Mating | Tiger War

One of the tigers of the park has detected that Ahimsa is in heat and approaches her to begin mating during five days

Planet Doc

Several months after her arrival, Ahimsa is now familiar with every corner of her territory. Now, her smell markings contain additional information, information which the wind carries through the thicket of Kanha announcing that the tigress is now in heat.

In the depths of the jungle, someone picks up the message. Ahimsa continues her round of signalling, and when she comes close to the male he answers the call. Ahimsa had smelt the male, but had never seen him. He, larger and stronger, represents a risk for the tigress, but at all times her suitor is attentive, and it is not long before Ahimsa agrees to mate.

Over the next five days, they will copulate almost two hundred times, thus ensuring that the tigress will be impregnated. Here, in Kanha, there is territory, prey and a future to receive these new cubs; and the Tiger Project again brings hope to the species. 

Our young mother has finally managed to find some prey. It is her job to turn the meat into nutritious milk and so, until she has eaten her fill, every time her children approach she fiercely warns them off.

With the meat she has managed to get, the cubs are guaranteed food for a few more days. But if we look a little closer we will see that their luck is only apparent, because what the tigress is eating is a cow.

The lack of natural prey and the ease with which she can kill a cow mean that the tigress will be back for more. The cubs, in turn, taste the meat of domesticated cattle and this will gradually become their usual prey. When they are capable of killing, they too will probably look for cattle. And it will be simply a question of time before the owners of the cattle seek out and kill the tigers.

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