What Do Tigers Eat? Tiger Diet, Prey and Hunting Style

The main prey of tigers

A tiger needs big meals. Studies in India found that the average animal killed by tigers in Nagarhole National Park weighed about 90 kg (200 lb), roughly twice the average for leopards or dholes living in the same forest. This preference for large prey is what lets tigers share forests with smaller predators.

The most important prey animals are:

• Deer: sambar, chital (spotted deer), barasingha (swamp deer) and hog deer in South Asia; red deer, sika deer and roe deer in the Russian Far East; muntjac almost everywhere.
• Wild pigs: wild boar are a staple across the whole range, from India to Siberia and Sumatra.
• Wild cattle: gaur and banteng, usually younger or weaker animals, since an adult bull gaur can weigh around 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) or more.
• Water buffalo, both wild and domestic.

Opportunistic extras include monkeys, porcupines, hares, peafowl and other ground birds, fish, frogs, crabs and turtles. Tigers occasionally kill young elephants and rhinoceroses, and adult tigers sometimes kill leopards, dholes and crocodiles.

How do tigers hunt?

Tigers are ambush hunters, not long-distance chasers. They rely mostly on sight and hearing rather than smell. The typical hunt follows a pattern:

1. Search: the tiger walks forest roads, trails and stream beds at dusk or night, or waits near a water hole on hot days.
2. Stalk: it crouches low, head down, and creeps forward from bush to bush, freezing when the prey looks up. A tiger may wait in one spot for hours.
3. Rush: when it is within about 10–30 m (30–100 ft), it charges at up to about 50–56 km/h (31–35 mph) and leaps.
4. Kill: it grabs the animal from the side or behind with its front paws and pulls it down. Small prey is killed with a bite to the back of the neck; large prey with a long bite to the throat that suffocates it, keeping the tiger away from horns and hooves.

If the prey spots the tiger early or outruns it, the tiger gives up. Estimates of hunting success range from about 5% to 50% depending on the place and the prey; many sources say that only about one stalk in ten to twenty ends in a kill.

How much do tigers eat?

After a kill, a tiger usually drags the carcass into thick cover, usually up to about 180 m (600 ft) away, and rests before eating. It can eat roughly 35–50 kg (75–110 lb) of meat in one night, then returns to the same carcass for two to four days, often covering it with leaves and soil between meals.

Over a year, a tiger needs very roughly 5–7 kg (11–15 lb) of meat a day on average, which works out at around 50 deer-sized animals a year, or about one a week. A tigress raising cubs needs to kill more often, and her cubs start sharing her kills at about two months old.

What tigers eat in different regions

In the Russian Far East, red deer and wild boar make up most of the diet, and tigers there occasionally kill Asiatic black bears and brown bears. In the Sundarbans, where large deer are fewer, tigers take more small prey and even catch fish and crabs. Island tigers in Sumatra are smaller, which matches the smaller prey available there.

Do tigers eat livestock or people?

Where wild prey has been hunted out, tigers turn to cattle, buffalo, goats and dogs near villages. This is a major source of conflict, because farmers may poison or shoot tigers in revenge. Many reserves now pay compensation for lost livestock to reduce retaliation.

Tigers do not normally see people as prey. A small number of tigers, often old, injured or pushed out of their range, have become habitual man-eaters, most notoriously in the Sundarbans and in early 20th century northern India. If you live or travel in tiger country, follow local guidance, stay in groups and never approach a tiger; in an emergency, seek emergency medical help immediately.

Tigers vs other big cats

Lions hunt similar-sized prey but usually in groups on open savanna (see What do lions eat?). Leopards take smaller prey and often haul kills into trees (see What do leopards eat?). The tiger is the specialist of the big-prey ambush: a lone hunter that can bring down an animal several times its own weight.