🤯 Did You Know (click to read)
A single adult tiger can consume the equivalent of dozens of large deer per year.
Poaching of deer and wild boar for bushmeat reduces prey availability within tiger territories. Even when tigers are not directly targeted, depleted prey bases force them to roam farther for food. Increased movement elevates risk of conflict, snaring, and energy exhaustion. A large predator requires consistent caloric intake to maintain muscle mass and reproductive health. When prey density drops below threshold levels, territories cannot sustain resident adults. Starvation becomes an indirect but lethal consequence of human activity. Predator survival is tightly linked to prey abundance.
💥 Impact (click to read)
Unlike herbivores that can shift diet more flexibly, tigers depend on medium-to-large ungulates. Declining prey forces risky behavioral changes, including proximity to human settlements. Nutritional stress also lowers reproductive success and cub survival rates.
Protecting prey species is therefore inseparable from protecting the predator. Anti-poaching strategies now focus on entire food webs rather than single species. Without sufficient prey biomass, even the strongest apex predator cannot survive.
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