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01via Waldemar Brandt
Male tiger playing with its cub
Not actual story subjects.
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Somewhere out there, a biology textbook on big cat species is getting very nervous, and somewhere in Nepal, a tiger is using it as a scrathing post. I grew up thinking big cats were basically my cats with a gym membership: aloof, dramatic, always hunting, and deeply uninterested in sharing. And for the most part, that's true, a lot of big cats live what we would call “lonely” lives, especially tigers. However, now we're learning that that's not always true! Earlier this year, BBC Earth shared footage of a tiger mom babysitting another mom's cubs, and it turns out that was just the trailer for what we were about to learn.
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03 via BBC Earth
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04 via BBC Earth
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05 via BBC Earth
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06 via BBC Earth
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“They don't share cubs. They don't share parenting duties," scientist Dan O'Neill said.
Well, they do now! The team's theory is that sharing childcare helps protect the cubs from male tigers who sometimes become aggressive with cubs that aren't theirs. This exact detail is what makes the next scene so… wild (pun intended).
Using thermal night cameras, the crew watched the area's dominant male, Badheil, track Goma and her cubs. Everyone braced for the worst. Instead, Goma greeted him, and the cubs played with him, and she kicked back like a mom who finally found a sitter. He was their dad, and he was actually acting like it. -
07 via Pierre Lemos
Male tiger hisses in response to territorial dispute
Scene is illustrative and does not depict actual individuals or events.
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08 via BBC Earth
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09 via BBC Earth
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10 via BBC Earth
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Live Science called it the first time a tiger “family” has been documented spending time together. “It just shows that we really know nothing about them,” O'Neill said.
Now, there is a tiny thing we should mention. Shashank Poudel of WWF Nepal points out that studies in India back in 1982 -1983 showed similar behavior. So, technically, we can't call it a “new” behavior. But, we can call it a newly observed behavior, and that's good enough for me.
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12 via BBC Earth
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13 via BBC Earth
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14 via Rakesh Arora
Tiger cub playing with another tigress
Image for illustrative purposes.
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Either way, it's a happy problem to have. Nepal had just 121 tigers in 2010, and now there are more than 400. If you're in the U.S., PBS Nature aired the full series in October.
So, solitary? Sure, but maybe not how we imagined it. More like “on their terms,” just like the ones on my couch right now. -
15 via BBC Earth
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16 via BBC Earth
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17 via BBC Earth
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