There is nothing sinister in his death, it is normal for a young male once pushed out of his territory by his father to wander in search of a new territory. It's a damn tough time for a young male tiger, they aren't big or strong enough to take on existing territorial males so they have to find somewhere they can establish a territory of their own that has both suitable habitat, suitable prey and of course females. Sometimes they get lucky, but in Veeru's case they are in the wrong place at the wrong time and just don't have enough in the armoury to fight back. It's natural selection at it's most brutal.

Increasingly as success of Ranthambhore's tigers grows, the problem with wandering males is going to get worse. I wrote a BLOG last week ( click here to see it ) about the fate of Pretty Boy, a year older than Veeru, who wandered and turned man-eater as he was pushed increasingly into areas where he would come into conflict with humans. Of course the situation with Veeru is different, but the problem of young male tigers starting to wander out of the core area is only going to get worse as the population grows. And right now we have two more male cubs, sons of the mighty Krishna, who will this season get pushed out by their father T-74 and will have no choice but to find a territory elsewhere. 

There are many success stories of young male tigers that do find there place, we know about one of these due to the fantastic efforts of Tiger Watch who continue to make a difference in Ranthambhore. Noor's first surviving son, Sultan T72, wandered far and wide when he was kicked out by his father Ustad T24 but he avoided human conflict and eventually ended up in Kaliadevi Sanctuary. Here he has reigned supreme and now he is a "boss' with a large territory and cubs of his own. Here he is on one of the last times that I saw him...

And there are many like Sultan who go on to make a successful life. Clearly there has to be a management plan for these young males to try to mitigate against too many deaths but it is just a natural process that has been going on for centuries. Too often these days we react and interfere so what we need is a period of investigation and discussion to work out the best forward and then come up with a plan to decide if we need to act and how. One option is to translocate them to other parks that are being established as new tiger reserves. One of my favourite males ever, Cowboy T91, was moved to the Mukundra Hills tiger reserve as the dominant male. Eventually (after a ridiculous delay) a single female, one of Noor's daughters, has been moved with him so at least they have a chance of starting a new generation there. Hopefully the second promised female will fight through the bureaucracy make her way there; it's a blueprint for the future if we can make it work. But also of course the other option is to just simply do nothing, not to interfere and let nature take it's course.