Siberian (Amur) Tiger

Help save Siberian tigers from extinction

2012-01-28T06:02:00.000-08:00

To the Editor:

My name is Rowan E. Montgomery and I’m 9 years old. I want to tell you about Siberian tigers and how they’re going extinct.

Siberian tigers live in Russia. They are aggressive and hunt alone. They’re active mostly at night. In the nature special I watched on the Discovery channel, these tigers were so aggressive that they destroyed a fake Siberian tiger that the scientists put out. The fake tiger was so realistic that even the dogs thought it was real! By morning all of the color was taken off and the head, arms and tail were destroyed. This shows how powerful these animals are. They can grow as long as 13 feet and weigh as much as 700 pounds!

Siberian tigers are being killed by guns and other weapons for their body parts and fur. People sell the whiskers, bones and skins. In China they make medicine out of the bones even though it is illegal. Siberian tigers live in forests that are getting cut down for logging, taking away the land they need to live. Between 360 and 450 Siberian tigers are left in the world.

You could help to save the Siberian tigers if you wrote letters to the government, made a donation to a tiger conservation organization, or adopt a Siberian tiger from a zoo. You can make a difference if you just try.

Rowan E. Montgomery
Clay

Volunteers clear traps for Siberian tigers in NE China

2012-01-16T07:18:00.001-08:00

Dozens of volunteers braved freezing temperatures and knee-high snow to clear traps for endangered wild Siberian tigers in northeast China this week.

In six groups, 73 volunteers searched six forest farms in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang in a four-day trap-clearing campaign that ended Friday.

The volunteers, age 18 and 65, included doctors, computer engineers, public servants and college students. There was even an Australian named Melissa Pettigrew.

If more people go out to clear traps in order to protect Siberian tigers, the endangered animals and their offspring can be better protected, Pettigrew said.

Winter is a tough season for the rare tigers as their prey becomes scarce, and the animals sometimes die from not having enough to eat or by coming into contact with a hunter's bullet or a trap.

Wang Lin, an initiator of the trap-clearing campaign, said that every winter, poachers set iron wire ring traps to catch wild animals like rabbits and roe deer as they can be more easily tracked on snow.

"The traps are cheap but very dangerous," said Wang. "They reduce the population of small animals, which are often prey for the tigers. They can even hurt tigers or help to catch them."

In late October 2011, a wild Siberian tiger was found dead with a trap around its neck in the city of Mishan in Heilongjiang, prompting environmentalists to call for enhanced wildlife protection.

Four to six wild Siberian tigers are believed to be living on the six forest farms, underscoring the importance of the volunteers' protection efforts.

Workers at one forest farm filmed a Siberian tiger last November, and with improving ecology, there have been more and more tiger paw prints spotted over the past couple of years.

One group of volunteers cleared 39 traps in the first three days, but their efforts were called off a day ahead of schedule after a forest farm worker told them he spotted a Siberian tiger and avoided the big cat by hiding behind a tree on Wednesday.

Two World Wildlife Fund experts tracked the tiger's paw prints on the snow for a day on Thursday, and found the female adult tiger roaming along a deserted forest road.

Siberian tigers are among the world's rarest species. The population of wild Siberian tigers is estimated at around 500, most of which live in Russia's far east and China's northeast.

There are only about 20 left in China, mostly in Heilongjiang and its neighboring province of Jilin, and according to Xinhua's calculations, seven have been found dead since 1993. Most of their deaths were related to human activities.

In November 2010, leaders from 13 countries, including China and Russia, committed to backing the Global Tiger Recovery Program, which aims to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022.

China has set up nature reserves along its border with Russia to better protect the tigers' habitats by curbing excessive deforestation and poaching.

"Clearing one trap means reducing some danger," said Liu Tong, an expert with the New York-based non-profit organization Wildlife Conservation Society. "What we want to see most is no poaching and no traps in the habitats of the endangered Siberian tigers."

Little Bird Owns Siberian Tiger

2012-01-10T07:50:00.001-08:00

Escaped Siberian tiger shot dead in East China park

2012-01-04T13:41:00.000-08:00

A rare Siberian tiger escaped from an east China zoo, frightening locals in a downtown public park before she was shot dead by more than 12 police, the official Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.

The nine-year-old endangered big cat fled her cage in Wuhu city, Anhui province when a zookeeper there forgot to lock the gate properly after feeding time, Xinhua said, citing zoo officials.

The tiger had a bad temper, "probably caused by mating anxiety," the zoo officials told Xinhua, which said that further investigation is underway. No humans were hurt in the incident.

The tiger's escape was the latest in a string of cases involving tigers escaping from zoos in China over the past few years, according to local media reports.

In January, a tour bus driver was mauled to death by a tiger at a breeding centre in northeast China after he got out of his vehicle to check on a mechanical problem and was dragged off to a wooded area by the hungry cat.

China says it has nearly 6,000 endangered tigers in captivity, but just 50 to 60 living in the wild in its northeast, including about 20 Siberian tigers.

In the 1980s, China set up tiger farms to try to preserve the big cats, intending to release some into the wild.
But the farms have come under the international spotlight, with some conservation groups saying they use the cats for their body parts, while media reports have exposed poor conditions at zoos and animal parks.
In one tiger attack in 2009, police in northeast China shot dead two starving Siberian tigers after they severely mauled a zoo worker.

Most escaped tigers are put down by police if they are not caught.

Russia's Siberian tigers 'face extinction'

2011-12-25T08:07:00.000-08:00

A sub-species of tiger faces extinction by 2022 unless decisive action is taken, environmental group WWF warns.

Worldwide tiger populations have plummeted from 100,000 a century ago to less than 7,000 today.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, tigers could be extinct in the wild within a decade.
The Siberian or Amur Tiger is one of the rarest in the world, with only around 500 left in the wild in Russia. But poaching, disease, and habitat loss from intensive logging and development continues to threaten populations.

Artificial snow keeps tigers comfortable in NE China

2011-12-16T08:18:00.001-08:00

A Siberian tiger breeding center in northeast China is using artificial snow to comfort its tigers after receiving inadequate amounts of natural snow, the center's chief engineer said.

The center's 1,000-plus tigers need snow to quench their thirst and wash themselves, but this year's snowfall has been too little to meet their requirements, said Liu Dan, chief engineer of the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province.

The Sun Island Snow Expo Park located next to the breeding center has provided about 90 cubic meters of artificial snow for free to help the tigers deal with the mild winter, Liu said.

The artificial snow has also provided visiting tourists with entertainment, as they enjoy watching the tigers play in the snow, Liu added.

Siberian tigers are among the world's rarest species. The population of wild Siberian tigers is estimated to be around 500, most of which live in east Russia and northeast China.

Siberian tigers may disappear in 20 years

2011-12-07T02:37:00.000-08:00

The last remaining Siberian tigers living wild in Northeast China could disappear within decades, as poaching and illegal logging continue to take their toll, experts have warned.

Research by Chinese authorities and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has discovered that the animal is already one of the planet’s most endangered species.

In just the last 70 years, the estimated population of Siberian tigers, or Amur tigers, has plummeted from as many as 300 to just 18 to 22.

“If the government fails to take effective measures, it’s foreseeable that these creatures could disappear from China within 10 to 20 years,” said Zhu Chunquan, conservation director of biodiversity and operations at the WWF’s Beijing office.

“The poaching of wild animals, which is the tigers’ main food source, is the greatest threat to their survival,” he said, adding that extensive logging in the mountainous provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin has also massively reduced their natural habitats.

Since 1996, when hunting for wildlife was banned in both provinces, authorities have noted a sharp rise in poaching with iron-wire snares.

Zhu said traps can be easily bought in small shops close to forest areas, with most used to catch red deer, sika deer, wild boars and roe deer, which Amur tigers hunt for food.

“A decade ago, we’d see roe deer while driving by (the forests),” said Cao Zhiquan, director of Qiyuan Forest Farm in Dongfanghong township, Heilongjiang. “Now it’s even rare to see a squirrel.”

Traps also pose a huge risk to the tigers, too. In October, a dead Siberian tiger was found with a wire snare around its neck near a reservoir in Mishan, Heilongjiang. Wildlife experts said the animal did not choke to death straight away, but instead died several days later from starvation.

A WWF survey of the wild tigers’ habitats in Heilongjiang and Jilin found an average of 1.6 traps for every 10 kilometers.

“Volunteers from the WWF hold campaigns to remove traps every year, but we’ve gradually accepted the fact that we cannot clear all the traps ourselves,” Zhu said. “To effectively protect the tigers, we need to call on more people to stop eating wild animals. This isn’t something that can be done over a short time, though.”

As with poaching, illegal logging became prevalent after the government introduced restrictions, with a total ban placed on the felling of natural forest in 2000.

China’s State Forestry Administration said that due to technical constraints and poor management, most wild Siberian tiger reserves, such as the one in Wanda Mountain in Heilongjiang, still lack effective monitoring systems.

In addition, these reserves are often short of workers and do not have enough people with sufficient knowledge about tiger protection.

To preserve the precious tiger species, experts are calling for more international cooperation, especially between China and Russia.

An estimated total of 500 wild Siberian tigers live in Russia’s Far East and Northeast China, yet infrastructure construction has fragmented the populations.

“Border fences as high as 2 meters are a big obstacle for the tigers to get past,” Zhu said, adding that the WWF is looking to help China and Russia protect and restore links between the tigers’ habitats. “By doing so, hundreds of wild Siberian tigers in Russia will be able to travel to China, which will result in more cubs being born.”

The conservationist said both countries should try to make agreements to use recording devices along the border, instead of fences.

“We are striving to double the population of wild Siberian tigers in China by 2022, but more international cooperation is needed,” Zhu said.

The State Forestry Administration said China has paid great attention to international cooperation on tiger conservation and has promised more joint projects.

The country has already reached agreements with India and Russia on tiger protection, while a series of measures, such as habitat surveys and information exchanges, have been carried out with other countries and international organizations.

Volunteers to clear traps for Siberian tigers

2011-12-01T08:11:00.000-08:00

Ninety Chinese volunteers from across the country will be chosen to clear traps set for endangered wild Siberian tigers in northeast China again this winter.

The trap-clearing campaign will be jointly sponsored by the New York-based non-profit organization Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Forestry, the Heilongjiang Provincial Administration of Forest Industry, and the Harbin Daily Newspaper Group, said Wang Lin, head of the trap-clearing team.

From Jan. 7 to 14, 90 volunteers will clear iron wire ring traps -- set by poachers to catch wild Siberian tigers during the winter -- from six areas where the tigers roam in Heilongjiang, Wang said.

The volunteers, both old and young, will be selected among hundreds of applicants across China, and will include public servants, university students, teachers, journalists, doctors and company bosses, Wang said.

"We must let more and more people, especially local hunters, know the harm of setting traps for tigers," said volunteer Shi Dalei, a senior at the Heilongjiang Institute of Technology.

The Siberian tiger, an endangered species, is a subspecies of tiger that once roamed western and central Asia and eastern Russia.

China has only about 20 wild Siberian tigers left, among which eight to 10 are in Jilin province and 10 to 14 are in Heilongjiang.

A wild Siberian tiger was found dead with a trap around its neck in the city of Mishan in Heilongjiang in late October, prompting environmentalists to call for enhanced wildlife protection.

"It is an urgent task for us to protect wild Siberian tigers. I hope more and more people join us to contribute to wildlife protection," Wang said.

During the previous trap-clearing campaign launched in January this year in Heilongjiang, about 100 volunteers braved the frigid weather with temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius to clear a total of 304 traps within a week.

Compared with a decade ago, China has made a lot of improvements in the protection of wild Siberian tigers, but problems still exist, said Xie Yan, director of the WCS China Program.

"We have found that the density of hoofed animals has been decreasing over recent years, and wild Siberian tigers are threatened with extinction," Xie said.

"The problem of animal traps is a priority for us. We should actively participate in the trap-clearing campaign," she added.

Another Siberian tiger spotted in Heilongjiang!

2011-11-23T04:22:00.000-08:00

Last month a rare Siberian tiger was found dead in Heilongjiang, and this month another has been caught on film in the same region.

This is the first time that a wild Siberian tiger has been captured on camera in the Heilongjiang region. The cameras were set up in the mountainous Wandashan area of the Amur-Heilong eco-region after paw prints, signs of bedding, and boar kills were discovered in the area.

Dr. Zhu Chunquan, Conservation Director of Biodiversity and Operations at WWF-China comments on the siting.

"[The photo] adds to the evidence of a possible population settlement in the region. Action need to be taken to enhance existing protection methods for tigers, such as the immediate launch of greater safety precautions, the thorough removal of snares and developing more detailed monitoring techniques.”

A snare was responsible for the death of the Siberian tiger found washed up on the banks of a reservoir in Heilongjiang last month, contrary to speculation it was killed by poachers reacting to media reports.

There are only an estimated 18-22 of these wild creatures left in China, and barely 500 left in the world that are not living on reserves, most found in eastern Russia.

WWF snaps first shots of wild Siberian tiger in NE China Mountains

2011-11-16T07:01:00.001-08:00

An infrared camera set up by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and forestry authorities in Northeast China's Jilin province has captured images of a wild Siberian tiger in the Wanda Mountains.

Zhu Jiang, head of the WWF NE-China Program Office, said Saturday that the photos, taken earlier this month, are the first images of a wild Siberian tiger taken in the mountainous area.

He said the evidence confirms the mountains' role as an important habitat for the endangered species, and reinforces the need for local authorities to tighten protection measures, especially improving animal rescue efforts.

The agency estimates that there are fewer than 20 wild Siberian tigers remaining in China. They live in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces.

Zhu said animal traps still pose a major threat to the safety of wild Siberian tigers, as a WWF survey found an average 1.6 traps for every 10 kilometers in its nature reserves last winter.

A wild Siberian tiger was found dead with a trap around its neck in the city of Mishan, Heilongjiang, in October.

"The WWF hopes to cooperate with local governments to protect Siberian tigers and restore their habitats," said Zhu. "We aim to help double the population of wild Siberian tigers in China by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger," he said.

Snare suspected in Siberian tiger's death

2011-11-08T02:10:00.000-08:00

The suspected cause of a recent death of a wild Siberian tiger was a neck snare, says an animal expert.

An animal expert checks the carcass of a Siberian tiger at Fusheng village, Heilongjiang province, Oct 28, 2011.

A rusty snare stuck around the tiger's neck.

The tiger, which was found dead on Oct 27 by a reservior in Fusheng village, Mishan city in Heilongjiang province, could have accidentally gotten stuck in the snare, possibly made by hunters using steel wire, Sun Haiyi, vice-director from the wildlife research institution, said Saturday, according to a Xinhua report.

