A Man-Eating Tiger's 'Vengeance' (2010)

npr.org

15 points·Tomte··4 comments

The book is terrific. I read it a few years ago, and then re-read it again last year. You will leave with a healthy regard for John Vaillant's writing, the men of Tiger team, and a healthy regard/fear/respect of tigers.

Tigers can hold a grudge alright. Remember Tatiana? the siberian at the San Fransisco Zoo that leapt out her enclosure and hunted down the 3 guys who had taunted her.

Leopards are equally scary and more sneaky bast*s. They come kill your dog first and then come for you. There are reports of two man-eating leopards of Kumaon, which between them killed five hundred and twenty-five humans, before they were killed.

Maneaters of Kumaon is a book (one of several) written by Jim Corbett a Brit, who hunted in India in the 1940's. Full text here https://archive.org/stream/maneatersofkumao029903mbp/maneate... . Not as exciting as John Vaillant, but the terror is palpable.

The Man Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag (by Jim Corbett) is an even more chilling tale of an animal being cunning. I read Jim Corbett's books when I was younger and enjoyed them but now I've questions about the numbers themselves. Seems too far-fetched for a leopard to kill 125 humans.

I have my doubts too :-) but then I fall back on two things 1. The Raj were apparently sticklers for record keeping. 2. The nature of Corbett himself. He never killed a cat, unless he had proof that it had killed a human and he would hunt only if the reward was withdrawn. It doesnt fit his character to overblow the kill numbers.

The Tsavo lions are also believed to have killed over a hundred people before they were killed. (interestingly by a man who learned the art of hunting maneaters in India)

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