Tigers and lions are representative of the felines and the top predators on land, but few people know how much they can hunt.
The main prey of tiger lions is ungulate herbivores, including even-ungulates, proboscis, and odd-hoofed orders.
The largest number of species of even-hoofed orders include hundreds of herbivores such as bovine, pig, deer, camel, hippopotamus, etc., accounting for 90% of the existing ungulates, and even cetaceans belong to the order Even-hoofed. There are only three species in one family, namely three elephants, the African savannah elephant, the Asian elephant, and the African forest elephant, and these three species are also the top three terrestrial animals in existence. The order Chithus was once in full bloom, but then the climate changed, the species withered, and only three families existed, rhinoceros, horse family, tapir family, a total of 17 species.
These ungulates are the main hunting objects of tigers and lions, and for the time being, those that can exceed 1 ton are called megafauna, and this article will briefly take stock of the hunting records of tigers and lions for the giant animals.
<h1>The first is the tiger</h1>
In modern times, tigers are distributed in eastern, southeastern, southern and central Asia. In the past hundred years, the habitat of tigers has been severely compressed, the wild population has plummeted by more than 95%, and three subspecies have become extinct. But it is also in the past hundred years that people have begun to study tigers and have a deeper understanding of their ecological status and ecological behavior.
There are three main distribution areas of wild tigers, one in eastern Asia at the junction of China and Russia, one in South Asia and the southern foothills of the Himalayas, and the last in Southeast Asia. Large ungulates that coexist with tigers include Asian elephants, Indian rhinos, Asian buffaloes, white-limbed bison, wild boars, and red deer.
There are very few large herbivores in the living area of the Siberian tiger, and the Siberian tiger has killed 418 kilograms of domestic cattle and 450 kilograms of domestic horses, but this cannot see the hunting limit of the Siberian tiger.
There are many giant beasts in the bengal tiger's living area, and the Bengal tiger has also set a record for the highest hunting record of tigers.
Jim Corbett (after whom the Corbbit Tiger Reserve in India is named) reported in 1953 that a male and a female and two Mon tigers had collaborated in hunting a bull elephant with huge tusks, known as the "Double Tiger Killing Tusk", which was collected in many sources, including Wild Cats by the IUCN Cats Expert Group.
In December 2009, a group of about 70 Asian elephants in India ran into paddy fields to wreak havoc, and the forest department drove the elephants into the swamps. At night, a Bengal tiger sneaks into the swamp, kills a bison, and then attacks a large bull elephant. Villagers found the injured elephant the next morning, and the forest department confirmed that Meng Hu had been injured.
In 2011, it was reported that Meng Hu had killed a 20-year-old female elephant in Kobit National Park.
In 2013, a Bengal tiger hunted a 7-year-old male elephant that had grown tusks, and according to the growth curve of Asian elephants, the 7-year-old male elephant was 1.7-1.9 meters tall on the shoulders and weighed 1.3-1.5 tons.
In 2014-2019, official reports from Corbett National Park showed that Meng Hu killed a total of 13 elephants during this time, most of them juvenile elephants.
2014 Report: A 28-year-old elephant named Knowar was killed by a tiger family in Kazilanga National Park.
In May 2017, the Hindustan Times reported that a total of 18 elephants had died in four months at the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala, of which at least six had been killed by Meng Hu.
There are many more incidents of Meng Hu killing elephants, and some of them are difficult to distinguish between true and false, so I will not list them one by one.
In addition to elephants, South Asia also has a ton-sized behemoth, the Indian rhinoceros.
Statistics show that between 1982 and 2014, a total of 472 Indian rhinos in Kazilanga National Park were killed by Meng Hu, which is a staggering number. From 1985 to 1995, a total of 178 Indian rhinos were killed by Meng Hu, and 149 were rhino calves. The Bengal tiger became the biggest threat to the Indian rhinoceros after poaching.
In February 2008, a pregnant female rhino was killed by Meng Hu in the Baghr Mountains.
In 2011, a 35-year-old male rhino was killed by a tiger.
In the Dudwa Reserve in India, a male tiger named Rhino Killer, with his wife and two descendants, a family of four killed a male rhinoceros about 20 years old, and this male tiger killed a total of 5 rhinos.
When it comes to Meng Hu killing rhinos, we have to mention kzt085, which killed a 20-year-old female rhino in 2017 and a two-and-a-half-year-old male tiger that came to steal food. At first, people thought that Meng Hu and Rhino had died together, but it was clear that the two-and-a-half-year-old male tiger did not have the ability to kill adult rhinos, and it was later confirmed that Kzt085 did it. Indian rhinos average about 1.6 tonnes of adult females and 20-year-old females around 2 tonnes.
There are many more incidents of Meng Hu killing rhinos, so I will not say more. In contrast, Meng Hu's killing of white limbs was a small meaning.
Thai Indochinese tigers hunt white-limbed bison
As early as 1939, Pocock recorded that a Burmese tiger dragged away a huge white-limbed bison, and this white-limbed bison could not be dragged by 13 adults, estimated to be 1 ton. In recent years, there have also been many cases of Meng Hu killing white limbs, and a large number of online searches can be found. Smaller numbers of Wild Asian buffalo have also been recorded being hunted by Meng Hu.
