A Royal Bangal Tiger Dies
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Kanpur zoo director K Thomas said that veterinarians at the zoo had put him on vitamins and boneless meat as he had lost all his teeth. While the average life span of a tiger varies between 14 and 16 years, Guddu lived on for over 26 years, according to records available with the zoo, Thomas said.
Before Guddu, Ramu held the record of being the oldest surviving tiger. He died at Jaipur Zoo at 24 in September 2010.
“Following its death, the zoo is left with five tigers, including two tiger cubs. Guddu was brought here from the Chandigarh Zoo in 2001 under an exchange programme,” said Thomas.
On Thursday morning, a panel of four doctors, including RK Singh and UC Srivastava, superintendent of Divisional Veterinary Lab Nirmal Verma and veterinary officer of Etawah Lion Safari Kuldeep Dwivedi conducted autopsy on Guddu. He was later cremated in presence of the entire zoo staff who bid it a tearful adieu.
The Bengal Tiger (or) Royal Bengal tiger, roams a wide range of habitats jointly with high altitudes, stifling and subtropical rainforests, mangroves, and grasslands. They are mainly found in parts of India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Male Bengal tigers compute 8 to 10 ft (2 to 3m) in length, and can weigh from 440-650 lb (200-300kg). Female Bengal tigers compute from around 8 to almost 9 ft (2.5 to 2.6 m) and weigh in around 220 to 400 lb (100 to 181 kg).
All white tigers are a distinction in color of the Bengal tiger, some tigers have been reported that are white with or without black stripe.
Bengal tigers hunt average and large-sized animals, such as wild boar, badgers, water buffaloes, deer goats and have been known to prey on small elephants and rhino calves. They are known for their power and in one incident a Bengal tiger was reported exhausted away a dead gaur which 13 men were not able to move.
As a gaur can weigh 1 ton or more, it would mean the tiger had to be able to drag a little 5 times its own weight.
Bengal tigers hunt mostly at night, killing their prey by severing the spinal cord, or by inflicting a suffocation bite (usually for larger prey).
As with other kind of tigers, habitat loss and poaching are key pressure to the endurance of the Bengal tiger. They are not only killed for their skin and for their body parts which are used to make customary Asian medicines.