Tigers

[Angel Minkov]

Hello. I was just wondering if Tigers feel compassion and love just like humans? I know of tigers, lions and cats of such sort to mourn the loss of their cubs, but I'm not completely convinced if that is due to their advanced nervous system, or just a coincidence. Can anyone shed some light to this matter?

 

[The Snark]

Before this dives off the deep end of theology, could the OP PLEASE explain what his/her idea of compassion is? Also, why just the tiger?

Compassion as defined by religious and philosophical texts: http://www.guidedones.com/metapage/non_muslims/kindness.htm

The oldest known analysis of compassion is defined and referred to in several places in the Upanishads, if that helps.


-In the most mundane definition and sense of the word, compassion is living-kindness expressed. Most if not all more advanced animals, as the mammals, are capable of showing this trait. The loving-kindness weather vane has been used by various persons and disciplines to determine the dignity of the being.

The development or degree of compassion in the sapien is measurable by the antithetical yardstick, aka the Lucifer principle, by the beings rejection of manifestations of the opposite. As in the distaste/dislike of it's opposites. For example, trolls on the internet.

 

[Smokehound714]

I dont like this question, it kinda seems loaded.

 

[Angel Minkov]

What is it there to like or dislike?

I didn't really want that much of a philosophical answer - by compassion I actually meant traits such as love, sadness over a loss of a cub, the willingness to help another injured tiger which you have relationships with, such as your mother if she is endangered in some way and so on.

 

[eldondominicano]

Swinging this back to T's I own a Sumatran Tiger Tarantula.. Definitely worth the checking out, very cool asian species

---------- Post added 01-10-2015 at 10:50 AM ----------

Lol not back, but to T's....

 

[pitbulllady]

Tigers are solitary animals by nature, and adults typically avoid one another except to come together for mating, after which they go their own way. No one has every observed and documented adult tigers assisting one another at anything. They just aren't hard-wired to do that, as they aren't social animals. It is difficult to delve into issues such as as mother tiger grieving over lost cubs without treading into anthropomorphism territory, since it isn't really possible to determine what emotion an animal is feeling at any given time without applying human feelings to the observation. Certainly female tigers will defend their offspring, but then, so will female spiders and scorpions. Mortality rates are high among tiger cubs in the wild, and often, it's a male tiger which is responsible for killing them, especially if he has just taken over the territory in which the female lives from the previous male, and these "turn overs" happen frequently. Males do not want offspring that aren't theirs growing up in their territory, using the resources there, and won't hesitate to kill cubs if they can. A female will immediately go back into heat and willingly mate with the same male which killed her cubs. In captivity, keepers of big cats regard tigers as more dangerous than lions because of their solitary nature; a lion will often consider a keeper as part of its pride, while a tiger might be friendly with you one moment, and the next moment, you're just an intruder into its territory.

pitbulllady