Ferocious predators
The
tiger is the biggest and most powerful among the cats and
is such a well-adapted killer that it can take on prey
larger
than itself and win, says Nutan
Shukla
TIGERS, leopards and jaguars are big
cats and they occupy top position in the food chain of
nature. They are considered to be the most efficient and
perfect hunters but the fact is contrary to the belief.
Actually they are not as efficient hunters as one might
imagine. We watch wildlife films which often show the
cream of the hunts, whereas the reality is that the
success is infrequent. A leopard succeeds in running down
an antelope or a gazelle in about one in 20 attacks. The
same is the case of tiger and jaguar. They are solitary
hunters and are able to make only 40-60 kills in a year,
which means they make a kill once in a week.
The reason for the higher rate of
failure is that these cats believe in hunting alone, for
which they rely on the strategy of ambush, taking their
prey by surprise. It has been observed that the animals
who hunt in groups do better. One-third of spotted hyena
attacks end in a successful kill, and wild dogs succeed
half the time.
The tiger is the biggest
and most powerful among the cats and is such a
well-adapted killer that it can take on prey larger than
itself and win. It is a typical cat, with large eyes
giving binocular, colour vision. During the day the
cats eyes are about the same as ours, but in the
night they are six times better. They also have good
hearing, but a less well-developed sense of smell than
dogs. The forepaws have long, very sharp, scimitar-like
retractile claws that can grab and hold on to the prey.
The jaws have strong muscles and large canine teeth that
give the tiger a powerful killing bite. At the kill, the
tiger sometimes grabs its prey well forward, pressing the
head to the ground and using its forepaws as a lever to
topple the victim over. The prey falls awkwardly and
breaks its own neck.
Tigers are usually
solitary predators, but when they are cubs, they hunt
along with their mothers.
The tigers stripes
and the leopards and jaguars spots are
equally effective forms of cryptic (hidden) colouration,
which help them in camouflaging while they stalk the
prey. These big cats usually carry out their hunting
activity during the night. The prey is spotted from a
vantage point, such as a tree or rocky outcrop. The
leopard ambushes or stalks depending on local conditions.
It rarely pounces on the prey directly from a tree. It
jumps down before launching an attack, crushing a victim
before it has time to escape.
Being smaller than the
other big cats and hunting alone, the leopard is
vulnerable to thieving lions and hyenas. To avoid such
situations it drags its prize, sometimes the large
carcass of an antelope, to a stand of trees and hauls it
up into a fork, where it can feed in comparative safety.
The jaguar, found in South
America, looks almost similar to the leopard but it is
slightly bigger and its spots are also little different.
In forests it stalks monkeys in trees, deer and peccaries
on the ground, and fish in rivers. It is said that the
animal wriggles its tail in water to attract fish, but
this behaviour has yet to be confirmed by scientific
observation.
The snow leopard, an
extremely rare cat living in the mountains of southern
Asia, has a few things to catch. Animals are widely
scattered, so these mountain hunters must follow the
vertical seasonal migration of wild sheep and goats in
order to track a meal. In snow, the snow leopard has the
advantage. The soles of its feet are lined with a cushion
of thick hair, which enables the cat to run over soft
snow without it sinking in.
The smaller members of the
cat family ambush their prey in one of the two ways some
patrol their home range and approach the prey stealthily,
while others wait for the prey to come to them.
If snow-shoe hares are
abundant, the Canadian lynx lies on a hunting
bed and pounces on passing animals. When scarce, it
must travel many miles in search of a single hare, and
then creep up quietly to surprise it. It is more
successful chasing over hard snow than over fresh snow.
In soft snow, lighter animals are able to outrun the lynx
and get away,
Another smaller cat
serval, found in Africa, differs from most other cats in
relying on hearing rather than sight to detect small
mammals. It has large, widely spaced ears with which it
can pick up the slightest movement. Once located, the
several pounces, leaping into the air and landing on the
victim with its forepaws. The prey, if not already dead,
is killed with a bite to the nape of the neck. Servals
can also pick up the shuffling of mole rats underground
and they have two ways in which they catch them. Those in
shallow burrows are simply dug out, but those in deeper
burrows present more of a problem. It is solved when the
animal damages the entrance to the tunnel and simply
waits patiently for the occupant to appear to repair it.
As soon as its head appears, the serval strikes.
Fishing cats do not hook
fish out with the paw like domestic tabbies. Instead, the
fishing cat places its face close to the water surface,
peers in to the gloom and then pushes its head below to
grab a fish in its mouth.
Caracals and ocelot
sometimes ambush birds. Stalking does not work, for the
birds tend to flap away. The cats must rush the target
and pin it down with the front paws and claws. Margays
and clouded leopards wait in trees and pounce on their
prey as it passes below.
This fortnightly feature was published on December 20,
1998
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