* Chapter 10:šš
Long-Term Resting Sites and Lairs of the Tigers
Tigers also exhibit selectivity in relation to habitat by the types of sites on which they choose to establish their lairs.š We recorded a total of 119 lairs (84 for males and 35 for females) where the animals spent a long time (as defined in hours).š The number of such lairs varied with regard to slopes of different exposures, crests of mountain ridges, and valleys (Table 9).š In the case of males, the frequency index for such lairs reaches a maximum for mountain ridges and is substantially lower for south-facing slopes.š Tigresses, in contrast, set up lairs on slopes warmed by the sun considerably more often than along ridges.š Slopes having other types of exposure (i.e., other than south-facing slopes) attract tigers to a much lesser extent.š Animals, especially females, that settle down for long rests in valleys are the least frequent class.
Frequency of Long-Term Lairs and Their Association with Different
Types of Topography
š
| Sex of the Animals |
Valleys |
South-Facing Slopes |
||||
| Distance Tracked (km) |
Total Number of Lairs |
No. Lairs per 10 km of Tracking |
Distance Tracked (km) |
Total Number of Lairs |
No. Lairs per 10 km of Tracking |
|
| MaleTigersš Tigresses Total | 312 125 437 |
12š 2 14 |
0.38 0.16 0.32 |
154 108š 262 |
27š 19 46 |
1.75 1.76š 1.76 |
| Sex of the Animals | Slopes with Other
than Southern Exposures |
Mountain Ridges |
||||
| Distance Tracked (km) |
Total Number of Lairs | No. Lairs per 10 km of Tracking | Distance Tracked (km) | Total Number of Lairs | No. Lairs per 10 km of Tracking | |
| MaleTigersš Tigresses Total | 176 107 283 |
8š 6š 14 |
0.45 0.56 0.49 |
122š 67š 189 |
37 8 45 |
3.0š 1.19 2.4 |
Figure 15.š A laying place made by the "Emperor" tiger on a rock along
the crest of a mountain spur. The valley of the Gornaya River is visible below
the tiger's rest site.
Figure 16.š A den made by wild boar that was twice used as a resting
place by the "Miniature" tigress.
When lying down along slopes or along crests of mountain spurs, tigers find sites with good fields of view, from which it is easy to recognize a possible danger or to "fix" the location of prey.š It is extremely difficult to discover the tigers themselves under such conditions (Fig. 15).š It is not by chance that, when approaching a long-term lair, the tigers usually substantially alter their direction of movement, departing from their projected route.š As a rule, tigers come out from their lair onto the route that they had previously abandoned before reaching the rest site by following their own footprints.š Therefore, lairs are frequently situated in cul-de-sacs having "twinned" sets of tracks (20 cases, 17% of the total number).š The length of the series of doubled tracks in such situations varies from 5 to 1500 m.š If one does not take into account the last value cited, which quite sharply deviates from the rest, then, on average, twinned (or doubled) tracks near lairs extend for a distance of 85 m.
Those features of the distribution of long-term lairs that were discussed
above are frequently caused by the fact that rocks, which always attract tigers,
are associated both with slopes of varying exposures and with mountain ridges.š
Rocky massifs and isolated rocks are scattered throughout the entire territory
of the long-term study site.š The clear preference for lairs on slopes having
a certain type of exposure (i.e., a southern exposure) is obviously
linked with the selection of the most favorable microclimatic conditions.
Figure 17.š The "Emperor" tiger's shelter in a rock niche, which he repeatedly
visited.
š
Figure 18.š A shelter located underneath an overturned tree that was
used at different times by tiger cubs and by the "Emperor" tiger.
Tigers more frequently lie down on open sites that are accessible to
solar rays than in shelters that are not reached by the sun's rays.š The use
of the latter type of site has been observed for males in only a quarter of
the total number of cases (20 out of 84; 24%), while these sites make up
approximately half (17 out of 35; 49%) of the places used by females.š Fourteen
percent of open lairs of tigers were associated with dens of wild boar or
with laying places made by Manchurian deer (Fig. 16),
and 19% were situated under the crowns of coniferous trees.š Such sites ensure
the animals' protection from bad weather to a certain degree.š Thus, on November
24, 1972, in the upper reaches of Bol'shoi Stream (in the basin of the Gornaya
River), the "Lazy" male tiger spent a very long time during a heavy snowstorm,
which lasted the entire day, in a lair situated at the base of an enormous
Korean pine tree.š
We noted 37 laying places that were located in shelters (Yudakov & Nikolaev
1986).š More than half of their number (21, or 57%) were located in small
cavities, in niches at the bases of rocks or under blocks of stone (Fig. 17).š In the remainder of the cases, tigers found
shelter under fallen trees.š When overturned trees are used as lairs, tigers
more frequently lie not along the crown side, but rather under the root end
of the trunk (Fig. 18).š Similar shelters also served
as the lairs of the cubs.š The litter of cubs on which we conducted long-term
observations mostly concealed themselves under fallen trees, in one instance
directly beneath two fallen trees.š The cubs also utilized a hollow near the
root of a tree that was 1 m 20 cm in diameter as a temporary lair.
The common feature of rocks under which tigers most readily settled down
for long rests is the availability of horizontal ledges that are turned toward
the south, walls (often having a negative slope) under which a shelter somewhat
resembling a canopy (or tent) forms (Fig. 19).
Even in winters with much snow, snow does not build up on such ledges.š E.
N. Matyushkin (1977) described exactly similar shelters in the Sikhote-Alin
Nature Reserve.
Periodically repeating their routes, tigers also return to sites that they
had earlier used as long-term lairs.š Open laying sites are less often visited
repeatedly than are shelters.š Thus, of 79 laying places on open sites, we
noted a reuse rate of only 5 sites (or 6%).š The index of repeated use for
shelters reaches 35%.š In two cases, the shelters were visited three times
(for one lair under an upturned tree and for one lair situated under a rock).š
Different individuals can utilize one and the same shelter.š The male "Emperor"
tiger repeatedly stopped to rest in places that had earlier served as lairs
for cubs.š A shelter amongst rocks in the upper reaches of Petrov Stream (cf.
Fig 19) was even used by three individuals:
the "Powerful" tiger, the "Miniature" tigress, and the "Lazy" tiger.
š