How does a tigress balance the opposing constraints of raising cubs?

• Published in: Mammal research Vol. 65; no. 2; pp. 245 - 253
• Main Authors: Petrunenko, Yury K., Seryodkin, Ivan V., Bragina, Eugenia V., Soutyrina, Svetlana S., Mukhacheva, Anna S., Rybin, Nikolai N., Miquelle, Dale G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.04.2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal Ecology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Birth; Evolutionary Biology; Fish & Wildlife Biology & Management; Home range; Hunting; Life Sciences; Original Paper; Predation; Predatory behavior; Prey; Wildlife; Zoology; Maternal behavior; Predation rate; Movement; Amur tiger
• ISSN: 2199-2401; 2199-241X
• DOI: 10.1007/s13364-019-00466-x

The persistence of wildlife populations largely depends on females successfully rearing young through the earliest, most vulnerable period. During this period, mothers must balance the costs of home range maintenance, food acquisition, and protection of cubs. We monitored a GPS-collared Amur tigress Panthera tigris altaica for 4 months prior to and 4 months after giving birth to assess how home range size, activity budget, movements, and hunting behavior changed between these periods. After birth, home range size collapsed as activities were centered around the den site. With cubs, the tigress spent slightly less time moving, but greatly increased the rate at which she traveled. Kill rate, handling time, and daily consumption rates did not change significantly, but there was an indication that larger prey were killed during the natal denning period than in other periods. When cubs left the den site and started travelling with their mother, the female was able to increase time spent with cubs, reducing risk of predation. We hypothesize that some of the behaviors of this tigress, which appeared likely to increase cub survival, may be universal across the species, but others will be dependent on ecological parameters specific to the site.