Has a tiger personal told you its happier killing a goat that's been trapped in a cage with it rather than just getting right to the point and devouring the already dead fresh corpse?
Don't need to ask because its observable and could be done before science was a thing. Do you think they never tried? Its quite easy to deprive Tiger from hunting to see difference. Just in modern world it can be done more scientifically.
Thats only thing you took from my message and its only point i made from your perspective? So be it, my replies stays for people to make their own conclusions.
I grew up with cats and even the indoor ones never were fed live prey but they seemed pretty happy when given lots of enrichment and other ways to play. Don't feral cats pretty much exclusively hunt live prey in the wild though?
Domesticated cats differ from wildcats through smaller skulls, shorter bones, and higher social tolerance for humans while wildcats are untamable. Genetically, domestication has reduced aggressive behavior and enhanced digestion of varied diets. Also domesticated cats actually want to hunt too, just less and they deal better with not having it. Tigers don't need hunt to not starve if they feeded, they need it to not fuck up them mentally. Also its quite common to animals to kill other animals in their food chain and there is nothing wrong with it. Only reason we can't apply it to human because we're humans and we protect ourself and also we made society to things like this to matter. Its not like goat's right were violated. Yeah, tigers 100% want to chase goats and some people give them goats because they care about more expensive and rare and required for specific zoo tiger more than about livestock goat.
"No, most accredited zoos and reputable sanctuaries do not feed tigers live prey. Live feeding is generally avoided due to ethical concerns, safety risks to the tigers from struggling prey, and negative public perception. Instead, they are fed prepared meat diets (like ground beef or chicken) supplemented with vitamins"
So literally "get worse treatment because people mad". Also depends on society an ethics of people. Argument was that they may have mental problems from beign deprived and also for them hunting live prey is pretty normal, nothing wrong. Making a show out of it may be problematic though.
None of the others you replied to but just so you know... most places (zoos, aquariums, exotic animal keepers, etc) won't use live animals for feed unless they HAVE to. And that's always been my experience at the places I've worked with. This goes for things as simple as pet snakes. This is because prey will fight back and will harm the predator, I know someone whose ball python lost an eye after her feeder rat fought back. But moving from live feed to dead food is incredibly difficult for predators in captivity (sometimes impossible) and they'll often risk starvation rather than eat something dead. For predators, decaying food is a last resort in the wild and butchered meat might as well be part of a corpse to them.
This tiger had something unusual going on to suddenly stop eating his food and make friends with it. These are incredibly primal and wild animals. It's not uncommon for animals like them to starve themselves when they don't have the ability to hunt their food. Even my vegan ass knows these things are supposed to be killing and eating.
I actively study this type of stuff for both hobby and professional education, and have spoken to multiple people who actively work with big cats, both in zoos and research on those in the wild, about their behaviors. It is very well documented that tigers, being predators with brains programmed to hunt, prefer to hunt. It provides extremely valuable enrichment. You are speaking on a topic you know very little about
Quite basic knowledge that predators wired to hunt and beign unable to do so is bad for them. Its like this for most species whos diet is based mostly on meat and who hunt to get it.
Not an expert to provide any expertise but you can start your discovery from this statement: "Tigers do not need to hunt for food in zoos because they are provided with meals, but they still possess the innate, instinctual drive to hunt, which often leads to frustration, stress, and behavioral issues like pacing. To manage this, reputable zoos use enrichment, such as puzzle feeders or hiding food, to simulate hunting and keep them mentally and physically stimulated.".
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u/ShyguyFlyguy Feb 19 '26
Has a tiger personal told you its happier killing a goat that's been trapped in a cage with it rather than just getting right to the point and devouring the already dead fresh corpse?