%0 Journal Article
%T Do dholes kill tigers?
%J Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment - Wiley Online Library
%D 2019
%R https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2053
%X There are dog people, and there are cat people. Those of each kind are much given to extolling the virtues of their chosen totem, and to pointing out the defects in the apple of the other kind's eye. Perhaps this explains the animated nature of the online debate over whether packs of dholes 每 pronounced ※d身ls§, also known as Cuon alpinus, Indian wild dogs, or more simply ※wild dogs§; Figure 1 每 sometimes kill tigers (Panthera tigris). However, this question is not just a matter of internet discussion. Many academic texts have suggested they do. ※The evidence that these dogs may at times attack even tigers is too cogent to be set aside§, insists RI Pocock in his 1939每1941 study Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma (Mammalia, Volume 2; London, UK: Taylor and Francis). Other authors, in contrast, believe this evidence, often secondhand, not to be very cogent at all. Discussing historical reports by hunters of dhole坼delivered tiger demise, tiger expert K Ullas Karanth writes in his 2006 work A View from the Machan 每 How Science can Save the Fragile Predator (Ranikhet, India: Permanent Black): ※I am not sure if these old accounts are totally factual. Did these old hunters see the full sequence of chases, or had they merely extrapolated from what they saw in bits and pieces?§ Initially, I was siding with Karanth, but then I came upon a recent and intriguing press report. Guwashi999; CC BY 2.0 ※Pack of wild dogs attack and injure tiger at Panna Reserve§, ran the September 17, 2013, Zee News headline (https://bit.ly/2KIc6OT). The reserve's director issued a statement confirming this report, and also announced that the cat was still alive and under the care of the park veterinarian. Panna Tiger Reserve, in the Vindhyan Hills of northern Madhya Pradesh, India, began reintroducing tigers to its 576坼km2 range in 2009. It's prime tiger habitat 每 and also home to dholes. But wait. Did ※pack of wild dogs§ refer to a dhole pack or domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) running feral? Was the tiger full grown or juvenile? Did anyone see the attack? Was the tiger targeted as prey, or were its injuries the result of a dispute over a carcass? Was the tiger healthy before the attack, or had its tormentors pressed an advantage against a sick competitor? The circumstances of this incident needed clarifying, so I contacted the Reserve for more information. In the meantime, I learned that interactions between dholes and tigers do occur; they have even been filmed. But no footage I saw showed tigers failing to come out on top. Material readily available on YouTube shows
%U https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/fee.2053