Cubs kill prey, learn to survive with tiger’s help in MP’s Panna reserve

The visuals showed the tiger has prevented animals from coming close to the cubs and that it also hunted for them. Officials said camera trap videos have helped them find out how the cubs learn to hunt in the wild

Four 10-month-old cubs, who lost their mother five months ago, have made their first kills under the rare guidance of a tiger taking care of them at Madhya Pradesh’s Panna Tiger Reserve, showed pictures taken via camera traps and released on the occasion of World Tiger Day on Thursday.

There were 40 tigers, including nine cubs, in the VTR last year. File Photo

The visuals showed the tiger has prevented animals from coming close to the cubs and that it also hunted for them. Officials said camera trap videos have helped them find out how the cubs learn to hunt in the wild. They added said they will continue to study their behaviour and monitor their growth over the next four months as it is rare for a male tiger to take care of cubs. “The survival of all the cubs without mother in the forest without any human interference is rare of rarest. This study will help us in learning more about behaviour of tigers,” said Alok Kumar, the principal chief conservator of forests.

UK Sharma, the reserve’s field director, said the cubs have killed three animals over the last 25 days at night. He added seeing them with the tiger fostering them is a learning experience to understand the softer side of the tigers. “We found the cubs are unable to hunt by chasing the prey. As of now, they are attacking cattle resting in the forest at night.”

The visuals have come as a relief for forest officials as they show the cubs are following a proper growth trajectory even though they do not have their mother to train them. Normally, a cub starts hunting in eight to 10 months.

A second official, who did not want to be named, said normally a cub learns to prey under the guidance of the mother. “...after losing their mother due to illness, Tiger P243 is taking care of the cubs. He was hunting prey to feed the cubs and also taught them the skill of hunting,” said the second officer.

Forest officials said they also noticed the tiger has started maintaining distance from the cubs. “Unlike earlier days when he used to be always with the cubs, the tiger has moved away from them to provide space to the cubs to learn the skill of surviving in the forest,” Sharma said.

Camera traps have been installed in the area where the cubs roam around with the tiger to understand their behaviour.