Richard Parker

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Richard Parker is a Bengal tiger that is stranded on the lifeboat with Pi when the ship sinks. Richard Parker lives on the lifeboat with Pi and is kept alive with the food and water Pi delivers. Richard Parker develops a relationship with Pi that allows them to coexist in their struggle.
In the novel, a hunter named Richard Parker is hired to kill a panther thought to have killed seven people within two months. Instead he immobilizes a female Bengal tiger with tranquilizer darts while her cub escapes to hide in a bush. Parker names the cub Thirsty after its enthusiasm when drinking from a nearby river. The paperwork that accompanies the shipment of the two tigers to Pi's family's zoo in Pondicherry states that that the cub's name is "Richard Parker" and the hunter's given name is "Thirsty" and his surname is "None Given". Pi and his father find the story so amusing that they continue to call the tiger "Richard Parker".