Even in death they do not forget their savage instincts. I knew of one
case in which a seemingly dead tiger inflicted a fearful wound upon an
elephant that had trodden on what appeared to be his inanimate
carcase. Another elephant, that attacked and all but trampled a tiger
to death, was severely bitten under one of the toe-nails. The wound
mortified, and the unfortunate beast died in about a week after its
infliction. Another monster, severely wounded, fell into a pool of
water, and seized hold with its jaws of a hard knot of wood that was
floating about. In its death agony, it made its powerful teeth meet in
the hard wood, and not until it was being cut up, and we had divided
the muscles of the jaws, could we extricate the wood from that
formidable clench. In rage and fury, and mad with pain, the wounded
tiger will often turn round and savagely bite the wound that causes
its agony, and they very often bite their paws and shoulders, and tear
the grass and earth around them.
A tiger wounded in the spine, however, is the most exciting spectacle.
Paralysed in the limbs, he wheels round, roaring and biting at
everything within his reach. In 1874 I shot one in the spine, and
watched his furious movements for some time before I put him out of
his misery. I threw him a pad from one of the elephants, and the way
he tore and gnawed it gave me some faint idea of his fury and
ferocity. He looked the very personification of impotent viciousness;
the incarnation of devilish rage.
Urged by hunger the tiger fearlessly attacks his prey. The most
courageous are young tigers about seven or eight feet long. They
invariably give better sport than larger and older animals, being more
ready to charge, and altogether bolder and more defiant. Up to the age
of two years they have probably been with the mother, have never
encountered a reverse or defeat, and having become bold by impunity,
hesitate not to fly at any assailant whatever.
Like all the cat tribe, they are very cruel in disposition, often most
wantonly so. Having disabled his prey with the first onset, the tiger
plays with it as a cat does with a mouse, and, unless very sharp set
by hunger, he always indulges this love of torture. His attacks are by
no means due only to the cravings of his appetite. He often slays the
victims of a herd, in the wantonness of sport, merely to indulge his
murderous propensities. Even when he has had a good meal he will often
go on adding fresh victims, seemingly to gratify his sense of power,
and his love of slaughter. In teaching her cubs to kill for
themselves, the mother often displays great cruelty, frequently
killing at a time five or six cows from one herd. The young savages
are apt pupils, and 'try their prentice hand' on calves and weakly
members of the herd, killing from the mere love of murder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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