National Park After Dark - The Man-Made Man-Eater: Jim Corbett National Park

Episode Date: January 10, 2022

This week we cover the story of the Champawat tiger, the most deadly animal on record. In this week's episode Danielle tells us the tragic tale of this tiger, the lives she claimed and how it all began. A morbid story no doubt, but there is so much more to it than that. Underneath its terrifying outer skin, this story has layers of discussion regarding the repercussions of irresponsible wild land management, a sobering history of hunting in India and consequences of our collective actions. Jim Corbett was the Champawat's deadliest adversary, but eventually, he stood as her fiercest protector. Learn how Jim Corbett National Park came to be, and what we can do to be better stewards of our planet and to those who share it with us through one of the most tragic stories in history. For more information please visit Jim Corbett National Park and WWF For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Thank you so much to our partners, check them out! Chirp Wheel: 10% off Prose: 15% your first orderApostrophe: $15 your first visit For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The world is fascinated by killers. What motivates them? What makes them tick? How they became killers, who they target, and why are some of the most common questions posed when learning of the atrocious details of the acts they commit. Questions, criminal psychologists and armchair detectives alike could spend years deciphering. Killer scare us, for many reasons, of course. But perhaps the most frightening is, because they are at times difficult to distinguish.

They look like everybody else. They blend seamlessly into their surroundings, hiding in plain sight, concealing their true intentions, until the moment comes when they strike and claim a victim. Satiated, but not for long, they'll re-emerge and begin their prowl once again. Ted Bundy, H.H. Holmes, Richard Cottingham, Dennis Rader. All of these people have several things in common as well as individual quirks, and any true crime buff would be quick to tell you what those are. These people are infamous, for the most unspeakable of reasons.

conservative counts place the number of victims claimed by these men at 69, while the more likely figure hangs somewhere near 340. The sheer number of lives taken, along with the disaster and heartbreak left in their wake, is partially why their names send shivers up our spines, and their mugshots are burned in our brains. But there is one killer who blows them all out of the water. She was more skilled and efficient in her endeavors and claimed, more lives than all of these men combined. A master of her environment, she alluded capture for years, despite having experts studying,

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She was the world's most deadly man-eater, and she was a tiger. Welcome to National Park After Dark. We're doing another animal attack episode? The animal attack episode. Yes, we are. worse than night of the grizzlies so so much worse oh god it's a long one and it can be graphic so this is your warning here it is this episode if you could not tell is going to be about animals attacking people people being consumed it's rough and if you are not feeling it right now if you just ate if you're about to eat

If you're eating currently, maybe you should wait. So just a fair warning right now. I do want to say that the primary source for the episode today came from a book called No Beast So Fierce by Dane Hucklebridge. And I read it cover to cover in one day. And it was so good. So good. I was just going to say it had to have been if you read it all in one day.

I had plans of like, okay, I'm going to spread this up. throughout three days because, you know, while you're gathering research, you have to stop and take notes and revise things. It's not just sitting down and reading a book so you can reflect later and, you know, create an episode. I wish it was that easy. But yeah, it was so good I couldn't put it down. So if you like this episode and the concept of this episode and the story, there is so much more to be found in this book. I will link it in the show notes so you can take a look at that. What park are we going to? I'm intertwining the park as we go, so you'll see.

Okay. But we are headed to India. Ooh, we haven't gone there yet. We haven't. And before we jumped into the story, I do want us to get acquainted with wild tigers so we can really understand our main character today. I know that kind of sounds silly because we all know what tigers are and have a good understanding of just how powerful and frightening they could be.

But just to put it really in perspective, it's going to change how you view this episode and view the main character. Let's have a little tiger physiology lesson, shall we? Yes, let's learn about some tigers. We all know that they're big and can be very scary, but they are truly natural wonders. At one point, there were nine subspecies of tiger, but three have gone extinct in recent history due to habitat loss and overhunting. and out of the six subspecies of tigers that remain today, what you're probably picturing right now is the Bengal. These tigers currently live in the forests of Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and India,

and are considered phantoms of the forests. Typically, tigers are shy, elusive, and pretty avoidant of people, and many people living in these areas have never actually even seen one in person, which, depending on who you ask, is probably a very good thing. Because although they may be largely avoidant of people, it doesn't mean that's always the case. Bengal tigers are the subspecies responsible for the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of deaths attributed to tiger attacks throughout history. Hundreds of thousands of tiger attacks? Yes.

Oh. So now there are two categories of attacks, which we are familiar with based on our other animal episodes. And I was thinking about it today. So we now have lions and tigers and bears. Oh my. Oh my. And dingoes. Yeah.

You need some more. I love the animal episodes. Me too. Crocodiles. You can do the crocodiles. Crocodiles freak me out way too much. Going back, we know that there are two categories of attacks. One is predatory and one is defensive.

And when it comes to other animals, you may have a better shot at walking away depending on the type of attack launched on you, but with tigers, even a defensive swat or a bite may do you in. Tigers have three to four inch long canine teeth, the largest of any living feline species. They weigh an average of 400 to 700 pounds and can reach speeds of 40 miles an hour during short sprints. They can leap 20 feet vertically, reach 30 feet in a single leap and have a 1,000 pound per square inch bite force, which is stronger than a great white shark. Whenever I hear stats like this, it just really puts me at the bottom of the food chain. I'm like, I have no chance.

I'm like, my nails are one centimeter. My teeth have no sharpness at all. My canines have evolved out of me. I don't have, like, I'm toast. Yeah, I would say evolutionarily-wise, our biggest asset is our brains. That's what's kept us around this whole time. Otherwise, we totally would have been wiped off the face of the earth long ago. Tigers' typical prey of choice are ungulates, like deer or water buffalo, but they aren't picky.

And they've been documented preying on things as small as squirrels, porcupines, water dwellers, like 300-pound harbor seals and 15-foot-long crocodiles. other formidable carnivores such as bears and wolves, all the way up to elephants, topping in at over five tons and standing as large as a U-Haul. Jesus. Now, this is typical tigers with typical diets, but we aren't talking about a typical tiger. We are talking about the Chompawat tiger. This tiger holds the record for the most humans killed by any single animal in recorded history. She held a several-year reign of terror and killed and consumed a reported 436 people, which left a mark on the communities of Nepal and India forever.

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Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. 436. Yes. How? Why I need to know more? Like, where is she where there's this many people that she's eating? Well, okay.

Tell me more. Do I have a story for you then? So sit back and get comfy because this is a long one. People living in India and Nepal at the time of our story, which is the late 1800s to early 1900s, were no stranger to tigers. The relationship between tigers and humans have in this area is stretching back thousands of years. Going back to the Taru, the indigenous peoples of the Turai, which is a lowland region of northern India and southern Nepal, which lies at the foothills of the Himalayas. this group of people live alongside tigers and held them in high regard. They have been found on apparel, emblems, and coins, and are passed down in stories through generations.

