We usually believe that lions are the only members of the cat family where males play a part in raising their cubs.  However, a recent observation in India by Colombo native, Rajiv Welikala  Professional Wildlife Safari Guide showed a male tiger with his cubs. He was able to witness this surreal moment firsthand in central India.

The family he saw consisted of an adult male and a family of 6 in Bandavgarh National Park in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Describing the discovery, he narrated “It was a very stormy day. We were going to see the famous female Dotty, who we heard had 3 female cubs. We managed to see the cubs and the mother. Suddenly a massive cat emerged from the grass….. it was a large male but not at the peak of his prime - they call him the Jumhole Male. It is very rare to see a male near the cubs, but the local guides insisted that he was not the father.” 

“While we were leaving, suddenly one of the largest tigers I have ever seen emerged out of nowhere. This was the father, they said; Mahaman. I have no words to describe the experience! He was a huge male, as big as a buffalo and to see 2 male tigers with cubs is something you don’t  normally expect.” 

The Jumhole male is thought to be the father’s cub from a previous litter but served as a ‘babysitter’ due to his submissive status to Mahaman. It is advantageous for him to serve in this capacity probably so he has food security and group support. Usually, unrelated males try to kill cubs so they can mate with the females. 

Lions are believed to be the only big cat where the males actively participate in rearing the cubs. Most carnivores and those in the cat family especially follow this pattern. Although, in a domestic setting among domestic cats and jungle cats, males have been seen playing with their babies. It is also possible that some extinct sabre-toothed tiger species also displayed such behaviour. 

This particular tiger family consists of 6 individuals - a female with her 3 cubs, the father and an unrelated male. This is far smaller than the typical size of an average lion pride - but it is unique for this species nevertheless.  India is the only country to have 5 big cats - lion, tiger, leopard, cheetah (reintroduced from Africa) and snow leopard. The Bengal tiger is found across South Asia - in India, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh. It might have existed in Sri Lanka in the Pleistocene epoch 10 000 years ago. 

This discovery seems to be a rare case rather than the norm and males raising cubs is believed to have been first documented in India’s Ranthambore National Park, in Rajasthan in 2011. Later in Panna Tiger Reserve also in Madhya Pradesh this was in 2021. 

Madhya Pradesh is known as the ‘Tiger State’ with over 500 tigers. It has a few tiger reserves, including Kanha, Satpura and Pench. Dr Latika Nath, a zoologist who specializes in tigers stated “We have seen such behaviour on several occasions: we are not sure if a male tiger would actively stay for months bringing up cubs. But they do interact, share food and protect them.”

Welikala said that the cubs appeared to be 1.5-2 years of age - a considerable length of time for the father to have spent time with them. The Indian or Bengal tiger is the second largest tiger species, weighing 200 kg after the Siberian tiger at 300kg, found in Russia. Only lion-tiger hybrids or ligers are bigger and even though lions and tigers do meet in the wild only in India, this rarely happens in nature. Bandhavgarh National Park has both tigers and leopards and is the first place where the white tiger was seen. White tigers are caused by a mutation and are only found in Indian tigers. Some zoos unscrupulously inbreed this for marketing reasons, creating more genetic defects in future progeny. 

Tigers usually stay with their mother until the age of two. She also brings them up and teaches them critical skills such as hunting, marking territory and knowledge of how to live in a jungle environment. 
These large felines can be classified as apex predators and prefer to hunt large herbivores which they can take down such as sambhar deers, nilgai and wild boar. They have also been known to hunt sloth bears. 
Despite being revered and celebrated globally across cultures in emblems, mythology, film and art, wild tigers have gone through a massive decline in the last 100 years due to human hunting and habitat loss. 
Welikala adds, “I have no words to describe the experience, this breaks the traditional school of thought that tigers are not as solitary as we once thought. In this park, the interesting thing is that the males have been seen actually interacting and protecting the cubs. It is an unusual but interesting wildlife behavioural phenomenon to explore.”

By Avi Kumar
Pix courtesy Rajiv Welikala