Sun, who rushed to the village with his colleagues for a preliminary investigation, says the rusty stains on the snare suggest it has been around the tiger's neck for a while. It caused no fatal harm to the big cat immediately, but it could have affected its food in-take process and limited its hunting activities, leading to its death.

The carcass of the tiger was sent to the institution on Friday night for further post-mortem examination.

Experts also confirmed that it was a 2-year-old wild Siberian tiger, the same one that was spotted near a reservoir in the village on Oct 17.

Rare Siberian tiger spotted in Heilongjiang, found dead 5 days later

2011-11-02T05:07:00.000-07:00

Three days ago, there was a small blip in the news regarding excited wild life enthusiasts spotting a rare Siberian tiger. Today, a Siberian tiger, possibly the same one, was found dead only 5 days after the initial sighting.

The adult male tiger had been briefly spotted by locals near a reservoir in Mishan, Heilongjiang Province on October 22nd. Scientists then descended on the area to study the extremely endangered animal's behavior, and used paw prints found near the banks to determine the tiger was a two-year-old adult.

A mere 5 days after the sighting and 3 days after the report, the dead body was found lying on the shore of the same reservoir. How the tiger died is still unknown, though researchers are currently examining the body to determine the cause.

The publicity the spotting received in the news could suggest poachers were involved in the death, but the fact that the body was abandoned seemingly intact could either suggest foul play or that the poachers were scared off before they were able to claim their prize. Either way, the death is a great loss to the fragile ecosystem in which these animals reside.

There are only an estimated 18-22 of these wild creatures left in China, and barely 500 left in the world that are not living on reserves.

Distemper – latest threat to Siberian tigers...

2011-10-18T01:16:00.000-07:00

Distemper - a virus afflicting domestic dogs and many wildlife species - may be a growing threat to Siberian (Amur) tigers.

A team of Russian veterinary colleagues and health experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo are collaborating to understand more about how the virus is affecting the species, helping conservationists formulate health measures to counter this latest threat to the world's largest cat.

The team of health experts, working at the Wildlife Conservation Society's wildlife health centre at Bronx Zoo, used histology along with PCR and DNA sequencing to confirm and characterise the infection in two wild Siberian tigers from the Russian Far East.

This diagnosis provides long-awaited genetic confirmation of the fact that distemper is affecting wild tigers, which WCS and Russian colleagues first documented in 2003.

Tiger wandered into village looking for an easy meal
Last year a tigress known as Galia - studied by WCS researchers for eight years in Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve in the Russian Far East - walked into the village of Terney, displaying abnormal neurologic signs. She was seemingly unfazed by the new surrounding, appeared gaunt, and was searching for dogs as an easy meal. The tiger was shot by local police after several capture attempts failed.

In November 2003, a similar event occurred when an otherwise healthy looking wild tigress walked into the village of Pokrovka in Khabarovski Krai. WCS staff immobilised the animal and worked with local Russian veterinarian Evgeny Slabe in treating the tiger, which later died in captivity. Samples for the diagnosis of distemper were collected only from these two animals.

But several other examples of tigers entering villages or stalling traffic on major roadways - behaviour possibly indicative of distemper - have been reported in recent years.

Already known to kill lynx and bobcats
Distemper is found worldwide in domestic dogs and has caused infection and death in wild species such as lynx and bobcats in Canada, Baikal seals in Russia, lions in the Serengeti ecosystem in Africa, and raccoons and the endangered black footed ferret in the United States.

‘With all the threats facing Siberian tigers from poaching and habitat loss, relatively little research has been done on diseases that may afflict tigers,' said Dale Miquelle, WCS Director of Russia programmes. ‘There are no records of tigers entering villages and behaving so abnormally before 2000, so this appears to be a new development and new threat. Understanding whether disease is a major source of mortality for Siberian tigers is crucial for future conservation efforts.'

Anatoly Astafiev, director of Sikhote-Alin Reserve, said: ‘We have seen a fall in tiger numbers within our reserve, so it is very important to know that at least one of the causes is a recognisable disease, something we may be able to address and potentially prevent.'

Canine distemper is controlled in domestic dogs through vaccination. In Africa, massive vaccination campaigns of dogs in villages surrounding the Serengeti appear to have been effective in reducing the disease's impact on lions.

Rare white Siberian tiger is born at Brown’s Zoo

2011-10-12T01:10:00.000-07:00

A white Siberian male tiger cub was born at the zoo on Sept. 8. The cub has been named Bogdan which means "Gift of God" in Russian.
At birth, Bogdan weighed a mere 1.5 pounds. Now, he weighs in at 6 pounds and has a good appetite.
White tiger cubs typically have an 80 percent mortality rate, so the celebration of this new addition is especially great for zoo owners Nancy and Ivan Brown.
"He is a blessing to us. In the wild he would have died," explains Nancy of her precious gift.
The zoo has the only white Siberian tiger exhibit in the state of Illinois and has been the only family-operated zoo in the state for the last 21 years.
Nancy explains the sad part of the story is that the cub's mother died, due to complications of the birth. A second tiger cub was stillborn. "That makes him (Bogdan) very special to us," remarks Brown, who said it was remarkable that he went to a bottle within six hours of his birth. Bogdan will not be able to see until he is about six weeks old and the Brown's are anxious to see if his eyes remain blue, or turn to brown just like his mother's eyes.
Most people think a white tiger is a Siberian, but that is not accurate, says Nancy. Subspecies of tigers can also be white in color.
"The white tiger started years ago with a white tiger being captured in the wild and brought into captivity in India," says Nancy, who has done her homework.
That tiger "Mohan" was bred to his daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and so on, explains Brown of the linage. With such a long line of inter-breeding, there is an 80 percent mortality rate in the cubs which also can suffer with scoliosis and respiratory problems. "We are fortunate to have a healthy cub. There have been no other white tigers found in the wild since Mohan," Nancy emphasizes. She explains experts in the field expect wild tigers to be extinct in a generation. There are less than 200 Siberian tigers in the wild, currently.
The Browns have raised exotic animals at their rural location for over 30 years. "We have rescued quite a few animals over the years from various situations," says Nancy. The zoo, family owned and operated since 1990, started out with a single pot-bellied pig and a few whittle deer.
The zoo currently has an expectant lion and leopard. Nancy says the cubs will be born this fall.
Currently, the zoo has over 40 different species of animals - some are endangered species. Visitors can find lions, tiger, bears, leopards, cougars, bobcats, wolves, a kangaroo, and much more.
Zoo animals are feed approximately 150-200 pounds of meat per day, 50 pounds of dog food, 50 pounds of grain, 100 pounds of hay, and other specialty feeds for some of the animals.
The zoo is located southwest of Smithfield, Ill., at 17732 N. Dairy Farm Rd. Hours are 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon until 4 p.m. on Sunday. The zoo opens on May 1 and continues those hours until Labor Day.
After Labor Day, the zoo is open on weekends from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Saturday and from noon until 4 p.m. on Sunday. Appointments are taken from those wishing to the visit the zoo during the week.
During Spoon River Scenic Drive on Oct. 1, 2, 8 and 9, the zoo will be open from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. Visitors will be allowed to feed the big cats, bears, and hoof-stock animals. They can also have their photo taken with Bogdan the new white Siberian tiger cub.
Nancy says, "We have turned our home and land into a place where we can promote and help to insure the future existence of animals, some of which are endangered. We are dedicated to the animals and want to provide them with a safe place to live in a stress-free environment. Our work is a labor of love and we truly love what we do."
In addition, the Browns say they just want to bring happiness to their visitors.
The Browns have learned through hands-on experience and have studied to keep abreast of information on their animals.
The zoo is visited by people from throughout the United States each year. Some tell Brown they are fulfilling a lifelong dream to see a certain species, or to pet a wild animal. No matter what the reason, Brown has many interesting stories to tell about her animals and their visitors.
The zoo is solely supported by admission, photo fees, and donations. The zoo travels with offsite exhibits to schools, nursing homes, libraries, camps, birthday parties, business promotions, and provides educational programs throughout the state.
Anyone who has trouble finding the zoo, or who needs assistance, can phone 309-783-2112.

Siberian Tigers Trained To Live In Wild

2011-10-06T04:45:00.000-07:00

A Siberian tiger is seen at Erdaohe Tiger Park July 2, 2006 in Antu County of Yanbian Chaoxian Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

A feeder plays with a Siberian tiger cub at Erdaohe Tiger Park July 2, 2006 in Antu County of Yanbian Chaoxian Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

A feeder trains a Siberian tiger cub at Erdaohe Tiger Park July 2, 2006 in Antu County of Yanbian Chaoxian Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, China. About 15 artificially-fed Siberian tigers from Harbin Siberian Tiger Park are being trained to develop their ability to live in the wild. The wild Siberian tiger is listed as one of the most endangered species in the world, with its existing number estimated at around 400 worldwide, mainly in the northeastern part of China and the Far East of Russia. Reportedly there are more than 1,300 Siberian tigers which have been raised in China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

Siberian tiger cubs make public debut

2011-10-01T06:08:00.000-07:00

Three Siberian tiger cubs made their public debut at Russia's Krasnoyarsk Zoo this week.
Excited visitors gathered to meet the triplets, who were born at the zoo on August 5, 2011.
The zoo has a tradition of giving its tigers floral names.
Local media reported that the cubs have been named Kaktus, Jasmin and Narciss (Cactus, Jasmine and Narcissus).
Their parents Iris and Kedr (Iris and Cedar) have already had seven cubs.
Siberian tigers are one of the world's rarest species. An estimated 300 are left in the wild, mostly in Russia's Far East.

Dog Is Surrogate Mom to Abandoned Siberian Tiger

2011-09-25T01:37:00.001-07:00

A newborn Siberian tiger living at a zoo in Qingdao, China, was all alone in the world when it was abandoned by its mother – and that's when the maternal instincts of a very special dog kicked in.

Now the pooch is acting as its mother, nursing it and treating the feline just as she does her own pup – who appears to have bonded with his sibling-in-spirit.

Siberian tigers typically stay with their mother for the first two years of life, at which point this little guy won't be so little anymore. An adult Siberian weighs about 400 lbs.!

Escaped Siberian tiger given freedom

2011-09-19T04:36:00.000-07:00

A tigress that avoided trappers for days after breaking out of a Russian animal protection center will be allowed to roam free, government officials said on Friday.

'We tried an experiment - would a wild tiger live and produce offspring in captivity? It didn't work out, so let her live free,' an official at Russia's Tiger Special Inspection (RTSI) project told the news agency Interfax.

Hunters had been searching for the animal, a healthy 2-year-old Siberian female named Roshkosh (Luxury), since Tuesday after she broke a cage lock with a blow from her paw and escaped into a forested region of Russia's Far Eastern Primorie district.

A transponder in a collar worn by the tiger allowed trackers to find the animal's trail almost immediately, but bait in tiger traps set nearby was left untouched.

The tiger was last seen heading northward into uninhabited taiga forest.

Animal protection agency workers captured and transported the tiger to the RTSI center in July after villagers in Russia's Khabarovsk territory, some 650 kilometers to the north of Primorie district, complained of disappearing guard dogs and livestock.

Russia's rugged Far East is home to the world's largest wild population of the highly endangered Siberian Tiger. Some 350 big cats are thought to be living in the region, most in the Primorie district's Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve.

The RTSI center is a government-funded facility for the study and protection of tigers living in Sikhote-Alin area and neighboring regions.

Russian Prime Minister Putin has been a high-profile patron of the center, and images of Putin shooting a tranquilizer dart into an adult feline have featured in his election campaigns.

China celebrates Siberian tiger cub first

2011-09-15T07:42:00.000-07:00

A seven-year-old tiger has given birth to a cub at the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin, China, marking the country's first successful breeding in the wild.

After three months, the female cub is doing well and is quickly learning new skills.

A local zoologist said: "The Siberian tiger's successful breeding in the wild is an important breakthrough for us."

On June 27 and 28, the keepers could not find the female tiger, numbered 426.

They presumed she had given birth to a cub and went to look for her in a cave.

It is more than a decade since China began to study how to breed tigers in the wild.

Oil painting of Stretching Siberian Tiger

2011-09-06T07:10:00.000-07:00

Today I finally managed to scan the final piece of the Stretching tiger in oils on linen canvas. I scanned it in 8 pieces and puzzled them together in photoshop. It’s of course no use to try and edit the colors to fit the original exactly, but I did my best anyway and that also takes it’s own time. Anyway, I still want to keep all my original scans for future references for both this website and other things. So it doesn’t really matter how many hours I put down on my scans.
So today I’m off to a birthday party and tomorrow and in Sunday to watch my sons soccer games. This will help me focus on the next paintings in line in Monday.
Anyway, here is the Siberian Tiger oil painting:

Siberian tiger cubs

2011-08-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

ZooMontana To Lose 2 Siberian Tigers

2011-08-24T07:29:00.000-07:00

ZooMontana Director Jeff Ewelt says the zoo's financial troubles and loss of accreditation mean the loss of two Siberian tigers on loan to the zoo in Billings.

Ewelt said Tuesday that the Philadelphia Zoo will soon move the two female tigers - named Tierny and Koosaka - to another facility. Ewelt says the zoo will still have its male Siberian tiger, Prince.

ZooMontana lost its accreditation with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums earlier this year, leading to the removal of three grizzly bear cubs. An adult grizzly bear also will be relocated.

Ewelt says a veterinarian from the Philadelphia Zoo visited ZooMontana recently and felt the tigers were well cared for, but officials were concerned about the financial future of the Montana zoo.

Ewelt called the decision a disappointment.

WWF Releases Poetic Video “The World Is Where We Live”

2011-08-18T04:06:00.000-07:00

This latest video by the World Wildlife Fund tugged on my heart strings and caught me so off guard I nearly slipped in my puddle of tears knocking over my stuffed zebra which I keep right beside my Siberian tiger rug. If it had actually fallen over I’m almost certain it would have damaged my massive 10-foot by 25-foot wall which I recently had lined with the fur or 300 rare ocelot leopard cat skins. Thankfully it didn’t and I wasn’t distracted from the beauty of the editing that is going on in this short clip.

Playing with a Siberian Tiger Cub

2011-08-12T02:06:00.000-07:00

Playing with a tiger straight outa the siberian ghetto.

