The tiger may be king of the jungle, but its writ does not extend to the wild mangrove swamps of West Bengal where a 15-foot crocodile claimed the title earlier this week.
Forest officials in the Sundarbans national park said the crocodile had made jungle history by becoming the first in living memory to kill a tiger.
A post-mortem examination of the carcass of an eight-year-old male tiger discovered by rangers on the banks of a jungle river on Tuesday has confirmed that he was killed and eaten by a crocodile. The tiger had been attacked as it swam across the river and was killed in what they believed had been a fierce struggle.
Bivash Pandav of the Wildlife Institute of India's Endangered Species Department said attacks by tigers on crocodiles were common – a crocodile was killed recently in Ranthambore tiger reserve. "However, this is the first time we have heard of an attack by crocodiles on a tiger," he said.
While it was rare for large predators to confront one another, he said, crocodiles have an advantage in water. "Salt water crocodiles are very powerful. Tigers cross creeks to move from one island to another in the Sundarbans and a crocodile in water is definitely much more powerful than a tiger," he said.
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