Part of the Taru belief system viewed the animals as physical manifestations of the power and grace of the natural world. And the natural world was of utmost importance to them. Therefore, the tiger was as well. To them, tigers were supreme and sacred and were used by the gods to keep. convey messages and to guard their beloved forests. That's not to say that everything was peace and harmony. The Taru primarily passed information down through oral history, and because of that, there's little written historic record and documentation of the tiger attacks that happened on people, but we know that they did happen. The Taru believed that because tigers were the physical

manifestation of that power and grace of the natural world and who were usually guardians, if a tiger turned to man-eating, it was a sign from the gods and a very bad sign. Predations happened and were taken very seriously. Tiger widows were shunned and isolated by the community, forced to go about daily routines and tasks only in certain scheduled hours of the day. They could only wear white saris and white accessories and were considered very bad luck and unholy. Although predations were not unheard of, no one was prepared for the Chompawat. It is thought that she began her reign in the early 1900s in the year of 1903 in the Turai of Nepal. This area is dense jungle, full of swamps, forests, and grasses towering 10 feet tall. It's not an easy

place to develop, but its prime tiger habitat. It's thought she was born here and spent her first couple years roaming its forests until a hunter's bullet changed the course of her life. She was shot, and the bullet shattered one of her most important survival tools, her teeth. Her upper and lower right canines were destroyed, one broken down to the bone, and the other clean in half. Suddenly, she found herself at a huge hunting disadvantage. While her speed and long retractable claws may have helped her chase down and capture a 3,000-pound buffalo, without the full use of her teeth, she was in huge trouble. Plus, she was now in no place to defend her territory properly. Tigers are extremely territorial, and for most of their lives, solitary. With a damaged mouth, fighting to keep

her territory would be extremely difficult. A typical territorial range can vary between 20 square miles to hundreds of square miles, depending on the subspecies of tiger we're talking about. And in the wild, the average lifespan of a tiger is about 12, mainly because older tigers are mauled by other tigers, which are often younger and in better shape, for the right to territory, which leads or forces many tigers to seek out other areas, many of which they are unwelcome. Oh, that's kind of sad. The natural world is full of sadness, and it's hard sometimes to keep that in mind. It's like, it's nature. it is what it is. It's been like that for thousands of years. It'll always be like that. But you can't help but to have empathy, you know. Yeah, absolutely. Like I just think of it as like, oh, but they're old and it's their territory and they're just.

I remember there's a movie. I'm going to say there's a movie that changed my life and I can't even remember what it was called. But it's a documentary. I watched it in college. It's narrated by Jeremy. irons irons i don't know people are screaming at me right now he was the voice of scar in the lion king okay and it's about lions in africa and there's one scene in that documentary you had been following this male lion throughout the entire film and at the end he's old he's battle scarred and he is has been pushed out of his pride and he just got into a huge fight over territory with another male lion and literally you just see him laying there on the open savannah panting and in really rough shape and then all of a sudden he just puts his head down and dies heart shattering that's so

sad i like films like that that are kind of like this is just how it is but at the same time i can't watch too many of them in a row because it's super depressing something about animals just hits you different but at the same time like it is nature and it's not like it's not a disney movie Exactly. Although Lion King was actually very traumatic, so that's a bad example. Yeah, can we just take a moment for one second to reflect address the trauma that we all endured as children? That was, yeah, on another level. I don't think Disney movies do that anymore.

Do they? Oh, no. I don't think so. But anyway, you're going to traumatize us again with Tigers this time. The Taru lived in this environment of the Turai, but in very small and scattered numbers compared to the nearby villages. And it's likely that this fact drew the tiger to the village of Rupal on the border of Nepal and India. The village of Rupal is set up kind of like a bullseye if you look up Google images of it. So the center is dense with homes and farms and it's encircled by layers.

of green hills and wooded ravines that bleed into the surrounding jungle. And this was perfect for the Champawat. Villagers were constantly outside, working in the fields or in the forest itself, gathering firewood and supplies. And she would lurk in the edge of this forest, where the farmland met the woods and would wait until the perfect moment. Victims would have never heard her or seen her coming, and she thrived here and was so successful that after two years she had taken nearly 200 lives.

Wow. Were they doing anything about it? Great question. They tried. So the people of Rupal really did try to put an end to this, but time and time again, she was too quick, too elusive, and terrifying to confront. The way the village was constructed made it easy for her to take somebody and quickly drag them off and hide in one of the area's wooded ravines, making it extremely difficult to locate and to capture her. And accounts vary on exactly how it went down, but essentially the village sought outside help in the form of the Nepalese government. Because at this point, too many people were being killed and it was clear that there was no signs of her stopping on her own or moving along to a different location. This was her territory now.

Exactly. This was her new home territory and her new hunting grounds. And there was no reason for her to move on. There was no other tigers in the area pushing her out. The prey was easy. She had an injury that prohibited her from going after her natural prey. So for her, this is paradise. So why would she?

I mean, if she's getting 200 people, I mean, she's well fed at this point. Exactly. So they came up with a tactic. Goats and water buffalo were tied to stakes and strung along the valley as bait to lure her in. The plan was to draw her in and then flush her out. Thousands of people convened in tears. The first line, called the beaters, was made up of the villagers. They were armed with machetes and their job was to cling them together, shout and scream as loud as they could in an effort to scare her. Behind them were a lot. We're a lot. We're a lot. line of Shikaris, hunters, who are mounted on top of elephants that were specifically trained for battle. And lastly, were the Nepalese soldiers armed with rifles. I didn't know that you could train elephants for battle just to start. Okay, well, just to tell you, this book goes into great detail about the history of the Indian and Nepalese people using elephants for different tasks and one of them is how they used to train them for war and for doing like logging and doing farm things but also to go into battle to not be afraid and they would be like armed with spikes

and they would trample people and it was insane wow that is just a vision wow that's interesting they were also used as a form of execution as well death by elephant what is that like getting trampled yeah That's putting elephants in such a sad light because did you know that elephants can die from a broken heart? I think you told me that during the amazing elephant, amazing elephant episode. Amazing animal rescue episode. Yeah, so they, like when they get their babies taken away from them and killed or like their partner dies or something like that, they actually get so depressed and so upset that they stop eating and they stop drinking and they'll just, they'll die because they'll stop nourishing themselves and doing anything to survive anymore because they're so devastated.

