Breeding and Mortality of Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris Linnaeus 1758) at Bahawalpur Zoo, Punjab, Pakistan

Bahawalpur (N 29.3956°, E 71.6836°), now a large city has been a part of Cholistan desert, where the tiger was once naturally distributed. The average rainfall in Bahawalpur is 20 to 25 cm annually. Tiger breeding data spanned over eleven years since July 2003 to June 2014 has been analysed for this study. Data for two years, from July 2012 to June 2014 were collected by our research team by recording direct observations while the nine years data since July 2003 to June 2012 were clollected from the Zoo management (Wildlife and Parks Department of Punjab). During pregnancy a close watch was kept on female’s behavior and only one keeper would attend the female to reduce the disturbance level. Gestation period and congenital defects were also recorded. Cubs or adults mortality causes were examined by postmortem examination with the help of veternarian. Data analysis and Graphs were made using Excel 2007.

Total CBT during study period, 4.

The age of parent tigress was 13 years while male parent tiger was 9 years old at the start of the study i.e., July 2012. Tiger bred only once during study period and produced four female cubs (Table I). Previous data (2003-2011) showed that that the pair bred for the first time in 2003 when three cubs (one male and two female) were produced. In 2005 and 2006 two (one male and one female and one (female) cubs were born, respectively. However, breeding was not recorded during the period 2007 to 2012 (Fig. 1). According to Sunquist (1981) the captive tigeress breeds mostly from two to sixteen years of age however maximum litters are produced when her age is above 6.2 years.

Very little information is available on these aspects in wild tiger populations. Sunquist (1981) once observed the oestrus in a thirty month old female that was perhaps the earliest. Sunquist (1981) also observed that in wild tiger populations litter size ranged from one to seven cubs.

During present study six days esterous cycle and 107 days gestation period was observed in the tigeress (Table I), while Mazak (1979) reported three to six days of esterous cycle and 104 days of gestation in tigeress. Further he reported that gestation period ranged from 96 days to 111 days.

In our study mating was observed in the month of March (Table I) while several scientists stated that mating in Tigers may occure throghout the year; however this was most likely to happen from November to the April (Kaplanov, 1948; Locke, 1954; Corbett, 1961; Stroganov, 1969; Sankhala, 1967, 1978; Geptner and Sludskij, 1972).

It was observed that one cub of 32 days in 2013 while second cub in 2014 of 173 days died due to congenital abnormality of liver. Parent tigress (Rani) also died in 2014 due to respiratory failure and cardiac arrest (Table II); and another female cub had died in 2005 due to canabalism. No death of male tiger has been reported during the period 2003 to 2014 (Fig. 1). Cavaliere in 2015 reported that the Seigfried and Roy’s white lion died due to cardiac and respiratory arrest.

Mortality of female cubs, 2; Mortality of breeding female, 1; Total mortality, 3.

Authors are grateful to the management of Bahawalpur Zoo for their cooperation and providing us access to the previous data on tigers. We also grateful to the attendant of the Zoo for handling the tigers during observation and data collection.

Authors have declared no conflict of interest.