Almost everything you see in the book/movie was not part of the "real" story.

The
film/book depicts the fantasies and hallucinations of a severely traumatized young man.

Chef (hyena) killed and ate the sailor (zebra) and Pi's mother (orangutan). It can be
assumed that Pi succumbed to her cannibalism and ate her own mother. These actions
cause Pi to mentally recover. Here pi becomes a tiger. A tiger is a survival instinct from
his subconscious and he kills the cook. He can only guess that he eats cooks too.

(And throughout history) the Pi maintains itself as a separate entity from the evil
survival instinct (tiger) that has overtaken it. He wants to tame this instinctive creature.
He is a kind of unavoidable evil... The fact that Pi was previously a vegetarian and
animal lover lead him to make up a story other than a predator. He imagines himself as
a separate creature, feeding on carnivorous predators when necessary.

Impossible "Island" is perhaps the most bizarre part of history. In many ways, Pi sees
this "place" as a refuge and refuge from the open sea. I believe that at this point in Pi's
travels, he lies semiconsciously on his stomach and falls into a pure psychedelic
illusion. Part of him knows this is not real and sees both benefits and risks in these
hallucinations. Pi believes that the island is safe during the day, but dangerous at night.

Finally, he realizes that he has landed on the (real) beach and has safely returned to
civilization, and the tiger part is gone... But instead it instantly melts into the jungle. He
“removes” this aspect of himself when he is no longer needed.