So I just think of them as animals that are put into war and that's really sad when you know that about them. Well, when you know that you're dealing with another sentient being, reflecting back on the horrific things that we've done to them in the past is really, really difficult to process. And I say the past, it happens literally all the time. And we're not even going to get into that because I'll get very upset and fired up. But it is interesting to read the history on it. And I don't know if they're used any more in that capacity. I would certainly hope not, but you never know. I lost my place entirely. Okay, we're back. We're back to the village of Rupal. We have our line of villagers, the Shikaris, and Nepalese army. And what they did is they formed a

large you that surrounded the outskirts of the village, cutting off the animal from its favorite hiding spots in the ravines. And as they moved in, the two far ends of the line slowly started to move together to form kind of like a pincher. And at the same time, they were moving westward. It was the only way out of the valley, and it led to a river. So they were basically bottlenecking her to one specific area. Okay. As the group emerged from the brush and onto the riverbank, they saw a flash of orange and black leaping off the rocky shores and plunging into the river. They shot wildly at her, but all of their bullets missed their intended target. The tigers had eluded them once again.

She swam across the river and pulled herself out, unscathed, on the other side. That other side happened to be another country. She was now in India. and with a new country came a new beginning and a new hunting ground. So they drove her out. And then they were kind of like, all right, India's problem now, bye. They're like, okay, good luck. We got her out. Woo, party. Okay, no one's getting eaten anymore.

Sorry, India. So while the Champawat was hunting humans and altering the way that they lived, humans were doing the same thing to tigers. Again, another fascinating and complex history on this subject as well, but how it changed over time is actually very important to this particular story. For centuries, hunting tigers in India was a very sacred practice, and beginning in the 1500s, formal royal hunting parties began. These hunts were reserved exclusively for royalty and royal party members only. They were rotated throughout various preserves and locations, having conservation in

mind, not overhunting a particular area, and they were held in widely dispersed areas and were conducted only with bows and spears. So some hunts were never successful because of that. Okay. The local people were also at this time living in and managing the jungle and forest traditionally, but all of this began to change with the onset of colonialism. By the mid-1800s, the British officially had rule over the country. But in the centuries prior, their presence and influence had certainly left their mark. To vastly oversimplify, the British viewed the country basically as this vast, expansive wilderness that they could exploit, cut down, turn into farmland, and then tax, and make money off of.

Story from around the world. Literally. It's same everywhere, I guess. What followed was, by today's standards, wildly irresponsible and destructive forestry tactics, hunting practices, and agricultural policies. The British first arrived with an intention to trade, but then after a lot of classic European shenanigans, essentially lots of battles overthrowing local rule

and taking control of pretty much everything, European influence was popping up throughout the country, and everything from the language to the recreation activities and to the education system. And on the other side of the coin, the Indian culture was rubbing off the British. And this kind of like melting of worlds gave birth to what was known as the colonial tiger hunt in the 1780s. To the British, hunting tigers was aligned with civilization

and showed progress, air quote, air quote. And their mission was to civilize India. And their view was kind of like how can we push civilization forward and construct schools and run farms with tigers around. Right. Just like we're going to move on to their territory and rip it down and also they can't live here anymore because they're disrupting us. Essentially. And plus they were probably scared shitless because in, for example, in 1769, tigers claimed over 400 people and in the the 1790s, another 700 people every single year were being killed by tigers in the state of Bengal alone, which is a very frightening statistic, but death by tiger actually wasn't too abnormal, and it didn't even top the charts. During this time period, reports indicate that 20 to 25,000 people

lost their lives in India every single year by animal. And tigers were to blame for about 1,000 of those deaths. So considering that's 1,000 out of 300 million, which was the population of India during that time at the end of the 1800s, that's actually quite low, statistically wise. But that was about 1,000 too many deaths for the Europeans. And they were a huge driving force behind a government bounty program. and between the years of 1875 and 1925, over 80,000 tigers were reported killed for government bounties alone.

80,000? And those were just for government bounties and just the ones that were reported. And tigers are endangered now, right? Oh, we're going to get into that. Yes, they are. Also, what was once set aside only as a royal privilege, those royal tiger hunts, those hounds, those hanseses are. were becoming very commonplace. In the 19th century, tiger hunts were rampant across the country of India. Thousands of animals were being slaughtered by Europeans and individual hunters were stepping

forward very proudly boasting their numbers. And it was not uncommon for a single hunter to kill up to 400 animals. That's ridiculous. What's the purpose of that? Are they eating them? Are they using them? Or this is all trophy hunting and this is all? I don't even think at the, this point, it's considered trophy hunting. It's because it's kind of like the bounty for wolves in North America. You know, the United States government put a bounty on wolves because wolves were in direct competition with farmers. But you're not giving the wolves a chance, or in this case, tigers, because you're cutting down their habitat and reducing their habitat. You're driving away their natural prey, putting other prey animals onto the land that they were once on.

and expecting them not to eat them. So essentially, they're like, well, you have to go. So the government was paying people to go out and kill as many of the predators as they could so that they could bulldoze everything, develop the land for agriculture, and make money off of that. That's really, really sad. And essentially just killing thousands of animals because they're a nuisance to what you want. Exactly. And it's not even the traditional way of life for,

the people of India and Nepal at this time. So not only are they changing the habitat for animals, there's an entire different discussion about how this impacted culture in these countries as well. Yeah. So a full century of unchecked slaughter coupled with the ecological mismanagement, which like we just kind of touched upon, fragmented and decimated tiger habitat, and decreased prey population densities, put the Champawat in a unique and impossible situation. With less and less wild places to turn and a debilitating injury, the hunting of humans continued. With 200 Nepalese victims already claimed, the killing didn't stop now that the Tigris was now in India. She began almost immediately, snatching people in much the same way she did in Nepal.

Word was spreading like wildfire. Everyone was talking about the tiger that was claiming so many victims. And that is how a young man named Jim Corbett first heard of the man-eater. Edward James Corbett, known as Jim, was of Irish descent, born into a British family, and was raised in India. He was in his 20s in 1903 working on the railroads when he first heard of the Champawat. He was an excellent hunter and known as one of the best shots around. He learned young. As one of 15 children, hunting was not just sport, but a way to put food on the table. He had experiences with tigers in India, growing up there and in their habitat. But as an adult, unlike many other Europeans in India at the time, he had a different view of tigers. Rather than animals to be killed, he viewed them

as animals of importance. In 1907, four years after Jim Corbett first heard of the Champawat, he was asked to help. Several attempts by the best of the best hunters and trackers of the time to dispatch the Tigris had taken place and every single one of them had failed. She continued her kill streak. At the time he was enlisted to help, she had killed a staggering 434 people. Wow. So they're like, we got to get her out now.

