal in a group setting such as when siblings are present at a carcass or if an intruder has come upon a tiger’s kill. If a tiger lacks food aggression, it may lose a few crucial mouthfuls and could end up starving to death. In large litters of cubs, there is often a cub or two that loses out and doesn’t make it to adulthood. As a result, tiger’s have evolved to be a food-aggressive animal, which is crucial in the unforgiving wilds, where you don’t know when your next meal is coming.
Sadly, Nadya has since moved on from Jungle Cat World to a zoo in Argentina. I definitely had a special place in my heart for her since I had the honor of naming her when she was a cub. I do hope she lives a long and happy life and I definitely miss her.
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Tigers are the largest of the big cats and are exclusively found in Asia from India to Vietnam, from Indonesia to the Russian Far East. The tiger can be divided into 9 subspecies: 4 are currently critically endangered and 3 are already extinct. Though estimations of tiger populations only a few years ago was 5,500-6,000, today populations are likely closer to 3,500 and are still declining. Dramatic declines of the tiger in India, thought to host the majority of the world’s tigers, have fallen to less than 1,411. Overall, the past decade has seen a 40% reduction in tiger habitat, which now represents a mere 7% of its historic range. Poaching is a significant problem throughout the tiger’s range, the demand for its body parts in traditional medicines, tonics, and exotic dishes driving a lucrative trade that is wiping out entire populations. Long-term threats include habitat fragmentation and prey depletion, which is accelerating the tiger’s demise and subsequently reducing the long-term genetic viability of many populations.
[Please fav here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4033509/ ]
Category Photography / Animal related (non-anthro)
Species Tiger
Size 600 x 778px
File Size 520.8 kB
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