[originaltext] Why are so few tigers man-eaters? Why are fewer than three pe

Why are so few tigers man-eaters? Why are fewer than three percent likely to be man-eaters? Why are we off the menu for tigers?
    It’s widely assumed that tigers keep us off the menu through fear. But what are they afraid of? Do they know that we may be better armed than they are? Can they really realize that if they kill just one of us they’ll get a whole army after them? Do they find our smell unpleasant? Perhaps.
    I think the explanation is simpler and, in a way, more interesting. I suspect that a tiger’s fear of humans lies in the way he perceives us at the unique moment of contact.
   I am 1.8m tall. A tiger is less than lm tall but may be up to 3m long. So when a tiger sees me, it might reasonably assume that I’m 6m long. If I were a huge deer, he’d leap on my back, but he discovers I have no back. From the front I’m huge, but from the side I all but disappear very upset. A hunter has to be confident that it can tackle its prey, and no one’s confident when upset.
   If I’m correct, the opposite should be tree of a sitting human, who is half the size, presents twice the spread of back and more closely resembles a medium-sized deer. And, indeed, many attacks on people involve villagers sitting or bending over to cut grass.
   When that tiger appeared within inches of me on that twilight evening, I know what was going through my mind. But perhaps I should not even try to guess what he was thinking.