She's literally killing everybody. And this number is including from the other country too. she was in. Yeah, so about 200 people in Nepal and now that she's in India, she's added on to that number. And you have to realize this is going on for years. This has been years. Yeah. So at this point, they're in a very bad situation and they need help. It's clear that she's outsmarting all of the best people enlisted to help and Jim, like I said, was known as a really good shot and he knows. He knows, the area well because he's in a unique position because he is of European descent, but he was born and raised in India, so he knows this area quite well. But if you think about it, like,

why Jim, like, or really any white guy? We talked a little about how the people of India have been coexisting with tigers for many, many years. And they had faced man-eaters before and handled these conflicts on their own before. So why was, Why was this different? And the answer to that is partially because after some colonial and Indian conflicts and uprisings, in the 1850s, most segments of India's society was banned from having guns or weapons of any kind without difficult hurdles to negotiate and hoops to jump through to obtain permits, which left the vast majority of villagers unarmed and unprepared.

So this fact, plus the fact that at this point, a lot of years have passed with European influence, and by this time, a lot of the traditional knowledge of killing man-eaters had been lost through the generations. So they're screwed at this point. The people are in a really different situation compared to generations prior. It kind of reminds me of the Hawaii episode with the lost language and suppressing knowledge and traditions through. generations. It's kind of come full circle now. Like they've kind of been messing up things for so long that there's no good resolution to how they used to deal with it anymore. So like I mentioned, Jim was European-born and raised in India, which was unique at the time. And it put him in a unique position because rather than seeing him as an outsider, the people of India were his friends.

He worked with them. He grew up with them. He respected them. He respected them. They respected him, which was unlike a lot of other relationships between Europeans and Indians at the time. And although he wasn't a traditional trophy hunter, he knew how to hunt and he was good at it, but he wasn't like those bounty hunters or anything like that. So at first he was reluctant, but India was his home and these were his people and this tiger was slaughtering them. So he agreed to help. Less than a week after agreeing to the hunt, the Chompawat struck again. young woman had been taken in the village of Pauley, 60 miles away. Jim and the six men he recruited for the expedition set off.

That first day, they covered 17 miles, the next day, nearly 30. And on the third day, May 3rd, 1907, the men completed the final stretch to the village. When they first arrived, they arrived to a ghost town. Normally, customary greetings would take place, offerings of tea and food would be given to them, children would be running around the village, doing their daily activities, but they weren't greeted by a single person. After sitting down and making a fire, they heard the first sound of movement from within the huts. Eyes peeped out precariously from behind cracked doors. One by one, villagers emerged from their homes, and for the first time, Jim was face-to-face with real, shaken, and terrorized victims.

These villagers were scared for their lives in all senses of the word. They had locked themselves in their homes for days on end, leaving for no reason whatsoever, not even to relieve themselves or to restock on food. They were gaunt, their eyes were sunken in, but wide with fear. The tiger was prowling the village, they said, and she could be heard roaring throughout the night. And in the book, the author describes that when Jim and his party, came into the village. The first two things that struck them were the absence of people, but also the smell, because everyone was so scared to leave their homes that they were just urinating and defecating

in their homes for days and days and days on end. So these people were so terrified. They literally weren't stepping outside their house to go to the bathroom. Right. I mean, I can, I can understand why they've lost 200 people. There's just such a fear. And especially when you're hearing her, like you can't see her, but you can hear her. Like that, I cannot even imagine what that's like. And I imagine just these people who are disappearing and being taken from her. It's not like there's this bloody, horrible mess behind.

It's like she takes them and they're gone and they just never see them again. Yep. So Jim wanted to be led to her most recent kill site, but soon discovered that that was not going to happen. Everyone was way too fearful, but they did describe what had happened. A group of women were collecting leaves on the outskirts of the village. One woman had climbed up a tree and was on her way down when the tiger pounced and ripped her from it. Snatching her by the throat and running off with her so quickly, the rest of the women were stunned. They high-tailed it back to get help, but when the enraged villagers came back,

they found the woman actively being consumed by the tiger. No amounts of shouting or rock-throwing deterred her, and she defended her kill, scaring away any further attempts. Were she still alive? No. Despite hearing this, that first night, Jim did something extremely stupid. He set out, outside the boundaries of the village, alone, in the middle of the night, in hopes of luring the tiger in and killing it. Something that he writes later, he immediately regretted. As soon as he sat down against the tree, he was bathed in the light of the moon, and he said the shadows were coming alive, and that every movement and sound and wrestle and trick of the eye, he thought the tiger was coming to kill him. The next day, the villagers asked if he would stand watchers.

over the fields while they hurriedly gathered food, which they had been way too scared to do for days. He agreed, and after the village was scoured for fresh tracks and none were found, the day was spent harvesting crops. Again, that next night, he asked to be brought to the kill site, and again, the villagers refused. For Jim, this was very frustrating, because tigers usually remain by their kill sites for a handful of days before moving on. So if he could locate this kill site, site, he could locate the tiger. With no guidance from the locals, he gave up for that day, barricaded himself in the hut, and spent his second night inside the village. The following day, Jim convinced three members of the village to show him where the mountain goats were located.

It was clear that the village needed some food, and a huge morale boost. An excellent marksman, he was able to kill three of the animals and the entire village had a surge of hope and confidence, and it was because of this that they finally agreed to take him to the kill site. Jim had never hunted a man-eater, and this fact is important. Man-eating predators have variations in their behavior. They act differently than a typical tiger. One of these ways is that they're vastly more defensive of their kill sites. Usually, you can scare them away for a brief amount of time,

but tigers who predate on humans are way more defensive of their kill sites. Well, like you said, some of her teeth aren't there anymore. She has way less ability to get a kill. So if she has one, she doesn't know when she's going to get another one. Exactly. Jim did have basic knowledge of tiger behavior, and he was counting on that. After a kill, tigers spend several days rotating basically between gorging themselves and feasting and then snoozing and resting nearby until the entire meal is consumed before moving on.

And this usually takes a couple of days depending on the size of the prey. But at this point, it had been almost a week since the woman was killed. And if he was going off of that typical tiger kill sight behavior, the time that the Chompawat would be in this particular area and his time to catch her was becoming very limited. They began their way through the jungle and approached the first physical sign that a tiger had been there. The tree that the woman was taken from had spots of blood and pieces of skin thought to be. from her hands gripping the tree as she was taken, embedded in some of the bark. They followed the blood trail and pug marks, which are tiger tracks, down a ravine and up the other side. Blood was everywhere, and it was clear that the woman had been mostly consumed.

