The Wonders of the Jungle, Book Two

by Sarath Kumar Ghosh

So far I have described to you how the tiger cubs learn the lessons of the jungle from their father and mother.

But sometimes they have to learn some of their lessons from their mother alone. Food may be scarce in that part of the jungle. A tiger family eats so much that even if they catch a large wild pig or a deer every day, it will hardly provide more than a single meal for a tiger, a tigress, and two or three growing cubs.

And as they do not usually catch prey every day, the family eats only about two or three times a week. When the cubs are from six to ten months old and need more and more food, one prey at a time is not enough to provide for the whole family—if they all live together. So it is better for the family that the father should go away and catch his own food, while the mother catches food for herself and the cubs.

But before going to earn his living elsewhere, the tiger takes his family to the easiest hunting ground there is near their jungle, where there is at least some kind of prey to catch. Then the tiger himself goes to a more difficult hunting ground. So even in that a tiger is kind to his family, and he does the best he can for them.

At first he returns to the family every few days; I suppose he does that to see how they are getting along in his absence. By that time the cubs have learned most of their lessons, and the mother tigress continues the lessons during the tiger's absence.

But after the cubs are ten months old, they have learned all their lessons; they only need to practice what they have learned. As they can do that with their mother, they do not need their father any more. So the tiger then goes on his travels to distant parts.

As the cubs practice with their mother the different ways of catching and killing the prey, she must provide them with many chances of doing so. It is then that she helps the cubs to kill more animals than they can eat. That is why people give the tiger a bad name and call him a "bloodthirsty" animal. It is not he at all, but the tigress mother. And she helps to kill a large number of animals only at this time—when she must provide her cubs with the chance of practicing their lessons.

The tiger cubs do not need even their mother when they are two years old. By that time they are quite able to get their own living by catching every kind of prey. But still they usually stay on with their mother for about six months more. Then they leave their mother, and roam the jungle alone, each cub separately.

But each cub still continues to grow in size till the age of four years. A male tiger may even grow in strength till he is six years old.

But you may want to know if a tiger family ever meet again after they have all separated. That may sometimes happen. It may be in the dry season, when nearly all the water in the jungle is dried up. Then by some wonderful instinct all the animals in the different parts of that dry region know that there may be one place where there is water. So a general migration begins toward that place; that is, all the animals begin to travel to that place with their families.