Do dholes kill tigers?

Abstract

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 – pronounced “dōls”, also known as Cuon alpinus, Indian wild dogs, or more simply “wild dogs”; Figure 1 – 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 1939–1941 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-delivered tiger demise, tiger expert K Ullas Karanth writes in his 2006 work A View from the Machan – 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-km2 range in 2009. It's prime tiger habitat – 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 tigers unfazed by inquisitive dholes (https://bit.ly/2X85XwG), stealing their kills (https://bit.ly/2VEDUEY), actively hunting them (https://bit.ly/2Za54pd), or scattering and even dispatching members of a harrying pack (https://bit.ly/2Iv4zQK) (although who knows what their dispute was about). Certainly, no one seems to have captured scenes such as those described by Ralph C Morris (J Bombay Nat Hist Soc 1925; 30: 691–93), in which a tiger, mightily harassed by dholes, had taken refuge in a tree: “After a time the tiger, tiring of his uncomfortable position, suddenly made a tremendous leap over the dogs’ heads to the ground and here met his death, being disemboweled by the dogs as he barely touched the ground”. Morris never actually saw this event; it was reported to him by his tracker and others. But hunter and adventure writer Kenneth Anderson claims to have been eyewitness to part of a similar deadly clash, losing sight of the tiger only after it fled under hot canine pursuit. In his 1954 book Nine Man-Eaters and One Rogue (London, UK: George Allen & Unwin Ltd), he writes: “Next morning I sent out scouts to try to discover the result of the incident. They returned about noon, bringing a few fragments of tiger-skin, to report that the dogs had finally cornered their exhausted quarry about five miles away and had literally torn the tigress to pieces. As far as they could gather, five dogs had been killed in the final battle, after which the victors had eaten the tigress, and even the greater portions of their own dead companions.” Dramatic (or melodramatic) stuff. But can dholes really end up top dog against a tiger? I hoped the Panna Reserve would provide an answer. Sadly, I received no reply. Nor could I find any further information on the possible killing of an 8-month-old tiger cub by “wild dogs” near Chandrapur in Maharashtra state. On June 30, 2012, The Times of India reported that forest guards had seen the dogs eating the dead youngster (https://bit.ly/2GtoT2s). But who is to say they killed it? I still don't know if Shere Khan's power can be overcome by sheer canid numbers. But certainly, it's hard to imagine tiger as a regular item on dhole menus. Indeed, why would dholes even risk attacking a tiger? Although perhaps like cat people and dog people, they sometimes just can't get along. Adrian Burton