{"id":672814,"date":"2026-11-02T16:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T16:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/672814\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T16:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T16:28:10","slug":"captivity-changes-bengal-tigers-gut-bacteria-diversity-wild-big-cats-have-a-healthier-gut-finds-zsi-study-kolkata-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/672814\/","title":{"rendered":"Captivity changes Bengal tigers\u2019 gut bacteria diversity, wild big cats have a healthier gut, finds ZSI study | Kolkata News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/tiger-foodjpg.jpg\" alt=\"Captivity changes Bengal tigers\u2019 gut bacteria diversity, wild big cats have a healthier gut, finds ZSI study\" title=\"The study is set to provide insight into tiger conservation, say researchers\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>The study is set to provide insight into tiger conservation, say researchers Kolkata: What can the bacteria living inside a tiger\u2019s gut tell us about its health and life in the wild? Quite a lot, suggests a new study on Bengal tigers, which has found that wild tigers have a richer, more diverse community of gut microbes than those living in captivity.The research by Zoological Survey of India scientists highlights the role of habitat in shaping tiger gut microbiome. \u201cThe findings could have implications for tiger conservation beyond conventional monitoring of health, genetics and behaviour. Gut microbiome assessments could eventually become an additional tool in captive breeding, animal exchanges between zoos and reintroduction programmes,\u201d said the report, published recently in Molecular Biology Reports.\u201cA tiger\u2019s gut contains a community of microorganisms that helps process food and supports metabolism and immune function. Studying these bacteria can provide clues about the animal\u2019s diet, environmental exposure and digestive health. We can examine this community through DNA recovered from fresh droppings. Comparing wild and captive animals helps us understand how their living conditions are reflected in their bodies. However, this alone cannot establish whether a tiger is healthy or sick,\u201d said ZSI senior scientist Mukesh Thakur, who led the study \u2018Exploring Sex- and Captivity-Associated Gut Microbial Diversity in Bengal Tigers\u2019.Co-authors of this study are Stanzin Dolker, Avijit Ghosh, Vinaya Kumar Singh, Bheem Dutt Joshi and Lalit Kumar Sharma, all affiliated with the ZSI, Kolkata.Thakur said they compared faecal microbiome samples from 10 captive tigers (seven male and three female) and seven wild tigers (all male) and analysed them alongside publicly available microbial data from three other subspecies \u2014 Amur, Malayan and South China tigers.\u201cThe findings revealed a clear distinction between captive and wild Bengal tigers. While captive animals showed an enrichment of bacteria associated with protein fermentation, wild tigers had a greater abundance of environmentally associated microbial groups. Wild Bengal tigers also recorded higher microbial richness and diversity,\u201d said Thakur, adding that differences were not driven by sex. Male and female captive Bengal tigers showed substantial overlap in their gut microbial communities.The comparison across subspecies \u2014 35 Amur, 12 South China, six Malayan and six Bengal tigers \u2014 showed that despite their evolutionary differences and geographical separation, tigers showed broad similarities in their microbial community composition. South China and Amur tigers, however, displayed lower microbial richness than Bengal and Malayan tigers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The study is set to provide insight into tiger conservation, say researchers Kolkata: What can the bacteria living&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[102510,284975,137080,89698,284977,266850,284979,284983,284987,284973,284982,24617,284981,61,60,22058,284978,23538,284985,284984,284972,234702,284986,82,284990,284974,100612,284967,284968,284989,284991,284976,284980,263,284969,284988,284970,284971],"class_list":["post-672814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-amur-tiger","tag-avijit-ghosh","tag-bengal-tiger","tag-bengal-tigers","tag-bheem-dutt-joshi","tag-captive-breeding-programs","tag-captive-tigers","tag-dna-from-tiger-droppings","tag-environmentally-associated-microbes","tag-exploring-sex-and-captivity-associated-gut-microbial-diversity-in-bengal-tigers","tag-faecal-microbiome-analysis","tag-gut-microbiota","tag-habitat-impact-on-microbiome","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kolkata","tag-lalit-kumar-sharma","tag-malayan-tiger","tag-microbial-diversity","tag-microbial-richness","tag-molecular-biology-reports","tag-mukesh-thakur","tag-protein-fermentation-bacteria","tag-science","tag-south-china-tiger","tag-stanzin-dolker","tag-tiger-conservation","tag-tiger-gut-microbiome","tag-tiger-health","tag-tiger-reintroduction-programmes","tag-tiger-subspecies-comparison","tag-vinaya-kumar-singh","tag-wild-tigers","tag-wildlife","tag-wildlife-health-monitoring","tag-zoo-animal-exchanges","tag-zoological-survey-of-india","tag-zsi-kolkata"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}