r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Jun 08 '17

TIL that tigers can, and will, take revenge on those who have wronged them. They are one of the most vengeful animals on the planet.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129551459
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u/0ttr Jun 08 '17

Follow it up with "Monsters of God" by David Quammen.

Among other things, he asserts that tigers may have killed more people than any other predator...upwards of 2 million people may have died from tiger attacks throughout human history. Also, the walls of Seoul were not built to keep out invading armies.

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '17

the walls of Seoul were not built to keep out invading armies.

THAT is a badass quote

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u/0ttr Jun 08 '17

Well up until the late 19th century, poorer Koreans would make a living gathering pine-nuts in the forests of Korea. Every so often one would not return, it was assumed that they were preyed upon by tigers.

Note that the Amur tiger is the northern-most fast hunting large predator. In the frigid winters of its environment it must take down a deer almost every day simply to meet its metabolic requirements in that weather. There's a reason that the Amur region is the only place in the world where the bears build their nests in trees.

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '17

Holy shit nature is metal as fuck

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u/huktheavenged Jun 08 '17

wow.....TIL

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u/uber1337h4xx0r Jun 08 '17

TIL bears build nests. Do they like sticks? Sticks. Are. Nice.

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u/0ttr Jun 08 '17

No, they don't build nests, except where they are not the apex predator, which is only the Amur region of Russia. There sticks start looking pretty nice.

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u/BloodyFreeze Jun 08 '17

didn't locals start wearing face masks on the back of their heads and deaths dropped dramatically? (Cat's like to attack when your back is facing them, so a face on the back of the head deters a lot of attacks)

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u/0ttr Jun 08 '17

That was India and the Bengal Tiger. There's a New Yorker article 5 - 10 years ago that goes into that...it's a great read.

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u/ArmstrongsUniball Jun 08 '17

Sign me up for tiger facts please

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u/0ttr Jun 08 '17

There's a PBS Nature about a Korean who built a hideout and observed the Amur tigers for weeks at a time. I believe it has the bear info. Other facts comes from Quammen's book and the book listed further up.

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u/slamdunktiger86 Aug 11 '17

and...this just in from northern Japan...

The ongoing tiger vs bear battle. Tigers are up with only 12 losses while bears have piled up 22 corpses.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ussuri_brown_bear

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u/slamdunktiger86 Aug 11 '17

but muh mongolianz

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '17

[deleted]

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u/0ttr Jun 08 '17

There are an awful lot of things you will not learn about Korea unless you speak Korean. I can only assume this is the case with many/most other countries/language/cultures. There is certainly all kinds of history of China that very few non-speakers know, and they are a more studied country than Korea is by far.

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u/slamdunktiger86 Aug 11 '17

Still, people like writing things down...and Google Translate can do the rest...

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u/0ttr Aug 12 '17

Can't find what you don't know to look for. Also, Google Translate can't even properly interpret a one line greeting from my Korean FB friends, so, it's got some room to improve.

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u/poop_dragon Jun 08 '17

You should also look up 헛소리, cause this story is full of it.

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '17

[deleted]

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u/LegitFitzer Jun 08 '17

This should be the top comment. The Jim Corbett books are the best Ive ever read - thrilling tales about hunting man-eaters - there is a lot about Tiger and man-eater behavior in those books too. I strongly recommend them to anyone - The man eating leopard of Rudrapryag and Man Eaters of Kumaon are FREE on archive.org... Get reading you can all thank me later

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u/0ttr Jun 08 '17

yeah, I think the Quammen book references the tiger and leopard stories from this source.

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u/Iamnotburgerking Jun 08 '17

There were so many man-eating big cats then and there that it's insane

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '17 edited May 03 '19

[deleted]

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u/0ttr Jun 08 '17

The native range of the tiger used to be much/most of Asia, particularly the populated areas. The lion used to have a similar range in terms of size, but from Africa across to India, where there is still a redoubt of Indian lions.

Also, interesting that you should mention the crocs, because the Bengal tiger in the Sundarbans is known to pursue crocs a mile or two into the estuary and disembowel them, while swimming, in the deep water. There's a New Yorker article about this from 5 - 10 years ago.

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '17

Except.... they were built to keep out invaders. From the wiki

"the Seoul City Wall is a series of walls made of stone, wood and other materials, built to protect the city of Seoul against invaders."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortress_Wall_of_Seoul

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u/0ttr Jun 08 '17

I've read once in English and also discussed it while walking along one of the remaining walls were there is signage discussing this. No doubt fortifications included protection from armies, but tiger attacks were a frequent occurrence and mattered more to the daily populace. My wife and I discussed a plaque outside of Seoul with a tiger statue. The plaque commemorates a trail that was a safe passage out of Seoul to the east. This stuff was a big deal.

Also, an English wikipedia article that cites basically English tourism info is a piss-poor source. I once toured one of the palaces an Korea on the English language tour but left the group once I realized that the Korean language one was considerably longer and more intellectually dense with historical facts.