Man-eating tigers
Main article: Tiger attack
Normally wild tigers, especially if they have no prior contact with
humans, will actively avoid interactions with humans. However, according
to some sources, tigers are thought to be responsible for more human
deaths through direct attack than any other wild mammal.[35]
Attacks are occasionally provoked, as tigers will lash out after being
injured while they themselves are hunted. Occasionally, attacks are
provoked accidentally, as when a human surprises a tiger or
inadvertently comes between a mother and her young.[143]
Occasionally human behavior will inadvertently provoke tiger attacks by
triggering their natural instincts. In one case, a postman who
delivered mail on foot in a rural region of India where interactions
with tigers are commonplace, was not bothered by them for several years
despite many interactions. Soon after the postman started to use a
bicycle, the man was attacked by a tiger, theorically having been
instinctively provoked by the chase.[144]
Although humans are not regular prey for tigers, occasionally tigers
will come to view people as prey. Such attacks tend to be particularly
prevalent in areas where population growth, logging, and farming have
put pressure on tiger habitats and reduced wild prey for them. Most
man-eating tigers are old and missing teeth, acquiring a taste for
humans because of their inability to capture their preferred prey.[145] This was the case in the Champawat Tiger, a tigress found in Nepal and then India,
that was found to have had two broken canines. She was responsible for
an estimated 430 human deaths, the most attacks known to be perpetrated
by a single wild animal per the Guinness Book, by the time she was shot
in 1907 by Jim Corbett.[21]Unlike man-eating leopards, even established man-eating tigers will seldom enter human settlements, usually remaining at village outskirts.[146] Nevertheless, attacks in human villages do occur.[147] Tigers treat humans as they do other potential prey, engaging in a length stalking phase before pouncing from close range. Since they are nocturnal, many attacks occur at night while people are usually sleeping. Attacks are also common when people are working outdoors and are physically engaged in distracting tasks. Thanks to their natural predatory instincts, such as their use of stealth and surprise and their tendency to attack partially isolated people, early writings tend to profile man-eating tigers and other similarly-disposed big cats as "cowardly".[148] Due to the size and power of the tiger, few humans survive when a predatory attack is carried out.
Reportedly, in the Singapore area (where tigers are now extirpated) in the 1840s, an estimated 1,000 fatalities occurred from tiger attacks. Man-eaters have been a particular problem in recent decades in India and Bangladesh, especially in Kumaon, Garhwal and the Sundarbans mangrove swamps of Bengal, where some healthy tigers have been known to hunt humans. Because of rapid habitat loss due to climate change, tiger attacks have increased in the Sundarbans.[149] The Sundarbans area reportedly had 129 human deaths from tigers from 1969 to 1971. In the 10 years prior to that period, according to Chakrabarti (1984), humans were predated at an estimated rate of 100 per year in the Sudarban region, with a possible high of around 430 in some years of the 1960s.[35] Unusually, in some years in the Sundarbans, more humans are killed by tigers than vica versa.[35] In the year of 1972, India's production of honey and beeswax dropped by 50% when at least 29 people who gathered these materials were devoured.[35]
Almost all tigers that are identified as man-eaters are quickly captured, shot, or poisoned. Current Indian wildlife protection laws state that animals must be saved unless the tiger is a repeat offender and no hope exists for rehabilitation. However, man-eating attacks may still lead to revenge killing of several tigers, including those not involved in the attack. On occasion, man-eating tigers are relocated to large nature preserves, with mixed success. In 1986 in the Sundarbans, since tiger almost always attack from the rear, the idea was implemented that masks with human faces on them be worn to the back of the head, on the theory that tigers will usually not carry through attacks if seen by their prey. This temporarily decreased the number of attack, though the tigers appeared to become habituated to the masks and attacks again increased in the following years.[150]
Tigers kept in captivity retain wild instinct and, especially those in privately-owned collections where improper handling is more common, may attack humans. An estimated 1.75 fatal attacks occur per year in captivity, with at least 27 people killed or seriously injured in the United States by tigers from 1998 to 2001.[151] In large, well-kept public zoos, tiger attacks on humans are very rare and tigers who associate with their zookeepers from birth may be docile and even affectionate towards their handlers once fully grown. However, most zoos are rightfully cautious and, when the tigers must be handled closely (such as medical procedures), it is a necessity to assure that tigers are fully unconsicous from anesthesia.[151] Tatiana, a female tiger, escaped from her enclosure in the San Francisco Zoo, killing one person and seriously injuring two more before being shot and killed by the police. The enclosure had walls that were lower than they were legally required to be, allowing the tiger to climb the wall and escape.
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