Zoo ready for this tiger mother

2011-08-06T04:58:00.000-07:00

There could be a baby shower comin’, but forget the diaper cakes and rattles: the perfect gift for this new mama may be something raw and bloody.
This week, Assiniboine Park Zoo officials are waiting to break out the cigars as Kendra, a 12-year-old Amur tiger, shows every sign of being ready to give birth to a litter of one or more cubs.
Zoo veterinarians aren’t 100 per cent sure that Kendra is, indeed, in a delicate condition. It’s tough to diagnose pregnancies in tigers without invasive diagnostic techniques, so Kendra’s caretakers have based their expectations on monitoring hormone levels and watching her behaviour.
And all signs point to "pregnant," zoo officials said in a release today. "Everyone at the Assiniboine Park Zoo is beyond excited about this expected arrival," said Tim Sinclair-Smith, director of zoological operations.
"We hope to see a very special addition to the zoo family in the coming days so we’re monitoring Kendra very closely and hope to have an official announcement soon."
It’s not yet known how many little mewlers Kendra might have: the average litter size for Amur tigers (also known as Siberian tigers) is two, but anywhere from one to four cubs is normal for the species.
If she is indeed ready to pop, chances are high the cubs will survive. Not only is Kendra already a mom, but the Assiniboine Park Zoo estimates its birth success rate in 2011 will reach 80 to 90 per cent, "well above the North American zoo average" according to the zoo’s statement.
If the cubs are born soon, the new family will likely get some privacy: the babies, who are born with their eyes and ears shut, will stay close to their mum until they are about six weeks old.
At that point, it’s likely Kendra will let them venture out of the den and into the wild world of the tiger exhibit, where the public can sneak a peek – and probably snap some ace YouTube videos.
They will join a long list of brand-new furries on display at the zoo this year, including baby lynxes, red pandas, musk oxen and stone sheep.

Siberian Tiger Cubs at Zurich Zoo

2011-07-31T05:56:00.000-07:00

Three Siberian Tiger cubs were born on May 15, 2011 at the Zürich Zoo in Switzerland. There's one male named Lailek, and two females named Luva and Liska. Mom Elena was born in 2004 in the Tierpark Hellabrunn, Munich, and has been at the Zürich zoo since March, 2010. The father, Coto, was born in June 2002 at the Zürich Zoo and in fact was the last cub born there before this trio, his offspring.

Also known as Amur Tigers, this species is considered the world's largest cat. They they are mostly found in the birch forests of eastern Russia, though some do live in China and North Korea. According to National Geographic, there were once eight tiger subspecies, but three became extinct during the 20th century.
Over the last hundred years, hunting and forest destruction have reduced overall tiger populations from hundreds of thousands to perhaps 3,000 to 5,000. Tigers are hunted as trophies and also for body parts that are used in traditional Chinese medicine. All five remaining tiger subspecies are endangered, and many protection programs are in place. Poaching is a reduced—but still very significant—threat to Siberian tigers.

Siberian tiger habitat under threat

2011-07-07T04:45:00.000-07:00

Key tiger habitat could be logged

The protests have followed an application by the wood harvesting and export company JSC Les Export for a timber lease in the Bikinsky Pine Nut Harvesting Zone in the Bikin River Basin, in Primorsky Province, Russia. This area forms one of the largest intact tracts of old-growth Korean pine-broadleaf forest in the world, and is a vital habitat for remaining populations of the Siberian, or Amur, tiger.

JSC Les Export has already been criticised after gaining approval for two forest leases earlier this year, also in vital tiger habitat and in areas which form an important wildlife corridor connecting the Russian population of Siberian tigers with the Chinese population across the border.

WWF Russia and the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Primorsky Province are now leading calls to cancel the new logging lease to protect tiger habitat in Primorsky Province.

Proposed World Heritage Site

In November 2010, the Bikin River Basin was proposed as a candidate to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The region is one of the last remaining strongholds of the Siberian tiger, whose populations have rebounded in recent decades but still face many threats.

Speaking on the possible timber lease, the Director of WWF Russia’s Amur branch, Yury Darman, said, “We regard this as a betrayal. JSC Les Export previously agreed that it would not use timber from pine nut harvesting zones or protected areas. JSC Les Export’s actions go against the company’s commitment to work towards certification under the Forest Stewardship Council, an independent organization that promotes responsible management of the world’s forests.”

Impact of logging on local people

The timber lease would also impact on the lives of the native residents of Bikin, the Udegei and Nanai, whose livelihoods depend on traditional uses of the region’s forests. The forests have been under lease since 2009 by the Indigenous Peoples’ Association, for the processing of pine nuts and medicinal plants. Residents have petitioned the provincial and federal governments not to allow leasing of the area for timber harvesting.

“This is our forest. We hunt here, fish here, gather medicinal plants here, harvest wood here for our personal needs,” said Igor Kukchenko, Vice President of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Primorsky Province. “The inhabitants of our village Krasniy Yar have spoken out against the leasing of this forest tract by JSC Les Export and any other industrial logging in the Bikin.”

Siberian Tiger Found in the Trunk of a Car

2011-06-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

A Siberian tiger was found in the trunk of a car! Police in Hubei, China were tracking down a car that was involved in a hit and run accident when it hit another vehicle on the highway. Police intercepted the car and started searching it. They were probably surprised to find an animal in the back!

What’s more surprising is that the Siberian tiger is one of the endangered species out there, so how did this guy get a hold of one?! One officer, Chen Yen, commented, “There was a strong stench coming from the boot so we opened it found something wrapped in a large canvas… We unwrapped it and found a giant tiger sitting in a cage. We don’t know why the man had it or where he was taking it but he didn’t have any papers for it.”

So far, the man has not said anything related to the tiger and is in custody facing hit and run charges and wild animal abuse charges.

China, Russia to strengthen cross-border Siberian tiger, Amur leopard protection

2011-06-05T09:08:00.000-07:00

Environmental officials from China and Russia have decided to work together to improve the protection of Siberian tigers and Amur leopards in order to save the two endangered species.

Officials from both sides made the agreement at an environmental protection conference held on Thursday in Harbin, capital of northeastern China's Heilongjiang Province.

The decision is part of a series of environmental cooperation agreements signed by the two countries at the conference.

The Global Tiger Recovery Program will be carried out by both sides, with a panel of experts being organized to figure out the most efficient way to protect Siberian tigers living on the China-Russia border. The creation of a joint natural reserve for Amur leopards is also under consideration.

Siberian tigers and Amur leopards mainly live in east Russia, northeast China and mountainous areas in North Korea.

Less than 500 Siberian tigers and 40 Amur leopards currently live in the wild.

However, Siberian tigers have been frequently seen around China-Russia border areas in recent years, due to joint protection efforts made by both countries.

"China and Russia should break through national boundaries to protect nature jointly," said Vsevolod Stepanistskiy, deputy director of Russia's department of state policy and regulation for environmental protection and safety.

He also pointed out that it is essential to protect biodiversity and prevent these rare species from going extinct.
Both sides also reached agreements to deepen cooperation in the management and control of transnational rivers, as well as other agreements concerning wetland protection and environment policies, at the conference.

Russia to Donate Three Rare Siberian Tigers to South Korea

2011-05-15T08:20:00.001-07:00

If уου′re fresh here, уου mау desire tο subscribe tο mу RSS feed. Thanks fοr visiting!

SEOUL (Reuters) – Russia іѕ tο give three rare one-year-ancient Siberian tigers, two males аnd one female, tο South Korea tο boost ties between thе two countries, South Korean newspapers reported οn Friday.

Thе proposal tο give thе tigers arose frοm a translation mistake during a 2009 visit bу a Russian official, Russian news agency Itar Tass ѕаіd аt thе age. Thе official wаѕ ѕаіd tο hаνе passed a stuffed tiger аnd commented hοw nice іt wаѕ — a remark mistranslated аѕ pledging thе tigers.

“Thе two governments, through diplomatic channels, hаνе recently сhοѕе tο forge ahead wіth thе transfer οf thе tigers tο Korea within thе first half οf thе year,” a Korean diplomatic source wаѕ quoted аѕ saying.

Siberian tigers аrе regarded аѕ sacred animals іn Korea, although thе аt thе еnd one wаѕ shot dead іn 1922. Thе animal served аѕ thе mascot fοr thе 1988 Olympic games іn South Korea аnd аѕ thе badge fοr thе national soccer team іn thе 2002 Earth Cup.

Russia giving Korea three rare Siberian tigers

2011-04-22T06:08:00.001-07:00

It’s a tiger of a deal. Russia plans to give three Siberian tigers to Korea to reaffirm amicable bilateral ties between Korea and Russia.

“The Korean and Russian governments have recently decided to bring in tigers to Korea within the first half of the year,” said a Korean diplomatic source. “This is meaningful as it symbolizes the friendly relations between the two countries.”

The three Siberian tigers, otherwise known as Amur tigers, were each said to be a little over a year old.

Zoologists have said that Siberian tigers have not been found in Korea since 1922 when the last Siberian tiger was killed in North Gyeongsang. The tigers, which are an endangered species under protection in the eastern region of Siberia, are considered mystical creatures in Korean culture.

The source said that diplomatic officials hatched a plan to have the tigers accompany Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on a visit to Korea, but was scrapped because Putin does not have plans to visit Korea anytime soon.

Korea’s Ministry of Environment is in negotiations on the transport plans for the tigers, and a group from the Korean government visited Russia last December, said the source.

Relations between South Korea and Russia soured last year when Russia did not take a more active role in blaming North Korea for the sinking of the Cheonan in March.

However, Seoul is now extending efforts to have warmer ties with Russia as North Korea has sided with China since inter-Korean relations turned cold.

According to government sources, the Russian government also hopes to have better ties with South Korea as its influence over the Korean Peninsula has weakened.

Poverty threatens the Siberian tiger genetics

2011-04-09T06:05:00.000-07:00

Crosses between individuals of a small group have resulted in the genetic impoverishment of the whole. In the animal world, inbreeding may occur too tightly in the case of endangered species, such as the Siberian tiger ( Panthera tigris altaica ), which reduces genetic diversity and its ability to respond to critical situations such as disease.

“Most animal populations fluctuate over time. If reductions are very substantial demographic group is reduced dramatically, there may be two things: that the group is terminated or experiencing the phenomenon known as bottleneck (pronounced reduction of genetic diversity of a population), “says Samer Alas, a researcher at Doñana Biological Station (CSIC).

The detection of genetic impoverishment in species is endangered, the researchers said, of “vital importance” to the strategies of conservation of the species. “In future genetic work on animal conservation will be necessary to add the effect of genetic bottlenecks that have gone by the species, because otherwise their future could be compromised,” says Alas.

An endangered species

Research has modeled itself on the Siberian tiger, endangered species of which only about 520 copies are distributed among the forests of eastern Russia and northeast China.

A mid-twentieth century, the population of the Siberian tiger ( Panthera tigris altaica ) was much reduced by poaching and habitat destruction. The remaining specimens all went through a bottleneck that affected the genetic diversity of the species.

“Although currently there are about 500 Siberian tigers, the population behaves as if they were only 14 animals due to reduced genetic diversity. This assessment of effective population size is alarming because it demonstrates its fragility and its high sensitivity to any disease, “says Alas.

According to the researcher, the effective population size is a “factor to be taken into account in any demographic or genetic study undertaken on the Siberian tiger.”

In reaching its conclusions, the research team collected samples of blood and tissue of 15 Siberian tigers scattered along the Russian Far East, and worked in the laboratory with DNA extracted from these samples.

Tigers of the Snow

2011-03-28T04:04:00.000-07:00

Siberian Tiger Population Is Drastically Low, Scientists Report

2011-03-07T08:56:00.000-08:00

The effective population of the Amur tiger, also known as the Siberian tiger, is down to just 14 animals, scientists report in the journal Mammalian Biology.

There are about 500 Amur tigers currently surviving in the wild, but the effective population accounts for genetic diversity. BBC reports that the tiger has a very low diversity, which means that any disease or rare genetic disorders will probably be passed on to the next generation. A more diverse genetic population would increase the tiger's chance of survival -- it would be able to "cancel out" diseases and disorders with healthy genes.

The Amur tiger is the largest cat in the world. It once lived across China, Korea, and Russia, until the early 20th Century, when human settlements, habitat loss, and poaching drove the cats to near extinction. By the 1940's, less than 30 individual tigers survived in the wild -- this has now led to a "genetic bottleneck," destroying the Amur tiger gene pool. The results of this are seen today in the tiger's lack of genetic diversity.

Not just Amur tigers are at risk of extinction. The World Wildlife Fund reports that climate change may be shrinking tigers' habitat by 96%. Bengal tigers are shrinking in size due to stress over environmental changes. The WWF goes so far as to state that if no action is taken, tigers may become extinct in the next 12 years.

This past November, a summit was held focused on saving tigers from extinction. The summit's biggest news? It was probably that Leonardo DiCaprio survived a plane accident and still managed to attend. But also at the summit, countries agreed to double the tiger population by 2022 and crack down on poaching and illegal trade of tiger parts. It is an uphill battle, but one worth fighting.

The last stand for Siberian tigers?

2011-03-03T11:12:00.000-08:00

The endangered Amur tiger is down to barely a dozen, according to alarming new research.

But the headline grabbing figure that the big cat’s effective population is just 15 is less of a threat than loss of habitat, environmentalists say.

There are about 500 Amur tigers living in the wild – but genetic researchers have found that they are descended from just 15 animals.

And that, they claim, raises the spectre of genetic disorders and other illnesses in the population.

“The worryingly low effective population size challenges the optimism for the recovery of the huge Siberian cat,” the researchers from Russia, Germany and Spain wrote in the paper published in the magazine Mammalian Biology.

Russia has invested heavily in protecting its tiger population, with Vladimir Putin personally endorsing the campaign at an international forum in St. Petersburg last year.

Overstated

The research, and its gloomy conclusion, may not take into account the different effects of genetic diversity on different species, ecologists say.

“For example cats are less sensitive to it than dogs,” Vladimir Krever, biological diversity programme co-ordinator at WWF’s Moscow office, told the Moscow News.

And he pointed to the successful reintroduction of European bison into the wild to prove that the genetic pool might not be the main criteria for saving threatened creatures.

Since 1951 the European bison has returned to the wild, despite the fact that in the early 20th century there were fewer than 50 surviving animals, all living in captivity.

Tigers need trees

Today’s tigers are threatened by illegal woodcutting just as much as their ancestors were devastated by poaching.

“Currently the most burning issue is conservation of the habitat area,” Vladimir Krever said.

Poachers haven’t disappeared today, but luckily they don’t make any serious impact on the number of feline predators, Krever said, while stripping away their natural habitat clearly does.

Preserving the forests would help maintain stocks of hoofed mammals – tigers’ natural prey – and ensure that the big cats have enough to eat.

“And if we are aiming to increase their number further, it’s definitely forests restoration to start with,” Krever concluded.

Happy News for Russian Amur Tigers

2011-02-23T04:33:00.000-08:00

Vladimir Putin backs fight to save the Amur tiger following Russian ranger's WWF award
This online supplement is produced and published by Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia), which takes sole responsibility for the content.

