More than 1,500 people have been killed here in the last 30 years. Because tigers prefer sneak attacks from behind, people here started wearing face masks to fool the big cats into thinking they'd lost the element of surprise.
It worked for awhile, but now the tigers may be calling the bluff because the number of tiger attacks in the past few years is on the rise. The tiger's capable of catching almost anything except for a full-grown elephant.
But with plenty of prey, they'll choose to live off 20 different species of animal.Tigers succeed in a hunt less than 20% of the time, but on average they'll still catch one large mammal, such as deer, and a handful of smaller ones every week. But they are fussy about where they have their meals, and usually prefer to drag their victim into their jungle dining room.
One tiger was watched as it dragged a full-grown horse more than 400 meters to its favorite eating spot.
Tigers in the wild are solitary animals with only themselves to look out for, but the next contender has numbers on its side and uses them to catch the biggest prey of any cat.
So far we've seen tigers chomp in the swamps and snow leopards kill in the hills, but coming up the battles just get bigger with a cat that's evolved to attack in a pack.
And still to come, a small cat that's turned into a giant problem, next on The Most Extreme.
Forget the king of the beasts, its the queen that comes in at number five on our countdown of killer cats.
Lady lion is the top predator on the African plains. Lions live in groups called prides that can number up to 20 animals. It's a collective where they share the work. The female lions are the ones who do the hunting and they can choose from a menu of 20 different animals which includes hefty buffalo, zebra, and wildebeest. Rather than help out, the males of the pride stay home more than 95% of the time.
It seems their fabulous mane isn't much help in the sneak attack that lions use to hunt.
So, like all good kings, the male lion spends his time sitting around and looking regal while the others do all the work.
Lions only succeed about a quarter of the time, and when the lionesses come home tired and grumpy from a hard day of hunting to find his highness sitting proudly you know what happens next.
Luckily there's a place that specializes in taking care of battered lions, and 22 other types of wild cat.
Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Florida is home to the big cats that no one else wants according to manager Scott Lope.
Big Cat Rescue is an animal sanctuary, and we're dedicated primarily to exotic cats.
We have about 170 cats, and they range from the tiny Geoffroy cats from South America all the way up to the lions and tigers which are the largest of the cats.
This sanctuary isn't a zoo.
It's the final destination for animals that have suffered irresponsible pet ownership at its worst.
We're not like a zoo because we didn't actively go out and collect these animals.
All the animals at Big Cat Rescue are basically animals that needed a home, whether they were a police confiscation, an unwanted pet, a retired performing animal.
These were all animals that nobody wanted.
Scott's 170 wild cats need a lot of attention.
Housing and feeding them is just a small part of giving them the best life possible under the circumstances.
This cat can be found anywhere, from the bottom of Florida across to Washington State, and as far as the tip of South America.
Cougars are happy eating anything, from berries to small bears. They make it to number four in the countdown with a diet of more than 50 species of animal.
While almost anything that moves is on the cougar's menu, they are fussy about just one thing.
While the other big cats don't mind scavenging a meal some other predator prepared for them, cougars prefer to catch their own food.
The cougar is the long jumper of the cats.
It can reach 70 kilometers per hour in an instant, and uses this speed to make leaps of up to six meters.
By waiting until its prey is within reach, the cougar makes sure that it rarely misses.
Like many of the big cats cougars almost always come from behind and will go straight for the neck or the throat.
The cougar may be one of the most complete killers on our list, but it loses out to the big bite at number three.
While the cougar preys all alone, and lions prey together, coming up are people that once prayed to a killer cat.
And later, what killer kitty likes to eat puppy dogs? Find out next on The Most Extreme.
Our next killer cat makes its home in the world's biggest jungle.
And through its eyes, the Amazon jungle is one giant supermarket full of goodies, fully stocked with the 85 different types of animal that the jaguar likes to eat.
The jaguar can be found anywhere south of Texas, and is the world's third-largest cat.
Jaguars are the only cats that kill with a single bite to the skull, a tactic they can use when hunting peccaries.
The caiman, a tropical alligator, is also high on their list of preferred species.
Even turtle shells can't protect from the jaguar's massive bite.
The jaguar's ability to kill once made it a god.
The jaguar was revered throughout Mesoamerica.
It was the being that linked the living with the dead.
For the militaristic Aztecs, the jaguar was a god of war.
One of the highest ranks in their armies was the jaguar knight.
A soldier had to capture four enemies in battle, and feed their hearts to a jaguar before he'd be promoted.
From then on, the jaguar knight would have a full-time job fighting battles and capturing more fresh hearts for the jaguar. The jaguar is like a leopard on steroids.
It's bigger, stronger, and heavier. But it still can't climb past the lethal leopard in our list of killer cats.
The leopard has a prey base of more than 90 animals in Africa alone, securing it the number two position in our countdown of killer cats.
It stands out as the most common of the big cats, and lives throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, India, and Southeast Asia.
If sheer numbers don't put the leopard head and shoulders above the other cats, then its climbing skills will.
Leo pards mostly hunt medium-sized hoofed animals, such as impala and gazelle, but baby giraffe, monkeys, and gorilla are also on the list.
But it's what happens when the hunt is over that makes the leopard so special.
Leopards like a room with a view, and will drag their prey high into trees before eating them.
These weightlifters of the animal world have been seen dragging prey three times heavier than they are almost six meters up into a tree.
The
leopard has certainly scaled the heights
of the cat kingdom, but it still can't
kill like our top killer cat .
We've seen the nine contenders . They're the best of the best . Only one cat is a more extreme killing machine
. It's number one, and it's coming up next on The Most Extreme . Our number one killer cat is part loving pet, and part vicious predator .
It's soft and cuddly on the outside,
but a hungry killer lurks within .
More so than any other animal, the house cat has learned to become highly
domesticated while keeping in touch with
the wild hunter it is at heart .
This little beast is a crafty carnivore, and can catch and eat more than 1,000 different species of animal .
Anything it can overpower is prey . And it rarely kills for food .
- What in the name of God?
There are 73,000,000 pet cats in the United States, driving the yearly house cat kill to 1,500,000,000 animals . The most successful of the house cats was the lighthouse keeper's cat on Stephen's Island, New Zealand . The year was 1894, and the victim was an undiscovered species of wren .
Before the lighthouse keeper ever realized he was sharing his island with a very rare
bird his pet cat had managed to
exterminate the whole species in just a
few months .
And cat numbers are exploding . Just one mother cat and her babies can produce up to 600,000 offspring in 10
years .
But why are house cats such natural born
killers? Could it be that they've lost
their mind? Every wild cat lives a short and hard life in a full-time fight for survival, but house cats live in luxury with plenty of time and energy for their
killing spree .
They kill hundreds more species than their
nearest rival, which is why when it
comes to killing the domestic cat really
is The Most Extreme .
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