Quick answer
Tigers are solitary carnivores. Their diet is dominated by deer and wild boar, plus other ungulates available in each landscape — from chital and sambar in India to elk and wild pigs in the Russian Far East.
At a glance
| Diet | Carnivore — mainly ungulates |
|---|---|
| Common prey | Deer, wild boar, sometimes buffalo/gaur |
| Hunting | Solitary stalk and ambush |
| Humans as prey | Rare; conflict situations differ |
What do tigers eat in each region?
Bengal tigers take chital, sambar, wild boar, and occasionally larger bovids. Amur tigers hunt red deer (elk), wild boar, and roe deer. Sumatran tigers take smaller forest ungulates in dense habitat. Camera-trap and kill-site studies keep showing ungulates first. A depleted prey base is a livestock-conflict forecast, not a trivia gap.
When wild prey is depleted, tigers may kill livestock — a major driver of human–tiger conflict.
How do tigers hunt?
Tigers stalk using cover, then rush and seize prey with body weight and forelimbs before a suffocating throat bite on large animals. They may drag carcasses into cover and feed over several days.
Do tigers eat livestock — or people?
Most tigers avoid people. Attacks on humans are uncommon relative to range overlap but tragic when they occur — often linked to injury, habitat squeeze, or scarce prey. Never feed tigers in the wild.
What happens from stalk to carcass?
A tiger may spend long periods moving slowly along trails and water edges, reading scent and sound. The final rush covers a short distance. Large prey is seized and bitten in the throat; smaller prey may be bitten through the nape. Carcasses are dragged into shade to reduce theft by dholes, leopards, or people.
Camera-trap and kill-site studies show that wild pigs and deer dominate many diets, but tigers are opportunistic within their size class. In the Sundarbans, swimming and mangrove hunting add unique challenges. In temperate forests, seasonal prey movements shape tiger paths.
When wild ungulates are overhunted, livestock becomes a dangerous substitute — dangerous for tigers because it brings poison and guns. Prey recovery programmes are therefore central to reducing conflict, not only to feeding tigers in the abstract.
What happens when the deer are gone?
A tiger without ungulates kills livestock and dies to poison or guns. Prey recovery is tiger conservation. Stripe-pattern ID and camera traps only tell you the forest is empty after the fact.
Donate to WARN’s tiger appeal for partner-led protection — not a WARN-run zoo. Unrestricted gifts still help if you want funds to move to whichever rescue is most urgent.
Refuse products that claim tiger bone, whiskers, or skin. Demand reduction is diet conservation by another name.
Sources
FAQs
What do tigers eat?
Tigers are solitary obligate carnivores. Diet is dominated by deer and wild boar, plus other ungulates in each landscape — chital and sambar in India, elk and wild pigs in the Russian Far East, smaller forest ungulates on Sumatra. When those herds are hunted out, livestock killing rises and so does retaliatory poisoning.
Do tigers eat every day?
Not always. A large kill can feed an adult for days in cover. Hunting success is often low; much of a tiger’s time is slow movement along trails and water edges. Fasting between kills is normal ecology, not starvation by default. Cubs suffer first when kills fail.
Do tigers scavenge?
They primarily hunt but will finish carcasses and occasionally take from dholes, leopards, or other tigers. Dragging a kill into shade reduces theft. Scavenging is opportunistic, not a substitute for a prey base. Empty forests still produce conflict even if some carrion exists.
Are tigers carnivores?
Yes — obligate carnivores that need meat. This page is not a zoo diet sheet and not permission to feed a captive cat. Never bait wild tigers for photos. Prey recovery programmes are how you “feed” wild tigers without creating man-eaters.
Who this page is for.This page is about wild diet. Skip it if you need a captive feeding plan from a veterinarian.