The far eastern amur tiger

Amur tiger: it is among the world's most endangered specie. Following Siberian ranger Anatoly Belov's WWF award, Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has put his weight behind the fight to save the Amur tiger
Russia’s prime minister Vladimir Putin and rangers on the ground step up the struggle to save the Amur tiger, which national and WWF conservationists have managed to claw back from the brink of extinction.
While Vladimir Putin rallied world leaders at a “tiger summit” in St Petersburg, conservationists had further cause for modest celebration in the fight to save the far eastern Amur tiger.

In England, Russian park ranger Anatoly Belov received the World Wildlife Fund’s highest award for his 22-year battle against those who would drive the species to extinction. And back on his home turf in the Primorsky Region, the first successful prosecution in six years amid moves towards imposing jail sentences finally took the fight to the illegal hunters.

It’s been a close call for the Amur tiger, but thanks to conservationists its numbers have grown from 50 in 1960 to around 500 today. “The results of our work speak for themselves,” Mr Belov, 48, said after receiving the 2010 WWF’s Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Medal at a ceremony hosted by Prince Philip in Windsor Castle.

Feds release SF Zoo tiger attack documents

2011-02-12T13:52:00.000-08:00

A female Siberian tiger killed in a hail of police gunfire after fatally mauling a man at the San Francisco Zoo on Christmas Day 2007 likely was provoked into leaping and clawing out of its enclosure, a federal investigator said in documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The tiger named Tatiana killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. and injured his friends, brothers Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal, leaving claw marks etched in the asphalt and claw fragments in the bushes outside its pen. Claw marks were also discovered near the top of the enclosure wall, which was lower than federal safety standards dictate, showing that the big cat was able to get enough leverage to pull itself out.

"It appears the tiger was able to jump from the bottom of the dry moat to the top of the wall, and gain enough purchase over the top to pull herself out over the moat wall," wrote Laurie Gage, a tiger expert who investigated the scene for the United States Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS, which oversees the nation's zoos.

"With my knowledge of tiger behavior I cannot imagine a tiger trying to jump out of its enclosure unless it was provoked," Gage wrote in the Dec. 27, 2007 draft of her report.

That statement was stricken from the final version of the report because it was "irrelevant from an Animal Welfare Act enforcement standpoint," said David Sacks, a spokesman for APHIS. Whether or not the tiger was provoked has long been a point of contention.

After sitting with its prey for a short time, Gage wrote that Tatiana likely followed the Dhaliwals' blood trail for about 300 yards to where it resumed attacks. Photographs show blood-smeared asphalt where the tiger apparently dragged Sousa's body.

"After a kill, I find it interesting the tiger would leave a kill to go after something else unless there were a compelling reason," Gage wrote. "The tiger passed exhibits with warthogs . which it ignored as it followed (the blood trail?) of the two brothers to the Terrace Cafe outside the dining area."

The documents, provided to The AP more than three years after a Freedom of Information Act request, offer the first public glimpse into the findings of the APHIS investigation and details from the scene written by some of the officers who killed Tatiana.

Gage and inspector Michael Smith investigated the enclosure and zoo premises on Dec. 27, 2007.

In more than 65 years no other tiger had escaped from that enclosure. San Francisco Zoo officials now say the enclosure should have been safer.

"Nobody was there to witness it at that time of day, it was closing, just the people who were there and the tigers," said Lora LaMarca, a zoo spokeswoman. "We cannot prove the animal was provoked, and regardless of that, she was able to jump out which led to a whole series of renovations to that exhibit which makes sure this will never happen again."

USDA fined the zoo $1,875 for violations associated with the flaws in the tiger enclosure that allowed Tatiana to escape, and for one unrelated violation.

The USDA's findings show the tiger jumped from the moat right in front of an area where a path had been worn through plants meant to provide a sight barrier. According to the reports, the zoo complained that people often pushed through the plants and leaned over the enclosure, sometimes even putting their children on its rim.

USDA's investigators said they found "some sticks, foreign to the exhibit, and at least one pine cone inside the tiger exhibit indicating that someone may have thrown these items into the enclosure at the tigers."

The Dhaliwal brothers denied provoking the big cat, though Sousa's father told police that Paul Dhaliwal had admitted to being drunk and yelling and waving at the animal. Sousa's parents settled their wrongful death lawsuit for an undisclosed amount, and the brothers settled their lawsuit for a reported $900,000.

An attorney for Sousa's parents, Michael Cardoza, called the theory that the tiger was provoked "mere speculation" that would not hold up in court.

"Keep in mind these are animals, who knows why they do anything?" he said.

Once Tatiana found the Dhaliwals, she sat for a while near one of the bleeding brothers outside the zoo's Terrace Café.

When San Francisco police officer Daniel Kroos and his partner arrived at the café area, he saw the tiger and one of the Dhaliwals sitting near each other.

"At this time I saw the tiger pounce on top of the victim and maul him continuously for several seconds," Kroos wrote. "At this time I was not able to shoot the tiger without placing the victim in the field of fire and thereby placing the victim in further danger."

"It appeared to me the tiger was protecting its prey," said Office Scott Biggs, who was also among the first officers to respond.

After several seconds of mauling, Kroos said Tatiana stopped and headed in the direction of one of the officers.

"Fearing that the tiger was going to attack and kill Officer Biggs, or that the tiger might turn around and continue to maul the victim who could not move, I fired my department issued firearm an unknown amount of times at the tiger in an attempt to stop the threat of further attack," he said.

The officers continued to fire at the tiger, with one putting a final shot in the animal's head to ensure it was dead.

Dead mobster's Siberian tiger seized

2011-02-04T08:10:00.000-08:00

ROME, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Police in southeastern Italy confiscated a Siberian tiger from the compound owned by a Mafia leader who was gunned down in January, officials said.

The rare animal that eats more than 50 pounds of meat a day was turned over to forestry officials for transfer to a big cat rescue facility from the estate of Lucio Vetrugno in the southeastern region of Puglio, Italy's ANSA news agency reported.

The 55-year-old Vetrugno was shot and killed at his home in a Mafia dispute Dec. 22. Authorities said Vetrugno had kept the tiger in a large cage at his home for at least 16 years.

He was a senior member of one of Italy's four largest organized crime families.

Police said in other Mafia arrests in the past, they have confiscated a large crocodile that was used to intimidate people into paying extortion, as well as a white python that was used to guard a large stash of cocaine, the report said.

A five-month-old tiger cub looks at a rabbit in Jiufeng Forest Zoo in Wuhan

2011-01-25T04:28:00.000-08:00

A five-month-old tiger cub looks at a rabbit in Jiufeng Forest Zoo in Wuhan, Hubei province January 23, 2011. The rabbit was put in the enclosure as a training exercise for the tiger to stimulate its hunting instinct, local media reported. Picture taken January 23, 2011.

Siberian tiger walking the highway

2011-01-16T07:02:00.000-08:00

Russia is rich not only in bears. This video was captured on the highway from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk, near the town of Bikin (Khabarovsk krai). Attention! Russian offensive language.

Siberian tiger art drawings

2010-12-21T04:16:00.000-08:00

These amazing Siberian tiger drawings sent us Art Lover. We are glad that there are people on the world who on this remarkable way promote nature conservation. His drawings are dominated Siberian tigers as a symbol of power, mystery, and above all freedom. Here you can see more Art Lover beautiful animal drawings: Art Lover Gallery

If you have an interesting tiger stories, texts, videos, photos, drawings, please feel free to send us, and we'll publish it. This will be your contribution in saving these amazing animals. Thanks in advance.

Indian youth pledge to save the tigers

2010-12-15T05:57:00.000-08:00

New Delhi, 1 December 2010: The International Tiger Conservation Forum ended in Russia last week with new efforts and commitments to maintain and enhance momentum towards tiger conservation initiatives across the globe.

Significant commitments were made at the Forum by all the tiger range countries with India too declaring its 39th tiger reserve and announcing eight more in development. Many donors committed additional funds towards tiger conservation in the coming years.

While the forum created the much needed government backing that is imperative to reverse the decline of this magnificent species, the International Tiger Forum was also unique for laying its focus on the youth and their role in conserving one of the world’s most iconic symbols of biodiversity conservation.

In parallel to the high level government meeting, WWF organised a Youth Tiger Forum in Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East, home of Siberian tiger, where youth representatives from all tiger range countries gathered together for a week, went on field visits in the land of the Amur tiger and developed youth outreach plans for tiger conservation in their respective countries.

Mr Ravi Singh, CEO, WWF-India said, ‘WWF-India is pleased with the extraordinary opportunity that the forum provided to the Indian Youth Tiger Ambassadors. We are impressed with the plans that the youth have developed at this forum and we will ensure that this broader vision gets conveyed back through a national level campaign that will raise the effectiveness of tiger conservation efforts in India.’’. Involving the youth will spur action and bring in originality in conservation initiatives in the country’’, he added.

At the youth forum, the representatives jointly wrote an Appeal, which they later made to the Prime Ministers and heads of delegation at the Tiger Forum through a video link to St Petersburg. Representatives from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia and China were among those present at this unique youth forum aimed at creating a productive mechanism to involve the future generation in conservation efforts.

The youth appeal to the high level delegation was both emotive and effective. “We know for many of our countries, development is important. However, we do not want development that results in us losing many of the world’s natural wonders and wild species like the tiger. We want our children to be able to inherit a living planet full of the wonders of the natural world.’’ The youth pledged to join hands together make this year a turning point for the tiger. They committed to continue ‘saving the tigers together’. Most of them will initiate campaigns which will drive changes in policy and management of tiger conservation in their respective countries.

In the next six months, WWF-India’s Youth Tiger Ambassadors, Ansuha Shankar and Devanshu Sood will visit villages in some of the protected areas in the country to raise local awareness towards tiger conservation. The tiger ambassadors will continue to engage with WWF-India and take forward the organization’s campaign on tigers. As a part of their pilot project they will also involve their peers and start a youth movement in the country on saving this biggest cat.

Tiger Ambassador Anusha Shankar, a student of M.Sc Ecology and Environmental Science at Pondicherry University and Devanshu Sood the other Ambassador is a student of Class XII at Shriram School, Gurgaon and has been a core member of his schools’ Junior Tiger Task Force since the last 8 years.

For Further details please call-
Shaila Sam
WWF-India
011-41504797

Endangered Tiger Cubs Debut

2010-12-08T07:43:00.000-08:00

CHEN: Three tiger cubs from one of the world’s most endangered species debuted to the public yesterday at a South Korean zoo. Here’s a glimpse. STORY: These Siberian tiger cubs have no names yet, but they’re the third generation of the Tongil Tiger, meaning ‘tiger for unification.’ Their grandfather Ra-il was sent from North Korea’s Pyongyang Central Zoo in 1995 and their grandmother Hong-A was from one of South Korea’s zoos. The two male cubs and one female cub were born on July 9 to nine-year-old Chungjoo and her mate, five-year-old Koa. Since the tigress did not care for her cubs right after birth for unknown reasons, the breeders at the zoo had to look after and feed them from the very beginning. Visitors at the zoo were excited to see these new born tiger cubs. [Park Chul-woo, Visitor]: “I hope I can see many of these tigers in South Korea.” The Siberian tiger, native to northern China, southern Russia and parts of North Korea, is on the brink of extinction in the wild, disappearing through poaching and loss of habitat. Scientists believe only a few hundred now live outside captivity.

Siberian tiger cubs “cared” by goat

2010-12-04T02:43:00.000-08:00

An abandoned Siberian tiger cub is “cared” by a goat at the Jiufeng Forest Zoo in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province, Nov. 14, 2010. It is estimated that there are merely 50-60 wild tigers surviving in China. More tigers are artificially bred in captivity. The wildness of those tigers raised in captivity has degenerated, thus leading to difficulties for their natural mating and wild living. They have become too familiar with humans and lost their natural wildness. (Xinhua/Zhou Guoqiang)

Vietnam commits to tiger conservation

2010-11-27T04:43:00.000-08:00

Vietnam stands ready to cooperate with foreign countries and international organizations in improving tiger conservation on its own soil and the region as whole.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Bui Cach Tuyen made this commitment at a historic tiger conservation forum held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, from November 21-24.

The forum, hosted by Russian Prime Minister V. Putin, was the first international forum on conservation of an endangered wildlife species.

The event was attended by high-profile representatives from 13 countries home to wild tigers, namely India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand, China and Vietnam. Also present were representatives of UN agencies and foreign non-governmental organisations engaged in biodiversity conservation.

At the forum, governments capped a year-long political process with about US$127 million in new funding to support the plan known as the Global Tiger Recovery Programme. The funding will include a large loan package from the World Bank to some tiger range countries and millions in additional grants from the Global Environment Facility.

The World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) committed US$50 million over the next five years on tiger conservation and set a goal of increasing that to US$85 million.

The Global Tiger Initiative was raised by the WB President in 2008 with tiger range countries committed to doubling the current wild tiger population of close to 3,200 individuals by 2022.

Protecting where the wild things are

2010-11-22T13:44:00.000-08:00

IN MOSCOW The tale of the magnificent Siberian tiger, and its unfinished fight for survival, should be a compelling one for the 500 conservationists and world leaders arriving for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's tiger summit this weekend.

The summit on the fate of the tiger has been convened in St. Petersburg as the singular chance to keep the world's last 3,000 or so wild tigers from extinction, and the near-death experience of Russia's big, beautiful animals informs how they can be saved elsewhere.

"Russia was the first country to almost lose its tigers," said Dale Miquelle, director of the Russia program for the Wildlife Conservation Society, "and the first to bring them back. There's a long history of lessons in Russia."

Miquelle, who has been working in the Russian Far East since 1992, will attend the summit, and if asked, he knows what he would tell the dignitaries.

"Tigers need three things," he said Friday, from Vladivostok. "They need space. They need their habitat and prey protected - deer and wild boar. And they need laws against poaching vigorously enforced. It's a very simple formula. It's very doable."

Everyone seems to agree tigers - which numbered 100,000 worldwide a century ago - won't go on living unless people behave differently. But the world has never found it easy to agree on what to do about anything, and so it is with the tiger, which has inspired the imagination of humans everywhere, who see strength, fierceness and passion in the graceful cat.

In 2008, World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick organized the Global Tiger Initiative, targeting the summit in 2010 - the Chinese Year of the Tiger - as the time tiger countries would figure out a plan, now aimed at doubling the number of cats in the wild by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger.

Each of the 13 tiger range countries is arriving with its own plans, and the summit - from Sunday through Wednesday - is meant to consolidate them, set a common agenda, attract financing and mobilize the political and popular will to carry them out. The United States, a major donor to tiger conservation, will be there.

So far, there's been polite disagreement about how far-reaching the plans should be, with much sentiment to go big and broad - engaging and educating communities, vastly expanding protected landscapes and restoring tigers to a much wider range than they now inhabit. Others argue that the situation is so dire that time and money should be concentrated on relatively few areas before declaring loftier ambitions.

