Comments on: Why Do Tigers Roar Endlessly In The Night?

By: tigerfre

tigerfre — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:45:14 +0000

Many tigers only come out at night… they might just be playing or mating or hunting even… let’s just make sure we don’t go outside or anything suisidal like that… just stay in the village (the peaceful village the tiger roars tonight) sorry got carried away… but anyway I’m sure you will be able to get used to the sound and it will become your musical song that helps you get to sleep… bye!!!

By: SC

SC — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:15:47 +0000

Sorry, i’ve spent time with tigers at night and i can tell you from experience that they spend very little time roaring especially at night. Their vocalizations tend to be crepuscular in nature with little vocalization during the day and at night.

By: N

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:57:54 +0000

It is an instinctive endogenous behavior. Meaning, this happens through a biological clock that is internal, with some influence of exogenous rythmns (such as the amount of light during the day). It is a normal thing, they do this as a form of communication (long distance) to generally establish territory and that they are ‘lurking’ out and about to hunt.

By: raiu.kyu

raiu.kyu — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:19:29 +0000

They could be mating, but I think they’re establishing territory. They’re probably roaring to warn other tigers that “this is my territory” stay away. Lions do that as well and their roars can be heard for miles.

By: ali s

ali s — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:56:18 +0000

umm…i think dey do that to warn oder tigers of their teritory……but i cud be wrong!!

By: Caricatu

Caricatu — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:16:25 +0000

Nepalese tigers are known as perhaps the most ferocious of all big cats – historically these tigers have been concentrated in a smallish area with lots of competition for food and females – I don’t know if that’s the situation these days – but roaring is clearly warning for other tigers!

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:48:51 +0000

This is strange behavior. I read it somewhere, but i can’t recall it where that the villagers who live near the jungles in that area believe that some of the woods are haunted by spirits and ghostly phenomenon. And so those tigers sense or see such ghosts/spirits or myserious occurances in the woods, and they roar angrily towards it thinking they’re some kind of territorial invaders or similar. While humans would pass out, if they see such stuff, those tigers are brave and want to fight it. I don’t know if this theory is true or not, but this is what some villagers say.

By: jumpstre

jumpstre — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:36:59 +0000

Are you sure you don’t live near an airport or a train station? It seems unlikely that the same tigers have nothing to do with their time but vocalize…I mean, they have to hunt, sleep, groom, relieve themselves, etc….

By: Merry

Merry — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:52:11 +0000

I have heard that tiger roars while hunting to freeze their prey (see link source). So they might be hunting as tigers hunt a lot at night. The frequency of the calls might have to do with the number of tigers in the area. Their habitat is being reduced so they might have to use a much smaller area than they are used to.
Which would also mean roaring to warn off all those other tigers they feel around, too close for comfort.
And I agree with your villagers, I wouldn’t go out at night either.
This is only hypothesis of course.