Tigress eats her cub in Pench’s Khursapar

Nagpur: It may sound unusual and cruel to many, but a mother tigress was found eating her own over-one-month-old cub in Khursapar area of Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR), Maharashtra.
Talking to TOI, Prabhu Nath Shukla, deputy director, Pench, confirmed the incident. “The cub was being consumed by the mother tigress. The patrolling team that went to the spot to know the fate of the cub saw it,” he said.
However, there is no evidence to show whether the tigress had killed the cub, or it was attacked by any animal. “The camera traps in the area showed no presence of a new male or any other carnivore like leopard and wild dogs. So, it cannot be crosschecked if these animals killed the cub. The tigress too did not have any injuries on her body. It was only on Friday that the cub was found eaten,” says Atul Deokar, assistant conservator of forests (ACF), Pench.
Wildlife experts say though it sounds ghastly, tigers eat their young ones when they behave strangely or have some sort of physical disability. Other reasons for infanticide may be starvation or new males eyeing mating opportunities to have their own cubs.
Generally, a tigress uses her teeth to gently carry her cub in the mouth. But in this case, Khursapar’s dominating tigress, nicknamed Baras (T65), was seen holding her cub’s tail in the mouth on Thursday evening, which left forest guard Chetan Umathe surprised.
“We expected the cub to be dead. On Friday morning, our fears came true as the 10-member patrolling team found the half-eaten carcass of the cub in compartment number 498. The tigress growled loudly seeing the team,” said Deokar.
“It seems to be a case of cannibalism. Researchers have found that a mother killing her young one is common among tigers as it is part of ‘normal’ maternal behaviours. This natural maternal behaviour mainly occurs if the mother desires to adjust her litter size by killing some of her cubs to suit her ability to raise offspring,” said Shukla.
“T65 has three cubs aged around two-month-old. As the tigress and cubs were based in the non-tourism zone, they were not sighted often. The tigress and her cubs were sighted for the first time 15 days ago. We are monitoring the tigress and have launched a search for the remaining two cubs. Apart from installing camera traps, a drone is also being used for monitoring,” said Shukla.