"We want to see tigers living in large, healthy landscapes," said Barney Long, WWF tiger program manager, "not in small parks where they are vulnerable to outbreaks of poaching."

The Wildlife Conservation Society and Panthera, a conservation organization dedicated to wild cats, have proposed narrowing efforts, and WCS has suggested 42 sites where tigers should be protected.

Joe Walston, director of WCS-Asia, says that with 70 percent of the world's tigers fairly concentrated - including 18 "source sites" in India, eight in Malaysia and six in Russia - money should be aimed at monitoring and strengthening law enforcement to stop poaching in such areas.

Broader attempts are too risky, warns Luke Hunter, Panthera's executive vice president. "If you start talking about infrastructure and saying a dam can't be built unless it doesn't harm tigers, that's all good," he said. "The problem is we don't have time for it. Educating communities is a good thing, but by the time the children have grown up, the tigers will be gone."

Zoellick contends that those points of view are less contradictory than they appear. "We all agree that if you don't preserve the core population, there's nothing to talk about," he said, but at the same time those populations need room to roam.

Somehow, the WWF says, everyone will agree, because they must if there's any hope of saving the tiger. "The impediment will be financing," said Mike Baltzer, head of WWF's Tigers Alive initiative. "We're hoping donors will step up."

Strong anti-poaching laws and financing strict enforcement will be on Russia's agenda as it hosts the summit. Russia has watched tigers decline or prosper as laws and police weakened or grew powerful.

Its Siberian tiger - the Amur tiger - once roamed the forests and mountains of the Russian Far East by the hundreds. But hunting and trade destroyed them, and by 1940, when Lev Kaplanov, the director of a Russian nature preserve, did the first scientific count, he found only 20 to 30.

By 1948, the Soviet government had outlawed tiger hunting and there was little means or reason to violate the law.

Guns were strictly controlled, the border with China was very much closed, preventing trafficking, and the sale of tiger parts was prohibited. By the late 1980s, perhaps 400 were on the prowl.

"There was no incentive to poach," Miquelle said, "and it largely ended."

As the Soviet Union slowly crumbled into chaos, however, those controls disappeared, replaced by a poverty that encouraged hunting and a ready market in nearby China, where tiger parts are valued for folk medicine. Now 20 to 30 tigers are poached in Russia every year, and Miquelle fears for the future of the 500 Siberians thought to be left. Few die of old age.

Just Monday, anti-poaching police in the Russian Far East stopped a truck in the Khasan region near the border with China and North Korea. They found a tiger carcass inside and arrested four people on poaching charges.

Miquelle mourned the dead tiger but rejoiced in the arrests.

"If we can't protect the tiger, we can't protect the natural resources we rely on," he said. "If we can save the big cats, we can save ourselves."

“Reduced to skin and bones” shows tigers under pressure

2010-11-16T07:29:00.000-08:00

The WWF, based in Gland, near Geneva, says the world’s endangered tigers remain under pressure, with India, China and Nepal showing the worst poaching problems. In the past century the number of tigers worldwide has fallen from an estimated 100,000 to just 3,200. The WWF is a member of Traffic (wildlife trade monitoring network), whose “Reduced to Skin and Bones” report released 9 November shows that “from January 2000 to April 2010, parts of between 1,069 and 1,220 tigers were seized in 11 of the 13 tiger range countries—or an average of 104 to 119 animals per year.”

The report is published ahead of a meeting at the end of November of heads of government of tiger range countries to sign the Global Tiger Recovery Programme, a plan that aims to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022. The programme aims to push harder to reduce poaching and illegal trade, but also to reduce the demand for tiger parts.

Tigers are coveted for their use in traditional medicines, decoration, and as good luck charms.

Poachers sell “complete skins, skeletons and even whole animals—live and dead, through to bones, meat, claws, teeth, skulls, penises and other body parts,” says the WWF.

Pauline Verheij, joint Traffic and WWF tiger trade programme manager and an author of the report, says that “with parts of potentially more than 100 wild tigers actually seized each year, one can only speculate what the true numbers of animals are being plundered.”

India, which has the largest number of tigers, also accounted for the largest number of seizures, parts representing as many as 533 tigers, with seizures in China and Nepal accounting for nearly equal numbers of roughly 130 tigers in each country.

Chinese habitats of wild Siberian tigers expand

2010-11-08T06:58:00.000-08:00

After two oxen were eaten in Sandaowan Town, Yanji, Jilin province, experts from Beijing Forestry University have proved through DNA analysis that the predator was a wild Siberian tiger. This was the first signs of activity of Siberian tigers discovered in Yanji in nearly 10 years. Experts believe this implies an increasingly evident trend that the habitats of wild Siberian tigers are expanding from the China-Russia border areas to include China's inland areas.

It is known that wild Siberian tigers mainly live in Russia's Far East and China's Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces. Of them, 430 to 500 live in Russia and about 20 in China.

Located at the junction of China, Russia and North Korea, Jilin's Huichun is the most concentrated area of wild Siberian tigers and serves as an ecological passage for the free migration of wild Siberian tigers between China and Russia.

Lang Jianmin, director of the Publicity and Education Center of the Huichun Siberian Tiger Conservation Zone Bureau, said that thanks to China's intensified protection of wild Siberian tigers over the recent years, poaching activities have dropped considerably and the number of ungulates is on the rise. The living environment of wild Siberian tigers is improving and the annual frequency of discovering wild Siberian tigers has increased.

During recent years, the number of wild Siberian tigers in the Huichun Siberian Tiger Conservation Zone has grown to five or six from the original three or five. The signs of activity of wild Siberian tigers in Yanji perhaps imply the expansion of their habitats from the border areas to include China's inland areas.

Qiao Heng, vice director of Jilin Provincial Forestry Department, said that over recent years, Jilin Province has expanded the Siberian Tiger preservation areas based on the Huichun Siberian Tiger Conservation Zone to offer wild Siberian tigers more habitats.

Tiger Habitat Saved From Logging

2010-11-06T08:20:00.000-07:00

There are an estimated 350-500 Siberian, or Amur tigers, remaining in the wild. In captivity there are another 400 or so. In the late 1940s, that number was down to twenty, and the species was very close to extinction.
Various conservation projects, including captive breeding programs were successful in staving off extinction and growing the populations, however research last year uncovered an alarming fact. The Amur wild tiger population shows very little genetic diversity, due to their small numbers and isolation, which means in the future they could be subject to diseases caused by inbreeding. The effective population, or number of individuals with genetic diversity, was only 27 to 35 tigers for the main population living in Russia. A second population of twenty living in China was shown to have an effective population of 2.8 to 11.

The genetic diversity research is very important on its own, but a new development had threatened to put more pressure on wild Siberian Tigers. The Russian government announced plans to auction logging rights to begin cutting down trees in Siberian tiger habitat. Logging was also scheduled for Sredneussuriysky Nature Reserve, which was reported to be the last natural wild corridor of habitat for the tigers which links their populations in Russia and China. The World Wildlife Fund protested via a press conference, and the media ran news stories about the plan for logging in the endangered cat’s shrinking habitat. So far their pressure has kept the logging at bay. One never knows exactly in such cases, if the project has been halted temporarily or permanently as not much information has come out since the cancellation.

The halting of the logging is a victory for environmentalists and tiger supporters. Some of them will be traveling to Russia soon to attend the Tiger Preservation Summit in St. Petersburg. Officials from countries where the tigers live are planning to attend the conference in order to share information and strategize about how to continue protecting them. There has been some speculation fewer representatives of the countries will attend due to being offended by the near logging of the imperiled animals habitat.

Just this past August, China and Russia came to an agreement which created a protected area linking the two isolated tiger populations. “This agreement is a great boost for Amur tiger habitats in Russia and China. Since both countries play a crucial role in terms of global tiger recovery, a future transboundary network would represent a big step in WWF’s global tiger conservation effort,” said Dr. Sergey Aramilev, Biodiversity Coordinator for Amur Branch of WWF-Russia. (Source: WWF.org)

Tiger summit offers ‘last chance’

2010-10-17T05:05:00.000-07:00

Last 13 countries with wild tigers to meet in St Petersburg, as deforestation and poaching push animal to extinction

Leaders of the few remaining countries where tigers are still found in the wild are preparing for a make-or-break summit in Russia, which they believe offers the last chance to save the critically endangered animal.

The Global Tiger Summit in St Petersburg next month will bring together the 13 countries that still have wild tigers, along with conservation organisations, in an attempt to thrash out a global recovery plan. Britain and the US are also being urged to attend.

The WWF (formerly the World Wide Fund for Nature) says it is optimistic about the summit’s chances of success, but warns that failure will lead to the extinction of the tiger across much of Asia. The draft communique for the summit, seen by the Observer, notes that in the past decade tiger numbers worldwide have fallen by 40% and warns that “Asia’s most iconic animal faces imminent extinction in the wild”.

It concludes: “By the adoption of this, the St Petersburg Declaration, the tiger range countries of the world call upon the international community to join us in turning the tide and setting the tiger on the road to recovery.”

The challenge was illustrated clearly last week when hidden camera footage showed the destruction of part of the Sumatran tigers’ Indonesian forest home to make way for illegal palm oil plantations. Meanwhile, in Singapore undercover officers seized several tiger skins that had been advertised for sale online.

Organisers of the summit, which is backed by the World Bank, hope agreements can be reached that will lead to a doubling of tiger numbers by 2022. But some conservationists fear it is already too late and the summit will be another talking shop that fails to deliver results.

Tiger numbers worldwide have collapsed from an estimated 100,000 over the past century, due to poaching and human encroachment. It is now thought there are no more than 3,200 tigers in the wild, of which only about 1,000 are breeding females. The situation is so critical that four of the 13 countries attending the summit – China, Vietnam, Cambodia and North Korea – no longer have viable breeding populations, according to a study released last month.

The study – produced by researchers from Cambridge University, the World Bank and the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society – concluded that “current approaches to tiger conservation are not slowing the decline in tiger numbers, which has continued unabated over the last two decades”.

It recommended that, rather than trying to save all the remaining tigers, governments should concentrate on sites that provided the most realistic chance of supporting a breeding population. “Conflict with local people needs to be mitigated. We argue that such a shift in emphasis would reverse the decline of wild tigers and do so in a rapid and cost-efficient manner.”

The study will have made uncomfortable reading for the host nation. It found there had been a “dramatic decline” in tiger numbers in the Russian far east over the past five years – understood to be about a 15% drop – which it associated with a decline in anti-poaching enforcement.

The Siberian tiger – also known as the Amur tiger – nearly went extinct in the middle of the last century, when numbers fell below 50, but there are now thought to be more than 400 left in the wild. Suggestions that numbers have dipped again will not have pleased Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir Putin, who will be hosting the summit and who has been keen to portray himself as a rugged protector of the animals.

In 2008 he accepted a tiger cub as a birthday present (the donor was never disclosed) and in the same year was at the centre of an extraordinary drama when it was claimed that he shot an Amur tiger with a tranquilliser dart to save the lives of a television crew. The team had been filming him taking part in a conservation exercise when the animal apparently broke free and charged.

But not only Russia is struggling to save the tiger. Earlier this year the Observer revealed how India’s tiger population remained in decline, with some conservationists estimating that only 800 remained in the wild, significantly fewer than the official claim of 1,411.

Events in India in recent weeks have demonstrated just how great the challenge is. In the Panna reserve, which had to be restocked from other national parks last year, two young tigers have gone missing and are presumed dead. The human-tiger conflict for land was illustrated when three people in Uttar Pradesh, just 150km from the national capital Delhi, were attacked in an area not previously associated with tigers.

In Indonesia, a hidden WWF camera shot footage of a rare Sumatran tiger in the forests of Bukit Betabuh. Later, the same camera filmed a bulldozer clearing the area – apparently for a palm oil plantation – and then recorded the tiger returning to the scene of devastation.

But despite the gloomy picture the summit’s backers remain optimistic. Diane Walkington, the WWF’s head of species programme in the UK, said that considerable progress had already been made to sketch out a global recovery plan and to concentrate the minds of politicians on the problem.

“Tiger numbers can recover, but you can never take your eye off the ball,” she said. “We are down to 3,200 and that is a really low number.” The solution, she said, was international co-operation to tackle issues such as smuggling. She cited deals between China and Nepal as an example of how that can bear dividends. But she warned that, with numbers so low, the tiger would not get another chance. “I think that if this is not a success we will see tigers going extinct in much of Asia,” she said.

Some conservationists worry that the summit is more about politicians wanting to be seen to be doing something, rather than tackling the issues on the ground, such as the encroachment into tigers’ traditional territory by poor farmers in search of land.

Aditya Singh, a conservationist and wildlife photographer who spends much of his time among the tigers of India’s Ranthambore national park, said previous summits had involved a group of leaders seeking answers to a problem they did not understand.

“There is little or no ground-level representation. As a result, the real practical problems never get highlighted,” he said. “There is no link between field workers and conservation leaders. They do not even know each other’s problems and the conservation efforts are not co-ordinated. Kind of like the climate summit.”

The “tiger range” countries attending the conference are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.

* Endangered species

* Animals

* Wildlife

* Conservation

* Deforestation

* Forests

Gethin Chamberlain

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
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WWF tiger t-shirts cause wearers to be shot

2010-10-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) launched a campaign against the shooting of Siberian Tigers in Russia. The charity didn’t just rely on pamphlets and traditional PR campaigns, though. Instead it turned to augmented reality through the use of specially designed t-shirts with tiger shaped drawings.

The t-shirts were distributed offline and online. Offline the t-shirts could be tried on in clothing stores throughout Russia. When the wearer stepped in front of a special mirror an animation was triggered which demonstrated what it would be like to be shot like a Siberian Tiger. Those who bought t-shirts online could access a special website which would allow the wearer to use their webcam to activate the animation.

The campaign was supported by Russian celebrities and led to 200,000 people signing up against the shooting of the Siberian Tiger.

Unfortunately, exactly these t-shirts from these video are still not possible to buy online, even though they announced that it is available online.You can buy some WWF ( World Wildlife Foundation) t-shirts on Amazon, such as: Growling White Tiger T-shirt, Blue Eyed White Tiger T-shirt or any other WWF t-shirt.

Mother tigers pass down territory to their daughters

2010-09-17T09:11:00.000-07:00

For female Amur tigers, defending your territory is not just about acquiring enough food to survive; it's also about passing down real estate to your daughter.

As described by a team of scientists led by the Wildlife Conservation Society's John Goodrich in the latest issue of the Journal of Mammalogy, a 14-year study of Amur tigers in eastern Russia's Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Zapovednik has shown that male and female tigers establish home ranges of different sizes for different reasons. After capturing and radio-collaring 32 individual tigers (adults and cubs), the team of Russian and American scientists was able to determine that male tigers maintained very large territories (about 1,385 square kilometers) which encompassed the home ranges of several females (about 390 square kilometers).