Tiger hunting methods of giant animals are different, tigers hunting small prey will bite the throat, quick battle, hunting giant animals is obviously not OK, can only fight a war of attrition, but so far there is no scene of Meng Hu hunting giant animals, but judging by wounds, it can only be Meng Hu's doing.
<h1>The Lion's record</h1>
The main distribution area of lions is currently in Africa, where the species, number and density of ungulates are by no means comparable to those in Asia, and there are more tonnage behemoths, including steppe elephants, forest elephants (which cannot meet with lions), white rhinos, large hippos, giraffes, black rhinos, and two kinds of large antelopes that can exceed 900 kg, the Elan giant antelope has a measured record of 943 kg, the German-style great antelope has a measured record of 907 kg, and there are also 850 kg of African buffaloes with a limit of 850 kg, and there are many half-ton herbivores.
Female lions kill half-ton giraffes in seconds
These large numbers of herbivorous behemoths give lions the opportunity to capture the highest hunting record in the feline family, but the lion's sociality affects its ability to kill alone, although the average weight of lion prey is the largest among cats.
In South Africa's Kruger National Park, 140 male lion hunts were recorded, with an average prey weight of 399 kg, and female lions were recorded 1989 hunts, with an average prey weight of 126 kg.
Pienaar studied 46,181 hunts in Kruger Park during the 1933-1946 and 1954-1966 periods, and observed lions killing 675 giraffes. In the next two years, lions killed another 108 giraffes, of which 56 percent were males, 31 percent were females, and the rest were unrecognizable. Of these, 64 are only adults, 18 are sub-adults, and the rest are unrecognizable. It follows that lions kill giraffes regardless of age and sex, and all giraffes are within the hunting range of lions.
Lions hunt giraffes in the Leva Reserve in Kenya
Both male lions and female lions have been recorded individually hunting adult giraffes, and Berry has reported that the measured 260 kg male lion in Etosha Park has killed 1.2 tons of giraffes alone.
Hippos will climb on land to find pools during the dry season, and after being exposed to sunlight on land, hippos are easily dehydrated, and at this time, in the face of lion attacks, hippos have no ability to resist and are jokingly called "little angels who are bitten". In areas where hippos and lions coexist, there are cases of lions killing hippos, and male lions have several records of killing hippos alone. The hippopotamus can't help it in the water, but the river horse comes to the shore, and with the help of sunlight, the lion can chew the hippopotamus alive.
But the highlight of lion hunting is the steppe elephant.
The steppe elephant is the largest extant land animal, but it can not escape the lion hunting when it is underage, and the juvenile elephants that die in the mouth of the lion group are difficult to count, and one of the lions has a good record in hunting elephants, that is, the famous Sawuti lion group, known as the "elephant killer", they have hunted many young elephants, but also hunted adult female elephants and injured adult male elephants. In October 2005, a total of 8 steppe elephants were observed in the Sawuti lion colony, concentrated in the age of 5-11 years old, and most of them were male elephants. Lion colonies recorded killing adult steppe elephants before 2020 totaled 7, 6 female elephants and 1 injured male elephant.
On 11 January this year, a flock of Toby lions in Masai Mara hunted a young female elephant and a newborn baby elephant, estimated at 2 tons.
White rhinos and black rhinos are rarely hunted by lions among African tonnage behemoths because they are fewer in number, much less than elephants, hippos, and giraffes. There are 370,000-400,000 African savannah elephants, about 150,000 hippos, about 80,000 giraffes, and about 18,000 white rhinos and about 5,500 black rhinos. But there are also some records of lions hunting rhinos.
There are records of three lions killing sub-adult black rhinos, and on three occasions, two lions have killed female black rhinos. In 2007, 4 of the bad boys killed a sub-adult white rhinoceros.
Briefly speaking, the average weight of these herbivorous behemoths that are hunted by tigers and lions.
African steppe elephants, with an average of 3.8-4.7 tons in males and 2.3-2.5 tons in females.
Asian elephants average 3.6-3.7 tons in males and 2.5-2.6 tons in females.
White rhinos and Indian rhinos are of comparable size, averaging 1.8-2.2 tonnes for males and 1.6 tonnes for females.
Large hippopotamus, males average 1.5 tons, asymptote 2 tons; females average 1.3 tons, asymptotic 1.7 tons.
Giraffes, males average 1.1 tons, females average 0.8 tons. The sample is small and the older individuals are selected, which can be seen as an asymptotic average weight.
Black rhinos, males average 1 ton and females 0.8 tons.
White-limbed bison, with an average of 0.8 tons for males and 0.57 tons for females. The sample is too small, and there are few measured records, resulting in an inflated value.
Elephants, rhinos, hippos, etc. are called pachyderms, elephants have a skin thickness of about 3 cm, rhinos about 3.5 cm, hippos about 5 cm, but rhinos have the hardest skin and the strongest defense. But the skins of these three types of pachyderms are also not completely resistant to the fangs and claws of tigers and lions.
The hunting record of tigers and lions is still very dazzling, the single killing limit of the two is about 1.5-2 tons, and the herbivores of more than 2 tons exceed the range of tigers and lions alone. Lions can work together to hunt larger herbivores, but tiger families sometimes work together to hunt megafauna, and the hunting ability of the two is indistinguishable.
In short, no animal in nature can escape the food chain, and since it chooses to eat grass, it will inevitably be hunted by predators.