India is the only country in the world that is currently home to both of these charismatic big cats, and history and biology say they can indeed co-exist, says Prerna Bindra.
The felines’ ranges overlapped for millennia across much of western Asia – in India, this was the case into the early 19th century.
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Much as predators co-exist in Africa, tigers and lions can live together within carefully drawn boundaries. For example, they may use adjoining habitats, or the same habitats at different times.
Behavioural adaptation is another strategy, particularly when it comes to hunting: tigers are largely nocturnal and solitary predators, killing prey by ambush, while lions are social felids, hunting co-operatively with their prides.
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