A map of Amur tiger home ranges between 1992-1997. Solid areas marked "F" designate females and dashed lines marked "M" designate males. From Goodrich et al, 2010.

The disparity in territory size was not much of a surprise. Among solitary big cats, males often have larger home ranges than females, and the reason for this difference between the sexes has to do with the different life strategies of male and female Amur tigers. Whereas young male tigers typically leave the home territory of their mother in an attempt to find a vacancy and gain access to as many females as possible, females stake out their territories based upon the resources they can provide for them and their cubs (thus their home ranges can be much smaller).

What intrigued the scientists, however, was that the home ranges of female Amur tigers contracted when they had female cubs, with their daughters taking up residence in the vacant areas. This favored the future reproductive success of the young tigresses as they did not have to face the risks usually encountered by individuals which try to establish themselves elsewhere (and often become victims of poachers). As the authors of the paper state, it appears that the adult female tigers in their study defended larger territories than they actually needed to survive, and by passing down a portion of this land to their daughters they enhanced the potential success of their offspring while mitigating competition for the same resources.

Yet, as the scientists saw firsthand, poaching can disrupt the matrilineal inheritance of territory among Amur tigers. During the early years of their study - from 1997 to 2000 - all but two of the radiocollared tigers living within the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Zapovednik were killed by hunters. The vacancies were filled by a mix of "immigrant" animals from other areas and individuals which were related to those which had been poached, but, even after a new population became established, it took five years before a mother tiger passed down territory to her female offspring.

The spatial patterning of tigers over time detected by Goodrich and colleagues may very well complicate tiger recovery plans. If there is a large area of land in which tigers were nearly eliminated (as was the case in this study), the new tiger population will not quickly rebound to its maximum capacity. Instead female tigers which move into vacancies will defend larger territories than they require until they pass down some of that area to their daughters, and during this time the tiger population might be more susceptible to poaching as a smaller number of animals will be occupying an area which could actually support many more. But this news isn't all bad. If tigers can be successfully protected long enough for adult animals to become established, the population size and density can potentially double when the next generation of female tigers mark out their own territories within those initially carved out by their mothers. Given enough time, the tattered remnants of a tiger population can begin to recover.

Suddenly born tiger cubs at the intensive care

2010-09-09T06:04:00.000-07:00

When zookeepers arrived at work on Tuesday morning, they were surprised to see two tiny tiger cubs in the enclosure.

They were even more surprised to see the mother struggling to care for her litter.

But keepers gave the first-time mother her space and watched as the moments after the births unfolded on a TV screen, rather than interfere with Katja.

Although one cub died soon after and the other is fighting for her life in the Calgary Zoo's intensive care, officials wouldn't have done anything differently.

"It's always our desire to have the cubs mother-raised," Sandie Black, chief veterinarian at the zoo, said Wednesday. "The best way of ensuring that is to give her privacy and keep things as calm and normal as possible."

The 10-year-old cat didn't nurse her young and carried one kitten in her mouth, which is likely how it died.

Once keepers noticed the cubs becoming less active and the mother moved away from them, they went in to check on their condition.

The surviving female has put on weight since Tuesday, but will remain in an incubator for another week or two.

An expert on captive tigers said surprise pregnancies, cubs dying at birth and inexperienced mothers are all common issues for the carnivore.

"I've heard from many people who say isn't it too bad a cub died," said Ron Tilson, director of the Species Survival Plan that oversees all tigers held in captivity across North America. "But what's really great is that one survived."

In the wild and in captivity, one in three newborn tigers die at birth, said Tilson from Minnesota. Often, as appears to be the case with Katja, the death results from mishandling by the mother.

"Probably a third of all inexperienced females with their first litter, they mess up in one way or another," said Tilson. "They either don't let the cubs nurse, they don't have milk let down, or they're too fretful and they're moving around too much. They don't lie still and let the cubs really latch on.

"This is absolutely not uncommon."

The Species Survival Plan has been operating since 1987, and in that time, the program has overseen more than 400 tiger births. Tilson said he knows of at least six cases where a tiger pregnancy went undetected until the cubs were born.

"I know of at least half a dozen, if not more, cases that I got calls from very experienced zookeepers who I knew who said, 'I can't believe it, but we just had cubs this morning,' " said Tilson.

Katja weighs about 136 kilograms and each cub weighed less than 909 grams at birth -- the low end of the normal range -- meaning the mother's appearance wouldn't have changed, said Tilson. And zookeepers say the behaviour of pregnant tigers changes little over the gestation period.

It was through the program Tilson oversees that a nine-year-old male named Baikal was moved to Calgary from the Bronx Zoo in New York in January.

It was hoped he would mate with Katja and produce cubs, but with arthritis in his hips, several attempts under the careful watch of zookeepers proved unsuccessful.

Baikal underwent surgery to relieve the pain in his hips in late May -- around the time impregnation would've had to have occurred for Katja to give birth Tuesday. Gestation in tigers is typically 90 to 110 days.

"Keepers observed lots of attempts, but nothing even close to a successful breeding," said Black.

"In many ways, this was a surprise."

The unexpected birth comes less than three months after the release of a scathing report suggesting the zoo has system-wide problems, including poor staff morale and a high number of human-related animal deaths.

Zoocheck, an animal-rights activist organization, criticized the zoo over Katja's unnoticed pregnancy and dead cub, saying more attention should be focused on habitat conservation rather than breeding.

But Tilson said the whole point of the Species Survival Program is to protect the tiger gene pool for potential reintroduction into the wild.

It's believed there are less than 300 Siberian tigers -- actually known as Amur tigers -- living in the far east of Russia along the Amur River. The numbers have been declining in the past two decades due to poaching.

There are 137 Amur tigers in captivity among 262 tigers kept in 206 zoos across North America.

The number of Amur tigers in the wild may have to be bolstered soon, probably by first allowing young tigers into the area with their captive mothers nearby. The young tigers would have to be trained to hunt.

"There's talks about that in Russia right now," said Tilson.

"It hasn't ever been attempted in any way, but there has been a lot of thinking about it in a number of places across Asia because tigers are disappearing everywhere."

The most recent news:

Unfortunately, despite enormous efforts of people in the Calgary zoo, two tigress did not survive, luckily the third tigress is good and chances are it will survive.

Calgary Zoo tiger has chest infection

2010-08-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

Kita, one of the Calgary Zoo's Siberian tigers, is suffering from a serious chest infection, officials said Thursday.

Earlier this week, keepers noticed that Kita, a 15-year-old female, was lethargic and not eating.

Veterinarians at the zoo's animal health centre extracted more than a litre of fluid from the tiger's chest cavity, raising concerns that she had cancer, the zoo said in statement.

Preliminary blood tests did not indicate Kita is suffering from cancer.

Kita was put back in the tiger enclosure Thursday, and her appetite has returned. Animal care staff are continuing to monitor her closely.

It is not known what caused the infection but it is not contagious, officials added.

"Kita normally shows a dislike for the veterinary staff, which we take with good humour, and when she was not her feisty self when seeing me, I knew something wasn't right," said Dr. Doug Whiteside, the zoo's senior veterinarian.

Kita has had many health problems — stemming from a nervous disorder — since arriving from the Toronto Zoo in 1996.

Kita gave birth to four cubs 10 years ago, with three of them moving to other zoos.

One of the females, Katja, is still at the Calgary Zoo. In 2007, Kita gave birth to a male, Vitali, who also remains in Calgary.

Siberian tiger drawing

2010-08-05T10:07:00.000-07:00

In the Studio with Art by Nature - Watch the Artist show with Gisele Grenier. Peek over Gisele's shoulder while she paints this nine month old White Siberian Tiger in pastels from her studio. In the live sessions, she chats with viewers and shares quirky events and ideas happening in her life. Nothing is edited out.

Meeting with nature: A tigers tale

2010-07-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

The Siberian tiger is called the soul of the taiga by the hunters and shamans of the Primorskiy region. For them its a sacred animal which is the incarnation of their ancestors spirits. Tigers have been inhabiting the deep forests of Primorskiy region for centuries and managed to avoid the hunters gun. But the constant encroachment of civilisation upon the taiga puts these exquisite creatures in danger of total extinction. Siberian tigers, their survival and people who are trying to protect tigers from dying out are the focus of the next installment of the Meeting with Nature series.

Siberian Tiger Conservation Foundation Expose

2010-07-22T05:38:00.000-07:00

Tigers in your neighbor's backyard are still a problem in the US. Watch what these reporters discovered about Diana McCourt's Siberian Tiger Conservation Foundation.

Siberian Tiger Nurejev takes his first walk around the outdoor enclosure at the Munich zoo

2010-07-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

Siberian Tiger Nurejev takes his first walk around… - MyVideo

What you can do to save tigers...

2010-07-01T00:44:00.000-07:00

This does not apply only to tigers..to wildlife, for all our endangered wild animals. shall expand this list...

Speak up for tigers: They can’t. Be their ambassador, amongst your family, friends, social circle, colleagues. Let them know that tigers are on the brink of extinction, why, and how they can help. Write to editors urging them to highlight the urgency to save tigers. Let them know readers care. Write to MPs, ministers.

Your profession as a weapon: What do you do? Are you a teacher? Then you can influence your students in the cause. One teacher in Sriram School in Delhi has made all the difference, and students in her school help raise funds for rehabilitating traditional hunting communities around Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve. If you are a lawyer, you could use your legal skills in fighting cases ie. say a specific wildlife crime case, or against a road that is going to cut through tiger habitat. As a concerned citizen, you could file a PIL. Use the RTI Act to find out more. A web designer could generate websites for local NGOs who may lack the skills to communicate to the world. The avenues are endless, you need to find them.

Donate your time, and money: Volunteer with NGOs—find out NGOs and see how you can volunteer with them towards the cause. And you could donate money—identify what you would like your money to be best used for.

Save resources: Everything that you use could impact the tiger’s habitat. The water that overflows from taps left on or leaking pipes depletes ground water. Paper is from trees, so is the wood in your house. Plastics clog and degrade habitat. Electricity may be generated from thermal plants that encroach on tiger habitat, and the steel on your table, and diamonds originate in mines that devastate tiger habitat. Minimise your use. Conserve resources.

Be a responsible tourist: Remember, you are guest in the tiger’s home, behave like one. Don’t chase the tiger. Enjoy the wilderness—don’t leave litter. Be quite, obey rules. Leave not even your footprint...

WHY SHOULD WE SAVE TIGER?

2010-06-26T09:56:00.000-07:00

Saving the tiger means saving mankind..

Not only is tiger a beautiful animal but it is also the indicator of the forest's health. Saving the tiger means we save the forest since tiger cannot live in places where trees have vanished and in turn secure food and water for all.

If we make sure tigers live, we have to make sure that deer, antelope and all other animals that the tiger eats (its prey base) live. To make sure that these herbivores live, we must make sure that all the trees, grass and other plants that these prey animals need for food are protected. In this way, the whole forest gets saved! Saving the tiger means saving its entire forest kingdom with all the other animals in it.

Also forests catch and help store rainwater and protect soils. In this way we protect our rivers and recharge groundwater sources. Areas with less trees lead to floods, killing people and destroying homes. It takes away the precious soil, leaving behind a wasteland. The soil jams up our lakes and dams, reducing their ability to store water. By destroying the tiger's home, we not only harm tigers, but also ourselves.

The tiger thus becomes the symbol for the protection of all species on our earth since it is at the top of the food chain. This is why we sometimes call the tiger, an apex predator, an indicator of our ecosystem's health

The Tiger Poem by William Blake

2010-06-22T11:05:00.000-07:00

Tiger Tiger burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye.
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat.
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp.
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile His work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger Tiger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Poem about tiger cub

2010-06-18T10:58:00.000-07:00

She stood on the edge

overlooking the valley.

Her elegant frame silhouetted

in the moonlit night.

Her intense eyes,

Pregnant with grief and pain.

Her gaze,

Penetrating into the quite lugubrious abyss.

The maelstrom inside her,

resounding in the stillness of the night.

Nothing is moving, not even the dewdrops

hanging precariously from the leaves.

A small cub rests in peace

cuddled between her paws.

It’s body cold as ice.

They had been there together

just one night

both mother and child.

Slowly she slumps beside the lifeless child

and licks the furry body.

Tucking it closer with her paws

she embraces it for One last time.

The forest watches quiescent.

Javan Tiger

2010-06-14T07:33:00.000-07:00

The Javan tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) was limited to the Indonesian island of Java. It now seems likely that this subspecies became extinct in the 1980s, as a result of hunting and habitat destruction, but the extinction of this subspecies was extremely probable from the 1950s onwards (when it is thought that fewer than 25 tigers remained in the wild). The last confirmed specimen was sighted in 1979, but there were a few reported sightings during the 1990s. With a weight of 100–141 kg for males and 75–115 kg for females, the Javan tiger was one of the smaller subspecies, approximately the same size as the Sumatran tiger.

Bali Tiger

2010-06-10T07:28:00.000-07:00

The Bali Tiger (Panthera tigris balica) was limited to the island of Bali. They were the smallest of all tiger subspecies, with a weight of 90–100 kg in males and 65–80 kg in females. These tigers were hunted to extinction—the last Balinese tiger is thought to have been killed at Sumbar Kima, West Bali on 27 September 1937, this was an adult female. No Balinese tiger was ever held in captivity. The tiger still plays an important role in Balinese Hinduism.

South China Tiger

2010-06-06T05:59:00.000-07:00

The South China Tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis), also known as the Amoy or Xiamen tiger, most endangered tiger subspecies and even big cats species in the world, and is listed as one of the 10 most endangered animals in the world.

One of the smaller species of tiger, the length of the South China tiger ranges from 2.2–2.6 m (87–100 in) for both males and females. Males weigh between 127 and 177 kg (280 and 390 lb) while females weigh between 100 and 118 kg (220 and 260 lb).

From 1983 to 2007, no South China tigers were sighted. In 2007 a farmer spotted a tiger and handed in photographs to the authorities as proof. The photographs in question, however, were later exposed as fake, copied from a Chinese calendar and photoshopped, and the “sighting” turned into a massive scandal.

1977 Chinese authorities have passed a law that prohibits the hunting of wild tirove, but this may be have too late to save this tigers subspecies, since it is possible that they are already extinct in the wild. There are currently 59 known captive South China tigers, all within China, but these are known to be descended from only six animals. Thus, the genetic diversity required to maintain the subspecies may no longer exist. Currently, there are breeding efforts to reintroduce these tigers to the wild.