The only remnants were tattered pieces of clothing and a handful of bone shards that could be fit into a single pocket. With the tiger nowhere to be seen, the three men from the village who accompanied Jim into the forest, tearfully gathered what was left of their friend. They brought the remains home where a traditional Hindu death ritual could be performed. For the next three days, Jim scoured the surrounding jungle to no avail. No fresh scat or pug marks. No attacks, nothing. It's like she had disappeared into the forest. But although he couldn't see her, Jim heard something. In passing conversation, he had heard of the village of Champawa. This larger village about 15 miles from his current location was where the tiger apparently called home.

She always returned there and snatched the most people from that particular village. The town of Chompawat was also in the throes of fright. It was rumored that it was considered crazy to walk alone in that village no matter the time of day in fear of being taken by her. Despite the warnings, it was clear what his next move had to be, and the rumors proved almost immediately true. On his way to this village, he bypassed several groups of people, often 20 to 40 members strong. He asked one of the passing groups what was happening, what they were doing, where they were going, and they informed him that this was just how they traveled. Like if somebody had to go do something, they never went by themselves and it was always in these huge groups. It's not like, take a buddy,

go in pairs. It's like, okay, bring the whole village with you because you need to deter this tiger. and you need backup if anything was to happen. They were absolutely terrified. And some of the men in that party recently witnessed what everyone feared the most when traveling the roads. A few days prior, they had heard a distant cry from the jungle growing louder and louder. Suddenly a tiger emerged with a woman in its jaws. She was alive, held by her lower back, and she was screaming for help. As suddenly as the tiger appeared, it was off and the cries fell silent.

On May 9th of 1907, Jim and his crew arrived in Chompuat, and the next morning he received word the tiger had taken down a cow nearby. He was elated, but time was of the essence, and Jim and his group sprang into action. Upon investigation, though, it was clear that this was not to the doing of the tiger he was after, but of a leopard. The following days were full of more false leads, and with them more and more letdowns. The tiger was still out there, and that knowledge. plus being immersed in the very places and befriending the very people it was picking meals from was starting to really get to gym. He suffered panic attacks and night terrors and was increasingly nervous. But when the story of yet another girl being snatched from a group and carried off by a

tiger reached him, enough was enough. The villagers were screaming, clamoring, crying, and pleading with him all at once. Through the outpouring of information, he deciphered exactly what had happened and where, grabbed his rifle, and despite his recent onslaught of panic, walked right into the forest and directly towards the tiger. By now, this tiger had killed almost a half a thousand people. It was one of the most feared individual animals of all time, and there he was, striding directly towards it. He came upon the kill site, which was eerily similar to the last. pools of blood spattered the area, and the girl's bright blue beaded necklace lay in one of them. Jim raised his rifle and pushed on. After half a mile of tracking and following blood patterns,

he came upon the girl's sari and skirt. Now following drag marks, he came upon what he initially thought were clumps of moss, but upon further inspection, discovered it to be chunks of hair and tangled in the brush. He continued on, in hot pursuit of the tiger, fresh off of a kill. Literally, the blood was still warm. He pushed forward into a ravine, walls of rock towering on either side with a stream running through, and that's when he saw her, or at least what was left of her. He must have momentarily scared the tiger away, as blood was still dripping from the woman's severed leg. Bent down and studying her remains, he felt something was off. Decades of experience, hunting, breeding, and breeding,

and interpreting nature and becoming proficient in the language of the earth and those who prowl it paid off. In a fraction of a second, still on his heels, he spun around and instinctually fired a shot. After the clouds of dirt dissipated, it was clear he had hit the underside of the riverbank 15 feet above him, but his instincts, that gut feeling that something was wrong, was spot on. The tiger was actively retreating from the shot. It had been mid-ambushed, when the close-range shot was fired off. She wasn't hit, but was momentarily deterred. She dropped what remained of the girl to let out a guttural roar

before picking up its meal once again and taking off across the riverbed. Jim chased after the tiger, hop-scotching across the rocks, slick with water and blood. The Chompawat tiger was carrying its 436th victim, and Jim was determined that it would be her last. With only one bullet remaining, He ran after her. Four hours passed hot on her trail before night fell, and he had no choice but to turn back.

Burying the severed leg at the initial kill site for her family to cremate later, he returned to the village. Studying the landscape in the last licks of light that night, it dawned on him that he would need help and a lot of it to form a line hundreds long to flush the tiger out, just like what had been done in Nepal. Unsurprisingly, everyone was terrified, and Jim wasn't certain that anyone would even join in his ask. A beat, as it's called, is the line that forms from the volunteers, many of which historically were actually

never volunteers at all. They were forced into these positions. But a taste for revenge and redemption was on the tongues of almost 300 villagers who showed up that next day, ready for the final showdown, one of which had lost his entire family, his wife and two sons. to this tiger. Oh, God. That's awful. So these people now are just like, you know what, we don't even care anymore. Like, we're out. We'll help you just get this thing out of here. Yeah, because not only Jim, but the hunters that had attempted to take down this tiger beforehand were solo hikers. Solo hikers, solo hunters. And it was becoming very clear to Jim that at this point, that's not going to happen. Like, he alone, is not going to be able to do this.

And he needed to enlist the help of the village. And he was super nervous that no one would help him because they had been through hell. But at this point, you're right. Everyone is pissed. Enough is enough. Their strength and numbers. And the rage and the desire for kind of getting back at her,

one in the end. And a ton of people showed up for this final event. The plan was set. The men would line one side of the ravine that overlooked the stream where the tiger had been feeding. Jim would stand on the other side, signal with a handkerchief, at which point the group would scream, yell, throw boulders, and flush the tiger out into the open and down the ravine, at which point Jim would have relocated down the ravine and be waiting to take his shot. But something went wrong.

No. Before he could be in position, the line misinterpreted one. of his movements for the actual sign and prematurely started screaming. And this sent the tiger dashing down before Jim was in the right place. He scrambled down into the ravine and took cover in the only place that could conceal him. It was a small patch of tall grass in the middle of its path. And just as suspected, the tiger came bounding down the length of the ravine directly towards him. That must be so scary. He took two shots and they landed, but they weren't immediately fatal. The tiger was wounded, maybe eventually even mortally so, but right now, she was pissed.

She lashed out at bushes around her trying to find the source of her pain. Ousing blood from her chest and her shoulder wounds, Jim was now aiming for the kill shot. He raised his rifle and click, but no bullet. He was out. He had no choice but to break. from the concealment of that bush, out into the open, directly in the line of sight of the enraged animal, all in hopes that he would reach one of his men in time who carried with him an old, rusty rifle, which had gone unused for years. He ran for it, and the tiger saw him.

