Cannibalistic Tiger?

[JessKB]

I went to the reptile show in Taylor MI with Neotenic Jaymes last weekend and a vendor had a couple tigers that appear to have physical cannibalistic attributes. Both specimens have very wide, flat heads. They certainly don't look like normal tigers.

Here's pictures of the one I purchased:





What do you guys think? cannibal tiger? or just weirdly shaped?

 

[kiathepooch]

Mine have slightly flatter and wider heads than normal but i keep two together and they haven't attacked or eaten each other yet?

Yours does have a bigger head than mine....maybe someone else can shed some light on it!

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[jasper408]

No one is posting, so I'll add my .02. It doesn't look swollen and it definitely looks like the jaws a cannibalistic tiger would have. I was curious about what the head shape would look like after morphing, and it seems to retain its shape. I wonder if its cannibalistic tendencies remain.

 

[Neotenic_Jaymes]

Took me a while to take pics but its done. After an hour of wrangling and getting dirt all over my phone, here are the pictures. Notice the difference in head shape and size. Bottom jaws are visible from top view and snout is very much longer. This Tiger Salamander was larger than the one JessKB got.

Meets all criteria of (cannibalistic Tiger Salamander). Though I couldn't find any pictures of Cannibal Tiger Salamanders anywhere for comparison, besides skull sketches. I did do some reading and most or all the articles mentioned larger head size, larger mouths, elongated vomer/snout and enlarged recurved teeth. Though I haven't checked the teeth, doubt that I will. The seller said they were cannibal morphs but I had to look into it myself.

Cannibalistic individuals have been recorded in multiple species of Tiger Salamanders. Though most individuals are or can be cannibals only few change into the cannibal morph. One article suggests that populations that do have cannibal morph Tigers Salamanders usually means that all the Tiger Salamanders in that population have the genetic cues to become a cannibal morph. The cannibal morph process begins when they're larvae.

Here are the pictures, some of the pictures in the comparison shots aren't all mine.

 

[xxianxx]

Nice pics guys, they clearly show a non standard head. There is an old thread about cannibal head development http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-...-jaw-tooth-structure-canibalistic-larvae.html

 

[JTinker92]

so does a cannibal show aggression towards the handle if you try to pick it up or whats so bad about them. i mean whats the difference if you had one in captivity?