The main reason for their extinction is excessive hunting, for the purpose of traditional Chinese medicine. Unfortunately, tiger body parts are still used in Chinese medicine, and the government is poorly controlled this branch of medicine.

Sumatran tiger

2010-06-02T05:56:00.000-07:00

The Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) liv only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and are extremely endangered.

It is the smallest of all living tiger subspecies, adult males in the wild reach a weight between 100–140 kg (220–310 lb), and females 75–110 kg (170–240 lb). Their small size is adaptation to the thick, dense forests of the island of Sumatra, where they live, as well as the smaller-sized prey.

Estimated population in the wild is between 400 and 500, seen chiefly in the island's national parks. Recent genetic research has shown the presence of unique genetic markers, indicating that it may develop into a separate species, if it does not go extinct. This has led to suggestions that Sumatran tigers should have greater priority for conservation than any other subspecies.

While habitat destruction is the main threat to existing tiger population (logging continues even in the supposedly protected national parks), 66 tigers were recorded as being shot and killed between 1998 and 2000, or nearly 20% of the total population.

Malayan Tiger

2010-05-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

The Malayan Tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni), exclusively found in the southern part of the Malay Peninsula, was not considered a subspecies in its own right until 2004. The new classification came about after a study by Luo et al. from the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity Study, part of the National Cancer Institute of the United States. Recent counts showed there are 600–800 tigers in the wild, making it the third largest tiger population, behind the Bengal tiger and the Indochinese tiger. The Malayan tiger is the smallest of the mainland tiger subspecies, and the second smallest living subspecies, with males averaging about 120 kg and females about 100 kg in weight. The Malayan tiger is a national icon in Malaysia, appearing on its coat of arms and in logos of Malaysian institutions, such as Maybank.

Indochinese Tiger

2010-05-23T11:25:00.000-07:00

The Indochinese Tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti), also called Corbett's tiger, can be found at: Cambodia, China, Laos, Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam. These tigers are similar but darker from their closest relatives Bengali tigers. Males weigh from 150–190 kg (330–420 lb) while females are smaller at 110–140 kg (240–310 lb). The most commonly inhabit the mountain forests and highlands. Estimated population of Indochinese tigers varies between 1200 to 1800, and in the wild they were only a few hundred. All existing populations are at extreme risk from poaching, prey depletion as a result of poaching of primary prey species such as deer and wild pigs, habitat fragmentation and inbreeding. In Vietnam, almost three-quarters of the tigers killed provide stock for Chinese pharmacies. Due to frequent wars, no one controls the poachers, for the same reason no one dares to check what is the actual number of tigers in the wild, and as it stands will not even know soon.

Bengal Tiger

2010-05-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

Bengal Tiger or Royal Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is the most common subspecies of tiger in the world, and mostly live in India and Bangladesh. They adapted to life in a variety of habitats: grasslands, subtropical and tropical rainforests, scrub forests, wet and dry deciduous forests, and mangroves.

Males in the wild usually reach the weight of 205 to 227 kg (450 to 500 lb), while females average weight is about 141 kg (300 lb). However, the northern Indian and the Nepalese Bengal tigers are somewhat bulkier than those found in the south of the Indian Subcontinent, with males averaging around 235 kilograms (520 lb).

While conservationists already believed the population in the wild to be below 2000, the most recent audit by the Indian Government's National Tiger Conservation Authority, estimated that there were only 1411 wild tigers (1165–1657 allowing for statistical error), that their number decreased by 60 percent in past decade.

Since 1972, there has been a massive wildlife conservation project, , known as Project Tiger, to protect the Bengal tiger. Despite increased efforts by the Indian officials, poaching remains a major problem, and at least one Tiger Reserve (Sariska Tiger Reserve) has lost its entire tiger population to poaching. The main problem is the rapidly-expanding population of Inije, which occupies the tiger habitat, tigers so often come into conflict with people, of course people killed them because of fear for their lives.

White Siberian tiger

2010-05-14T06:48:00.000-07:00

White tigers are not a separate tiger species nor the subspecies, they are the result of rare mutations that are passed from the normal orange tigers. People usually associated white tigers with Siberian tigers, because Siberian tigers inhabit snowy landscapes, and their white fur serves as camouflage. The truth however is that Siberian tigers are orange like all other tiger subspecies. It's even thought that their fur adjusted somewhat to snowy areas where they hunt.

The existence of white Siberian tigers in fact never been proven, in facts of Siberian tigers population may not even carry a white fur gene. When the white Siberian tiger is born, he is probably the result of a previous mating with a white Bengal tiger, which was caused to Siberian parents carry a gene of white fur. It is known that Bengal tigers carry the genes of white fur.

There is however several reports of sightings of white Siberian tiger from the region inhabited by normal orange Siberian tiger, but nothing have been scientifically determined yet. Hopefully, future DNA testing can tell us whether or not a pure Siberian tiger can carry the gene for white fur. This would show us whether two pure Siberian tiger parents can produce a white Siberian tiger or not. A DNA testing project would however face a great challenge: a large portion of the Siberian tiger population has already been eradicated. Which genes those tigers carried, and how diverse the Siberian tiger gene pool once were, we might never find out.

White tigers are sometimes mistakenly replaced as albino tigers, but it's not quite correct term. White Bengal tigers have black or brown stripes and the reports of white Siberian tiger from the wild all speak of clearly striped Siberian white tiger. If they really albino, they would not have any stripes at all. A pure Siberian white tiger would have brown stripes on a creamy white background. Since the white Siberian tigers bred in captivity is the result of a mixture of Bengal and Siberian heritage, it can have black stripes as well. The eyes of the Bengal and Siberian white tiger are blue and the nose is of a pink shade.

Since the gene for white fur is recessive in tigers, Both parents must carry a gene in order to produce a white tiger cub. Since such a mating extremely rare, white tigers are rarely seen in the wild. Humans have however selectively bred white tigers from parents known to carry the gene and they are therefore quite common in captivity. White Bengal and white Siberian tigers are not included in the official tiger breeding programs for conservational purposes. They can however help their orange coloured relatives by making people more interested in tigers and willing to set aside resources for the protection of the wild tiger population. One example is the famous white Siberian tiger Taj. Just like the other bred in captivity white Siberian tigers, and he also has an Bengal ancestor. Taj was born in 1984, at the Henry Doorly Zoo. After two years, he moved to the National Zoo (Smithsonian Institution).

Go Wild Rachel: Siberian Tiger

2010-05-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

Releasing Siberian Tiger in China

2010-05-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

Siberian tiger park in Harbin, northeast China. Scientists are trying to save siberian tigers and send tigers back to their former homeland. Harbin siberian park has over 800 siberian tigers and is the biggest of world.

Russia-Iran Re-population project

2010-04-25T09:54:00.000-07:00

Iranian and Russian ecologists are planning a joint project to return Caspian Tigers and Asiatic Cheetahs to the wild in Central Asia. These big cats became extirpated some half a century ago - the Asiatic Cheetah from Russia and Caspian Tiger from Iran. Recent genetic studies have shown that the Amur (or Russian) Tiger is related and virtually identical to the extinct Caspian Tigers; thus, the Russians want to offer the Amur Tiger to Iran to repopulate the Caspian Tiger range in northern Iran. In exchange, Russia wants to acquire from Iran some critically endangered Asiatic Cheetahs to repopulate northern Caucasus region of central Asia, their last abode. There are many more Amur Tigers in the wild than the tiny numbers of surviving Asiatic Cheetah, and while there is a healthy population of Russian Tiger in the captive breeding program in zoos, there is no captive breeding population of the Asiatic Cheetah in any zoo. While discussing the prospects of reintroducing the cheetah in India, cheetah experts the world over have warned that no individuals from the critically low Asiatic Cheetah population in Iran should be withdrawn at this stage for any reintroduction experiment elsewhere, like the one proposed by Russia in exchange for relatively much more abundant Amur Tiger, since the limited gene pool of Asiatic Cheetah in Iran will suffer a tremendous blow.

Siberian tigers attacks on humans

2010-04-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

Unlike the Bengal tiger, the Siberian tiger very rarely becomes a man-eater. Several cases of attacks on humans were recorded in the 19th century, occurring usually in central Asia (excluding Turkmenistan), Kazakhstan and the Far East. Siberian tigers were historically rarely considered dangerous unless provoked, though in the lower reaches of Syr-Darya, a tiger reportedly killed a woman collecting firewood and an unarmed military officer in the June period whilst passing through reed thickets. Attacks on shepherds were recorded in the lower reaches of Ili. In the Far East, during the middle and third quarter of the 19th century, attacks on man were recorded. In 1867 on the Tsymukha River, tigers killed 21 men and injured 6 others. In China's Jilin Province, tigers reportedly attacked woodsmen and coachmen, and occasionally entering cabins and dragging out both adults and children. According to the Japanese Police Bureau in Korea, in 1928, a tiger claimed only one human victim, unlike leopards which claimed three, wild boars four and wolves 48. Only six cases were recorded in 20th century Russia of unprovoked attacks leading to man-eating behaviour. Provoked attacks are however more common, usually the result of botched attempts at capturing them.

In an incident at the San Francisco Zoo on 25 December 2007, a Siberian tiger named Tatiana escaped and killed one visitor, injuring two others. The animal was shot dead by the police. The zoo was widely criticized for maintaining only a 12½ ft (3.8m) fence around the tiger enclosure, while the international standard is 16 ft. (4.8m). The zoo subsequently erected a taller barrier topped by an electric fence. The police say that one of the victims admitted to taunting the animal.

Siberian Tiger Captivity

2010-04-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

The captive population of Siberian tigers comprises several hundred. A majority of these tigers live in eastern Russia's birch forests, though some exist in China and North Korea.

The large, distinctive and powerful cats are popular zoo exhibits. The Siberian tiger is bred under the auspices of the Species Survival Plan (SSP), in a project based on 83 tigers captured in the wild. According to most experts, this population is large enough to stay stable and genetically healthy. Today, approximately 160 Siberian tigers participate in the SSP, which makes it the most extensively bred tiger subspecies within the program. There are currently no more than around 255 tigers in the tiger SSP from three different subspecies. Developed in 1982, the Species Survival Plan for the Siberian tiger is the longest running program for a tiger subspecies. It has been very fortunate and productive, and the breeding program for the Siberian tiger has actually been used as a good example when new programs have been designed to save other animal species from extinction.

The Siberian tiger is not very difficult to breed in captivity, but the possibility of survival for animals bred in captivity released into the wild is small. Conservation efforts that secure the wild population are therefore still imperative. If a captive bred Siberian tiger were to be released into the wild, it would lack the necessary hunting skills and starve to death. Captive bred tigers can also approach humans and villages, since they have learned to associate humans with feeding and lack the natural shyness of the wild tigers. In a worst-case scenario, the starving tigers could even become man-eaters. Since tigers must be taught how to hunt by their mothers when they are still cubs, a program that aimed to release captive bred Siberian tigers into the wild would create great difficulties.

Extinction of western populations

2010-04-10T02:52:00.000-07:00

Until the 19th century, Siberian tigers (formerly known in their western range as Caspian tigers) still inhabited wide spaces of Western and Central Asia. In the mid-1800s, Caspian tigers were killed 180 km northeast of Atbara, Kazakhstan and near Barnaul, Russia (Ognev 1935, Mazák 1981). The only reported Caspian tiger from Iraq was killed near Mosul in 1887 (Kock 1990). In 1899, the last Caspian tiger near the Lop Nur basin in Xinjiang, China, was killed (Ognev 1935). Caspian tigers disappeared from the Tarim River basin in Xinjiang, China, by the 1920s. (Nowell & Jackson 1996) In 1922, the last known tiger in the Caucasus region was killed near Tbilisi, Georgia, after killing domestic livestock (Ognev 1935). The last record of the Caspian tiger on the Ili River, their last stronghold in the region of Lake Balkhash, Kazakhstan, dates to 1948. (Nowell & Jackson 1996)

The Russian government had worked heavily to eradicate the Caspian tiger during planning a huge land reclamation program in the beginning of the 20th century. They considered there was no room for the tiger in their plans and so instructed the Russian army to exterminate all tigers found around the area of the Caspian Sea, a project that was carried out very efficiently. Once the extermination of the Caspian tiger was almost complete, the farmers cleared forests and planted crops like rice and cotton. Due to intensive hunting and deforestation, the Caspian tiger retreated first from the lush lowlands to the forested ranges, then to the marshes around some of the larger rivers, and finally, deeper into the mountains, until it almost certainly became extinct. In 1938, national park Tigrovaya Balka was opened in Tajik SSR to save Riparian forests and rare animals, including Caspian Tiger, but it didn't help the population of tigers. It was the last stronghold of the Caspian tiger in the Soviet Union. Tigrovaya Balka national park is situated in Tajikistan in the undercurrent of Vakhsh River between the Piandj and Kafirnighan near the border of Afghanistan. The last Caspian Tiger was seen there in 1958.

Some reports state that the last Caspian tiger was shot in Golestan National Park (Iran) or in Northern Iran in 1959 (Vuosalo 1976). However, other reports claim that the last Chinese Caspian tigers disappeared from the Manas River basin in the Tian Shan mountains, west of Ürümqi, China, in the 1960s. (Nowell & Jackson 1996) The last record from the lower reaches of the Amu Darya river near Lake Aral was an unconfirmed observation near Nukus in 1968 while tigers disappeared from the river’s lower reaches and the Pyzandh Valley once a stronghold, in the Turkmen-Uzbek-Afghan border region by the early 1970s (Heptner and Sludskii 1972). (Nowell & Jackson 1996) There are even claims of a documented killing of this subspecies at Uludere, Hakkari in Turkey during 1970 (Üstay 1990; Can 2004). Some reports even state that the final Caspian tiger was captured and killed in Northeast Afghanistan in 1997.

The most frequently quoted date is the late 1950s, but has almost no evidence to back it up. It appears this date came to be accepted after being quoted by H. Ziaie in "A Field Guide to the Mammals of Iran". Now, the most evidence reflects an even earlier date of extinction. The area of Iran that contained the last Caspian tigers was in fact the eastern region of Mazandaran, Northern Iran. According to E. Firouz in “A Guide to the Fauna of Iran, 1999”, the last tiger was killed in 1947 near Agh-Ghomish Village, 10 km East of Kalaleh, on the way to Minoodasht-Bojnoord. An exact date of extinction is unknown.

Siberian tiger history

2010-04-05T02:49:00.000-07:00

The Tungusic people considered the Siberian tiger a near-deity and often referred to it as "Grandfather" or "Old man". The Udege and Nanai called it "Amba". The Manchu considered the Siberian tiger as Hu Lin, the king. The most elite unit of the Chinese Imperial Army in Manchu Qing Dynasty is called Hu Shen Yin, literally The Tiger God Army.