Turning towards him, as he was running perpendicular to her, his friend tossed him that gun, catching it mid-air, turning towards the injured man-eater. It was then, then that Jim had the most profound moment of his entire life. Here he was, face to face and eye to eye, literally, less than 20 feet away, from the most dangerous animal on the planet, one who had taken so many lives, but one he also felt for. She was an unfortunate product of her changing environment, and he felt a pang of sadness for her.

All of the emotions streaming through him all at once didn't stop his finger from pulling that trigger as she closed in on him. And with that last shot, she dropped. The group of men had heard the commotion and the gunshots from up the ravine, but in the moments before they reached them, he had time alone with the body of the Champawat Tiger. Sadness, elation, relief, and pity are odd to feel all at once, but there he was, experiencing it all.

Confirming his earlier suspicions, he inspected her mouth, only to find the two canines on the right side of her mouth destroyed. He knew these were not by his bullets. It was clear these injuries were sustained years before. Without a doubt, inflicting constant pain. Within minutes, the villagers were upon Jim and the lifeless body of the tiger, and they rejoiced. They strung up the tiger between two felled trees

and took her to be paraded throughout the villages in celebration. After several hours, the tiger was returned to Jim, as it was customary for the ones who took the final shot to skin the animal. Jim did so, noticing that the final shot he took actually didn't kill her. It hit its paw. So the first two that hit her were the ones that eventually did her in. Okay. After skinning the tiger, villagers divided it up,

taking small talismants that were believed to protect their families from further tiger attacks. Jim declined the celebratory feast invitation for the next day, writing later that it was not his celebration to partake in. Rolling up the skin, he departed the next day to hang up his rifle and clock back into work at his job on the railway. But his rifle retirement didn't last very long. Prior to the Champawat, man-eating tigers in this region of India were exceedingly rare. However, the grand finale of her reign of terror didn't mark the end of man-eaters, but rather the beginning. Jim, now widely renowned for his expert tracking and hunting skills, was called upon in various other man-eating hunts for years to come.

He went back to his full-time position at the railway, but when the need arose, from the years of 1910 to 1938, Jim was called upon to take down other problematic animals. Jim killed a total of nearly 30 tigers and leopards, all of whom had earned their own fitting man-eating titles, as they had each taken down hundreds of people. people. In total, nearly a thousand. Wow. He was now a celebrity and the British government's go-to man for taking down the fiercest and most feared of predators. But it wasn't just problematic man-eating tigers that were taken down. Due to his rise of fame, he was enlisted by the government to host and organize elaborate royal tiger hunts with elite visitors and celebrities of the time. He published memoirs, the biggest hit of all, his 1944 book, Man Eaters of Kumon, was an instant bestseller. Other writings were successful as well, and that allowed him to live a very comfortable life while also supporting his siblings.

His financial, professional, and personal success widened his life to opportunities he never imagined possible. He rubbed shoulders with the elite of the elite, top government officials, movie stars, and war heroes. He was given dozens of awards and special treatments almost everywhere he went. Other than supporting himself and his family, the vast majority of his acquired wealth went to charity. He was described as a humble man and nicknamed the Gentleman Hunter. He never boasted or exaggerated his successes, and he never hunted tigers or apex predators for sport. He only did so when there was evidence that they had been serial man-eaters, when it was clear that the animal in question had taken too many human lives. But over time, he came to another pivotal moment.

He realized he had founded his success on the demise of tigers. When he began his hunt of the Chompuat tiger in 1907, an estimated 100,000 tigers remained in the wild. But by 1946, there were less than 1,000. Jim had known there were several reasons for this, most of which were largely out of his hands, but he expressed a deep remorse in witnessing and partly partaking in their rapid demise.

The vanishing of wild tigers was happening right before his eyes, and he spent the last two decades of his life becoming one of their biggest advocates. He was a hunter-turned conservationists, and he used all his connections with government officials, coupled with his rare film footage of wild tigers to lobby for their protection. He spent tireless years advocating for tiger protection and conservation of their habitat, and in 1936 was at the forefront of establishing Haley National Park, the first of India's 104 national parks. There it is. There's the tie into the national park. You know, you're like,

where are we going? I'm like, you just wait. You just wait. We're getting there. He gave lectures, displayed his films and photographs all in a grand advocacy effort. His full-fledged attempt at changing the way that people felt about tigers. After World War II in the wake of political unsettlement in India, Jim had to make the painful decision to leave his home and settle in Africa. Never marrying or having children, dedicating his life to conservation, Jim Corbett died on April 19, 1955 in Kenya. The following year, the National Park he fought so tirelessly for, was renamed in his memory and is now known as Jim Corbett National Park. This national park is 201 square miles, 520 square kilometers, and is comprised of forest, marshes, rolling hills, grasslands, and a large lake. Temperate and weather compared to other

protected areas of this country, winter hovers between 40 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about 5 to 30 degrees Celsius, and rarely breaks over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, or 40 degrees Celsius in the summers. A tiger's paradise, this park is also home to over 400 species of flora and 500 species of fauna. Its main focus is protection of wildlife, but it serves as a major ecotourism destination as well. Many of India's national parks and protective reserves were actually former tiger hunting grounds, but now they've been converted into sanctuaries. Today, the country has 50 tiger reserves, many of which directly bordered other protected areas such as national parks. Located a stone's throw away from where the Chompuat once roamed,

and 55 years after its initial establishment, Jim Corbett National Park was increased in size to add a buffer zone to include Corbett Tiger Reserve and was chosen for the launch location for Project Tiger, a wildlife conservation project launched by the Indian government in the 70s. As with other national parks, it isn't exactly a pristine Eden. The park has a lot of challenges, including disruptive and destructive tourist behavior, poaching, and human wildlife conflict. Tigers have continued to prey on humans and villages surrounding some of these national parks,

and protecting people from tigers and tigers from people continues to be a tightrope walk. Jim Corbett was unique in so many ways, one of which was his attitude towards. tiger in that time in history. He saw their ecological value and importance and advocated for their survival, not their slaughter. His voice was among the first to stand up for tigers, and his advocacy laid the foundation for the establishment of India's first tiger reserves. He has inspired countless tiger and wildlife conservationists and brought to the forefront the importance of not only saving individual animals, but how critical preserving their habitat is to the continued survival for the species. Insight that has spurred countless initiatives, including the Tarai

