Study
Prey preferences of the tiger Panthera tigris
Hayward, M. W.; Jędrzejewski, W.; Jędrzejewska, B.
Journal of Zoology, 2012
Published tiger diet studies from across the range were combined and analysed against prey availability to identify which species are preferred, which are avoided, and what body-mass range is taken more often than chance.
- Studied in
- Panthera tigris
- Sample size
- published diet studies across the tiger range combined
Tigers prefer prey of roughly 60–250 kg, with a most-preferred mass around 100 kg, and consistently select sambar, wild pig, and other large ungulates. Very large prey such as adult gaur are taken but not preferred, and small prey is avoided relative to availability.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
The tiger is a large-prey specialist whose preferences are consistent across a very wide geographic range, which allows habitat suitability to be predicted from prey communities.
How NatureHQ reads it
Pooling across the range is what separates a tiger’s preference from a forest’s menu. The consistency is the finding: the same size window turns up in Nepal, India and Russia despite entirely different prey species being available. It also quietly disposes of the idea that tigers are opportunists who eat whatever passes.
- Combines studies with different methods, and scat-based and kill-based estimates disagree systematically.
- Availability estimates come from the original studies and vary in quality.
- Cannot distinguish preference from differences in catchability between prey species.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
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Published by: Wiley journalsPublished in a Wiley journal.
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