Tigers -- hunting, prey and captive feeding.

What's for dinner:

Tigers attack a variety of animals, but they prefer deer (sambar, swamp, muntjac, chital), antelope (nilgai), buffalo and wild boar. In the last instance preference is given to the piglets as adults have very thick neck muscles and layers of fat which a tiger cannot bite through to reach the vertebrae. Adult boar worry very little about the tiger.

Tigers often make for areas recently visited by elephant. This is because the elephant pulls down trees and uproots undergrowth which, in turn, attracts hoof stock and provides the chance for a banquet.

When none of the above animals is on the menu tigers will settle for monkeys, fowl, tortoises, frogs, lynx, birds, jackals, bear, badgers, fish, the odd porcupine, locusts and fruit. They will even lap up ants.

As all these animals require the tiger to expend a great deal of energy, usually in return for only a small meal, they prefer to look for larger prey such as those mentioned in paragraph 1.

Tigers will also attack elephant and rhinoceros calves, however the heavily armoured adult rhinoceros and adult elephant have no worries as the tiger prefers easier, less dangerous, prey.

During territorial disputes a tiger may also kill another and eat it. On one occasion a tiger was sighted eating a leopard. Overall, the tiger is unfussy and an opportunist.

Carrion:

If the opportunity arises carrion will be consumed -- no matter how rotten it happens to be -- and during the Vietnam war unburied human corpses provided an extra source of nourishment. At the same time they encouraged tigers to turn man-eater.

Grass and dirt:

The stomach of a tiger is often found to contain a reasonable amount of dirt, though no one knows whether this is deliberately done or acquired by accident when the cat eats.

In previous times there was a great deal of debate over whether or not tigers eat grass. This has now been clearly filmed and it is likely this is done either to purge an unwell animal, just as dogs eat grass when they feel ill, or as an aid to digestion.

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