Ark landscape that works with locals in Nepal to help restore fragmented tiger habitat and provide safe corridors between tiger preserves. While wild tiger populations have risen since Jim Corbett's death in 1955, the future of their species, is a very shaky one. Continued habitat loss, poaching, illegal wildlife trade for both live animals and their body parts, as well as captive tiger farming, have all taken huge tolls on wild tiger populations. As of today, tigers have lost a staggering 93% of their historic habitat. And as of this recording, January of 2022, there are an estimated 3,900 wild tigers remaining in small pockets of the planet. In a 2010 global summit, there was a worldwide goal that was set to double the number

of tigers, which was then, which was then hovering around 3,200 by the year 2022. So of course, now that we're here, we haven't made significant progress in ways of that goal, but with tigers functionally extinct from places they used to roam, such as the forests of Cambodia, Thailand, land in Vietnam, every single tiger counts. To put things in perspective, there are more tigers in the hands of private ownership. This is excluding zoos and sanctuaries in the state of Texas alone than there are in all the wilds of the world. That's horrible. And I actually, when you say that, it just reminds me of when Tiger King became a big thing, a big show. And it came out a lot of big cat advocates came forward and were like, this is actually a really big problem because we have zoos that

have tigers that have no means to have tigers. And then we also have private ownership in like these illegal sales of tigers going on in Texas. And I had never known that before. And it highlighted how there were so many people who were just willy-nilly buying tigers, which I personally don't understand. I have never understood it. Owning any sort of exotic wildlife is something that I have never understood the draw of, not only because I think it's not fair to the animal. Just from like, I would never ever want to own a macaque or a tiger or a leopard. I just, there's no draw for that. They're so dangerous.

And one, I think it's horrible because. they don't belong in your kitchen and in a yard they're wild animals but also they're so dangerous like they're going to kill your other pets they're going to potentially hurt you and your neighbors and yeah they get out you know it's just like why why would you ever ever want a tiger and where it's just like i think mike tyson i think he got a tiger at one point so it became like a symbol but that was like a shitty thing to do too as, I don't know, I just think it's horrible and I hate that that happens. It's very upsetting, especially because the animals always loose in those situations. And the one example that comes to mind right off the bat, although there are several, is the case of what happened in Ohio several years ago.

There was a man who owned a lot of wildlife, including lions, tigers, bears, wolves, and he had them in private ownership on his private property, and he struggled with some mental health issues and ended up taking his own life. But before he did so, he let all his animals out. So they were roaming the streets, and the police ended up shooting them all. I remember that. I forgot about it until you said that, but I do remember all of that. And I remember like video footage of having these wild animals just walking down the street and people calling because they took videos of them roaming through their backyards. Right. And people couldn't believe what they were seeing because they had no idea that they were there. It's not like it was a public sanctuary or zoo.

Like there was a lot of people that knew who this man was but had no idea what was going on in his backyard. So yeah, the whole subject of private ownership for various species of. exotic animals is one that I've always had a very deep interest in, not because I think it's cool, but because I think it's a huge problem. Well, people don't have protections either. It's like, why even make this something that's legal for people to do? There's no reason for someone to own a lion. There's no reason for someone to own a tiger. It kind of goes, it reminds me of I went up to Canada. I was near Banff, and I went to a wolfdog sanctuary, and they were doing a talk when we went there and it was I mean you worked in a wolf sanctuary too but they were just saying how so many

people purchased dogs because they have wolf in them and they think that this is a huge draw and then they end up at the sanctuary because people can't handle them because they're half wild they're ripping apart their furniture they're attacking their chickens they're escaping their house and getting into neighbor's stuff and they're just I remember they were telling me they this one story where someone got one of these dogs and every single day he would come home and his entire house would be ripped to shreds. And that's why he dropped it off. And it's like because they're wild, like you don't need these animals, don't breed these wolf

dogs. And it's just like it's such a weird thing that the entire world has kind of gotten on board of of like we want to have these wild animals and I just don't. I don't see the need behind it and you're just taking them out of their habitat and putting them into a place that they don't belong. And the vast majority of people who own wolf dogs, wolves, any type of animal that is not domestic, the vast majority of them are irresponsible owners or do it for the wrong reason just because they think it's cool. There are certain people out there that own sanctuaries and advocate for wolf dogs or wolves or tigers or whatever that are doing it

because now there's a need because. Yeah, because now they exist. and they need somewhere to be and they need someone to care for them the way that they properly need it. Right. And that's kind of like not to get too off topic, but it is kind of on topic. The sanctuary I worked at, the owner Darlene, the whole reason the entire sanctuary came to be is because she was volunteering for a local animal shelter when she first got introduced to what a wolf dog was. and it was scheduled to be euthanized. She took it on its way to the room, to its euthanasia appointment. That's when she adopted it and realized what a wolf dog was.

She learned about the plight of wolf dogs and therefore the plight of wolves. And that's how our entire sanctuary started. And that's why if you are to ever go to the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center, every single enclosure there and every single animal has a story as an individual, but also they're representatives of a larger problem. Like these wolves have now passed away, but there were wolves that I used to work with there that were from photo farms.

People have no idea what a photo farm is. So when you're, say you're going to Vegas or somewhere and they have baby cute little lions and tigers and wolves and you get to take pictures with them, how do you think there are always babies? They continually breed them. As soon as they get to an age that they're too rough, they can potentially injure someone,

they're either killed or booted off to somebody else. Like, oh, you want a tiger or a lion just to someone who lives down the street? Okay, great. And there you are. Another owner that isn't prepared fully for the responsibility. And that leaves a lot of animals, you know. And a lot of them, they drug these animals up too. Like, I remember I was in Cancun, Mexico, and I was walking down the street.

And this guy had a baby cheetah. And he was selling photos for like 20. $20 or whatever it was. And people were taking photos. And I remember I stopped and I was staring at it because I was just so appalled. And he started yelling at me. And he was like, if you want to look at it, you have to give me money. And this cheetah was just like, couldn't even hold its head up.

And it was a baby. Like it was clearly very drugged up so children could hold it. And then some woman came up with like her four-year-old and her four-year-old got to hold a cheetah and take a photo with it. It's so sad. Yeah, what we do to animals and how we exploit them, not only here, but in other countries, is just something that I don't think a lot of people historically had known about, but I now think that they do. And it's kind of popping up a little more and more, I think, on TripAdvisor and even on Instagram,

there are ways to be conscious travelers as far as if you're taking part in any sort of, like, animal adventure. They urge you to read up on what it is and like if it's a legitimate operation and what the true intentions behind that operation is and things like that. So I think that it's coming more to the forefront as time goes on and social media kind of brings this stuff to the forefront into a larger audience. But it's just, yeah, not. I mean, I remember when I was a kid, I was in seventh grade, I think, going to Mexico, and we swam with the dolphins. Like, I didn't know. My family didn't know.

But looking back on it now, I would never do that. You know? And it's just like we all either make mistakes or just aren't informed. But the best that you can do is educate yourself and make better decisions going forward and tell other people what you've learned in hopes that it'll, act of change. Someone I was dating a few years ago, this was a few years ago now, we were in Florida and he thought it would be a really cute, fun date to go to SeaWorld. And so we did. And I immediately was like mortified because we went and we saw the whale show. And I just thought it was so awful. Like people were cheering and so excited because the whale would like jump up and start. And

splash the whole audience. And I remember being mortified because the pool was so small. Yeah. And then the pool that it actually lived in was even smaller. And then we walked by these dolphin enclosures that were really small. And they were all the baby dolphins that you could stick your hand in and like pet them. Yeah. And it was the same thing with like, they just had so many different attractions where kids could stick their hands in and touch them. And they would have like hundreds of these things in a small pool to do it. And I just remember walking around and he meant it as like a fun date. And for me, I just walked around and I was like, this is horrible. This is awful. I really hate this because you just see it and it's like, this isn't the ocean. This isn't a sanctuary.

This isn't, you know, it just, it felt really icky being there. Yeah. This isn't natural. essentially. Yeah. And they were breeding dolphins in the place too. It was like, these are our dolphin babies. And it's like, okay, so these aren't rescued from the ocean. You're breeding dolphins so people can pet them and get excited about dolphins in this small little pool, but they live here now for the rest of their lives. Like it just, it felt really, really icky and I hated it. Yeah. And there is, you know, a place for accredited facilities. that are participating in programs with species survival programs and obtaining genetic information and perpetuating a genetic line. Like that is a totally separate thing and that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the exploitation of animals for entertainment.

That's what we're talking about. Because there is conservation in zoos as well to try and, I remember I went to the San Diego Zoo and I don't totally remember the exact species. It was some type of like whart hog. It wasn't a warthog, but it was some like subspecies of that. And they had some of the last ones that existed on the planet. And they were trying to keep it alive. And so like you can go to different zoos and they have conservation efforts.

And then you have animals that have been injured in the wild that have been rehabilitated and things like that. But then you have places like SeaWorld or these like circuses or just like if you live in a small area and you go to like some new zoo. that's in town, like it's all a sham. It's all, there's no animal there that's being saved. It's all for money. It's all for entertainment. So, yeah, just, I guess the whole point of that whole sidetrack tangent that I'm going to keep in because it's important is just do your research and read up on things if, you know,

like Cassie said, a new zoo. It's a roadside zoo, like, you know, and advocate for what you think is wrong. things are changing and laws are changing and there's hope in that but the more and more you open your eyes to these problems the more and more you seem to find yeah and the less you support them the less they're going to exist because if you're stopping at the roadside zoos and you're going to these places you're paying them and that's why they exist and if we stop doing that and we really do our research and only put our money towards things that actually are doing something productive and helpful, then we're going to weed out eventually all of these sham organizations that are

being really cruel. Exactly. Well, to wrap this episode up as far as the Chompawat Tiger, circling back to tigers to finish this off, the continued survival of wild tigers is a sensitive subject. As locals face everyday challenges of human tiger conflicts, but taking a look back, we know that coexistence can be achieved. And in these changing times in altered landscapes, we need to evolve our thinking and our tactics to best suit both species. And Dane Hucklebridge, the author of the book, No Be So Fierce, that brilliant book that I was raving about earlier, and that I read and used as a primary source of information for this episode, he concludes his book with this following paragraph that it's just so

beautifully put, I want to end with this. When the forest is seen not as an obstruction to be cleared, but rather as a crucial resource to be preserved, a convincing incentive becomes apparent. And when it comes to guarding and maintaining the health of a forest, there is no better partner than a wild tiger. Jim Corbett was unique for his time and place in that he understood this all too well. Despite seeing the bodies of countless victims, nearly becoming one himself on multiple occasions, he never once harbored ill-will towards these predatory cats and tigers. He understood the secret truth about humans and tigers. It is the same truth that was chiseled on Sanskrit tablets all those millennia ago,

and even hinted at by William Shakespeare, that when it comes to behaving as a beast, to killing wantonly and without reason, it is our kind, not theirs, that is the fiercer of the two. And that, my friends, is the story of the man-eating Chompuat Tiger and Jim Corbett, her most feared adversary turned fiercest protector. I love that. I love that there was a conservation aspect to that story, along with a really morbid animal attack story put in there.

I just love that story so much. It really means the most to me, and it's because I am so interested in how humans have an effect on the environment, and therefore animals and how that effect on the animals and environment then in turn has an impact on humans. It's just everything is so interconnected and so complicated, and that's why I have such a passion for conservation and environmental protection is because everything's connected. And we need to think of the bigger picture when it comes to everyday decisions. It may seem small and insignificant, but what we do and what we support and how we behave

it dictates the future for a lot of things and not just ourselves. So I think that this story was a really good example of things that can happen when we mismanage wild places and spaces and wild things. And it was horrific for those 436 people in this particular case. But there's a reason that that happened and we need to learn from it. Yeah. And it reminded me of the Grizzly episode, too. where it was like, oh, it's so out of the norm for a grizzly to be acting this way and to be getting so

close to people. And because that one grizzly bear had so many instances before actually attack someone where it was for a reason, you know, its teeth were worn down, it was sickly. And for this tiger was acting this way because it had been shot. It had lost its canine teeth, which are really important to be able to hunt and to be able to be. able to tear apart. I mean, like you said, in part of it, it grabs them by the throat. And if you're missing your canines to take down a huge animal, that's going to be a huge deal. And a person caused that. So it's just all kind of comes full circle and why things happen. And kind of like what I said at the beginning of the episode where I was like, we're at the bottom of the food chain.

We're the, if it wasn't for our brains, you know, that tiger was like, well, here's a bunch of weak things. Like, let's go after this. Exactly. She was just a product of her environment. And that's why I named this episode, The Man Made Man-Eater, because she just had to adapt to the card she was dealt. And that's what her particular story was. And it's one that's repeated in a lot of different circumstances, but if you do want a deeper dive into Jim Corbett and the Tigers of Asia, Jim Corbett National Park and their conservation efforts as well as what you can do to help wild tigers, I did list a few links in the episode description for more information about those things. And if you're interested in this story, not only this particular story, but how

environmental changes and human impact changes the behavior. of predators, then I would highly recommend this book. No Beast, So Fierce. And I think that can be it. Perfect. Well, thank you so much for telling that episode. I really liked it, and I really like that it incorporated so much conservation. I can't wait for next week. So in the meantime, enjoy the view, but watch your back. Bye, everyone. Bye. Thank you so much for being here again this week. you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at NPAD Stories at gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast.

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