In the early years of the Russian Civil War, both Red and White armies based in Vladivostok nearly wiped out the local Siberian tigers. In 1935, when the Manchurian Chinese were driven back across the Amur and the Ussuri, the tigers had already withdrawn from their northern and western range. The few that remained in the East Manchurian mountains were cut off from the main population by the building of railroads. Within a few years, the last viable Siberian tiger population was confined to Ussuriland. Legal tiger hunting within the Soviet Union would continue until 1947 when it was officially prohibited. In 1962, the last tiger in Heilongjiang received protection. In the mid 1980s, it was estimated that the Siberian tiger population consisted of approximately 250 animals.

In 1987, law and order almost entirely broke down due to the impending collapse of the Soviet Union. Subsequent illegal deforestation and bribery of park rangers made the poaching of Siberian tigers easier, once again putting the subspecies at risk from extinction. However due to the work of The Siberian Tiger Project, founded in 1992, the Siberian tiger has seen a steady recovery and stabilization after the disastrous post-Soviet years that saw its numbers decline sharply. The basis of the success has largely been on the meticulous research carried out on these tigers which led to the longest ongoing study of a single tiger, Olga Project Tiger #1. Through this the project was able to focus their conservation efforts to decrease tiger mortality and to improve the quality of their habitat as well. The project included anti-poaching patrols, consultation with local governments regarding human-tiger conflicts, reducing the occurrences of clearcut logging, and other habitat depletion activities.

Interspecific predatory relationships

2010-04-01T06:59:00.000-07:00

Asian Black Bears and Ussuri Brown Bears constitute 5-8% of the Siberian tiger's diet. The brown bear's input is estimated to be 1-1.5%. Certain tigers have been reported to imitate the calls of Asiatic black bears to attract them. Brown bears are typically attacked by tigers more often than black bears, due to their habit of living in more open areas and their inability to climb trees. When hunting bears, tigers will position themselves from the leeward side of a rock or fallen tree, waiting for the bear to pass by. When the bear passes, the tiger will spring from an overhead position and grab the bear from under the chin with one forepaw and the throat with the other. The immobilized bear is then killed with a bite to the spinal column. After killing a bear, the tiger will concentrate its feeding on the bear's fat deposits, such as the back, hams and groin. Tiger attacks on bears tend to occur when ungulate populations decrease. While tigers can successfully hunt bears, there are also records of brown bears killing tigers, either in disputes over prey or in self defense, and in at least one instance, of a bear consuming a tiger. There have been observations of bears that changed their path after coming across tiger trails, as well as of bears following tiger tracks with no signs of fear and sleeping in the same den. However, despite the threat of predation, some brown bears actually benefit from the tiger's presence by appropriating tiger kills that the bears may not be able to successfully hunt themselves, as they usually dominate these disputes over kills.

In areas where wolves and tigers share ranges, the two species typically display a great deal of dietary overlap, resulting in intense competition. Wolf and tiger interactions are well documented in Sikhote-Alin, which until the beginning of the 20th century, held very few wolves. It is thought by certain experts that wolf numbers increased in the region after tigers were largely eliminated during the Russian colonization in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This is corroborated by native inhabitants of the region claiming that they had no memory of wolves inhabiting Sikhote-Alin until the 1930s, when tiger numbers decreased. Tigers depress wolf numbers, either to the point of localized extinction or to such low numbers as to make them a functionally insignificant component of the ecosystem. Wolves appear capable of escaping competitive exclusion from tigers only when human pressure decreases tiger numbers. Today wolves are considered scarce in tiger inhabited areas, being found in scattered pockets, and usually seen travelling as loners or in small groups. First hand accounts on interactions between the two species indicate that tigers occasionally chase wolves from their kills, while wolves will scavenge from tiger kills. Tigers are not known to prey on wolves, though there are four records of tigers killing wolves without consuming them. This competitive exclusion of wolves by tigers has been used by Russian conservationists to convince hunters in the Far East to tolerate the big cats, as they limit ungulate populations less than wolves, and are effective in controlling wolf numbers.

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2010-03-31T11:50:00.001-07:00

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Dietary habits

2010-03-13T04:53:00.000-08:00

In the southeast Trans-Caucasus, the Siberian tiger's main prey was Wild Boar, though it occasionally fed on Roe Deer, Red Deer and domestic animals such as dogs, pigs, sheep, and cattle in winter. Tigers in Iran ate the same species with the addition of gazelle. The Siberian Tiger's prey in Turkmenia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan was primarily boar, as well as Bactrian deer. In the lower Amu Darya River, tigers sometimes preyed on Golden Jackals, Jungle Cats, lynx, and dholes. On the Zhana-Darya and around the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan, as well as boar, the tiger fed on Saiga, Goitered Gazelle, Wild horses, Mongolian Wild Ass and Argali. In Tajikistan and other regions of central Asia, as well as Kazakhstan, tigers frequently attacked dogs, horses and rarely Bactrian Camels. In Baikal, the Siberian tiger fed on Wild Boar, Roe Deer, Manchurian wapiti, Moose and livestock.

In the Amur region, the tiger preys primarily on Red Deer and Wild Boar, which make up 65-90% of its diet in the Russian Far East. Other important prey species are Manchurian wapiti, Moose, Siberian Roe Deer, Sika Deer, Musk deer and goral. It will also take smaller prey like lagomorphs (hares, rabbits, and pikas) and fish, including salmon. Tigers may prey on both Brown and Black Bears when ungulate populations decrease.

Siberian tiger cubs pictures

2010-03-08T02:30:00.000-08:00

In the shadow of the Siberian tiger

2010-03-04T11:36:00.000-08:00

This is the first part of a total of five video documentaries dedicated to conservation of the Siberian tiger.In this documentary you will see how the team of Russian and American scientists trying to understand this remarkable animals.Siberian tigers are the largest cats in the world, but now one of the most endangered animals in the world.This is the first of five youtube videos, see all five videos, and you to will be concerned for the preservation of these amazing animals.

Part one:

Part two:

Part three:

Part four:

Part five:

Siberian Tiger Park

2010-03-01T02:10:00.000-08:00

As the natural environment becomes worse, many creatures are endangered and some have died out. The Siberian tiger is considered endangered. It is the largest felid in the world and is known as the King of the Forest. In the 1980s, it was listed as one of the first-class national protected animals of China. To preserve this valuable species, the Siberian Tiger Park was built in 1996.
The park is located on the north bank of the Songhua River to the northwest of Harbin, occupying an area of 1,440,000 square meters (355.8 acres). It is the largest natural park for wild Siberian tigers in the world at present. The park enjoys a favorable foundation for ecotourism and splendid scenery and it is an ideal place for holiday and leisure. There are over 500 purebred Siberian tigers here, with 100 visible to visitors. In addition, visitors can also see white tigers, lions, lynx, leopards, and black pumas as well as Bengali tigers.

It is a large park divided into ten areas, including the young tiger area, the mature tiger area, the king tiger area, a walking area and a platform for viewing the tigers. Unlike common zoos, the Siberian Tiger Park exchanges the roles of visitors and animals. Except in the walking area and the platform for viewing the tigers, tourists must take a bus encircled by wire mesh to all the other scenic spots while the tigers roam freely in the fields.

The mature tiger area has an area of 360,000 square meters (89 acres) with 30 unruly Siberian tigers wandering there. The tigers in this area are all about 7 or 8 years old. And in the young tiger area, there are over 40 young lovely, active tigers about 2 years old. Visitors can see them playing and fighting with each other in a pool nearby. Some even younger tigers are kept in the walking area, snuggling together. The park also houses some lions which coexist peacefully with the tigers.

For visitors who love to see exciting activities, the Siberian Tiger Park is also a perfect place. In addition to viewing the tigers walking leisurely in the open-air, visitors can buy poultry or animals to feed them, including ducks, chickens, and even cows. Park employees will set the living animal free among the tigers, and visitors can see the unique live action of tigers preying upon it.

In addition, there is a free Popular Science Exhibition Hall in the Siberian Tiger Park. In the exhibition hall, people can see information on tigers in pictures and samples as well as in words.

The best seasons for visiting the Siberia Tiger Park are summer and winter when a wild training field is open to visitors. Visitors can enjoy the exciting scene of tigers attacking prey.

Good News for the Siberian Tiger

2010-02-27T02:02:00.000-08:00

In a world where many animals are under siege, the Amur tiger – popularly known in the West as the Siberian tiger – offers an encouraging message: the population of the huge cat is showing signs of recovery.

During the past 100 years, the Amur tiger population of the Russian Far East was decimated by forest destruction, trophy hunting and poaching for tiger body parts for use in traditional Chinese medicine. By the 1940s the number surviving had dwindled to an estimated 50.

Thanks in part to $611,131 in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grants that, combined with partner donations and in-kind contributions, push the total to more than $1 million, the big, distinctive cats appear to be rebounding in Russia.

Recent surveys indicate that between 331 and 370 adult tigers and 100 young – about 450 tigers in all -- are living in the Russian Far East, home to 95 percent of all Amur tigers in the world.

Service wildlife biologist Fred Bagley, long associated with Amur tiger conservation efforts, said a spike in tiger poaching in the early 1990s was subsequently met by a Russian government crackdown, and the intensified anti-poaching efforts have paid off.

The Amur tigers is one of five tiger subspecies in the world; of eight that once roamed the earth, three became extinct in the 20th century. While the majority of Amur tigers live today in the Russian Far East, a much smaller number are known to inhabit China, and a few may occur in North Korea. Some estimates place the global tiger population in the 3,900 to 5,100 range, down from perhaps 100,000 more than 100 years ago.

The demand for tiger parts for use in traditional Chinese medicine has played a major role in the decline of the Amur tiger population. Despite medical evidence to the contrary, belief persists that tiger parts can curb ailments ranging from impotence to arthritis, skin disease, fever, and more.

And during the last period of heightened poaching, Russian conservation workers estimated that as many as 60 tigers were killed each year.

But the tigers’ situation has shown marked improvement: local government in the Russian Far East, said Bagley, is firmly committed to helping rescue the tigers, and the Service has remained a firm partner in the effort. Service grants have helped pay for vehicles, uniforms, fuel and even salaries for Russian game wardens who have had success in deterring poachers. It’s a relationship that has had positive results.

“It’s hard to find another place in the world where tigers are doing as well,” Bagley said.

Left alone in the wild, the tigers do well, indeed. Amur tigers breed easily, and even though the number of young in the current decade has given cause for some concern, the number of cubs born to each litter has increased slightly, granting some stability to the gradual population increase.

Amur tigers, which can weigh up to 600 pounds at maturity, are loners that travel enormous distances in search of prey, such as elk and wild boar. While some of the tigers have been known to attack humans, they usually prefer to avoid people. The tigers have been known to kill wolves that venture into their territory.

Another threat to the tiger is Russia’s own healthy economy. Wildlife law enforcement jobs in the Russian Far East don’t pay well, and even the most dedicated Russian game wardens are often easily lured elsewhere by better pay, making it difficult to keep trained personnel on the job.

“In the scheme of international grants, the amount of money we’ve contributed to this effort has been relatively modest,” said Bagley. “But there is no doubt that we’ve had an impact. This is one of those times when you can point to something and say, yes, we’re making a real difference. Applied research, habitat protection, effective law enforcement and the support of local people made possible through conservation education, are advancing the survival of this tiger.”

Genetics

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Several reports have been published since the 1990s on the genetic makeup of the Siberian tiger and its relationship to other subspecies. One of the most important outcomes has been the discovery of low genetic variability in the wild Far Eastern population, especially when it comes to maternal or mitochondrial (mtDNA) lineages. It seems that a single mtDNA haplotype almost completely dominates the maternal lineages of wild Siberian tigers. On the other hand, captive cats appear to show higher mtDNA diversity. This may suggest that the subspecies has experienced a very recent genetic bottleneck caused by human pressure, with the founders of the captive population being captured when genetic variability was higher in the wild. However, it may well be that the Siberian tiger population has always shown relatively low genetic diversity, due to a small number of founders colonising the Far East. Work with the preserved remains of the now extinct Caspian Tiger (P.t. virgata) has shown that the two subspecies share a comparatively recent common history, at least when it comes to mtDNA lineages. It appears that tigers colonised central Asia at most 10,000 years ago, and the modern Siberian stock may be the result of a few Caspian tigers subsequently wandering east via northern Asia.

New genetic analysis revealed that the extinct Caspian tiger lives on in the Siberian Tiger. Researchers from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom collected tissue samples from 20 Caspian tiger specimens kept in museums across Eurasia. Afterwards, researchers from the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) Laboratory of Genomic Diversity in Frederick, Maryland, sequenced parts of five mitochondrial genes. The Caspian Tiger's mitochondrial DNA is only one letter of genetic code separated from Siberian Tiger DNA, while it is readily distinguishable from the DNA of other tiger subspecies. This indicates that the Caspian and the Siberian subspecies are really one. The scientists have concluded that the two are so similar because both were descended from the same migrating ancestor. The ancestor colonized Central Asia via the narrow Gansu Corridor (Silk Road) from eastern China. The researchers suggest that through the early 1900s, Caspian and Siberian tiger populations intermingled, but hunters subsequently isolated the two groups. This resulted in the Siberian population splitting off from the Caspian population only in the past century.

Reproduction

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Siberian tigers reach sexual maturity at four years of age. They mate at any time of the year. A female signals her receptiveness by leaving urine deposits and scratch marks on trees. She will spend a week with the male, during which she is receptive for three days. Gestation lasts from three to 3½ months. Litter size is normally three or four cubs but there can be as many as six. The cubs are born blind in a sheltered den and are left alone when the female leaves to hunt for food.

Cubs are divided equally between genders at birth. However, by adulthood there are usually two to four females for every male. The female cubs remain with their mothers longer, and later they establish territories close to their original ranges. Males, on the other hand, travel unaccompanied and range farther earlier in their lives, thus making them more vulnerable to poachers and other tigers.

Siberian tiger pictures

2010-02-05T02:46:00.000-08:00

We score web for most beautiful Siberian tiger wallpapers. Each wallpaper is handpick by my for quality and filter out the junk pictures so you do not have to worry about them here.

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Siberian tiger habitat

2010-01-29T01:31:00.000-08:00

Siberian tigers once populated the whole Siberia, Western and Central Asia even existed, and the west Siberian tiger subspecies, who inhabited the area around the Caspian lake. Today, most of the population inhabit the Far East Siberia, in Amur area, and minorities living in Central Asia.

They live in forest areas, and areas where a lot of cane, in the lowlands, flatlands and gentle hills. Since they are large animals, they hunt from ambush, that’s way forests and reeds are of vital importance for their survival.

In the southeast Trans-Caucasus, the Siberian tiger was mostly confined to the forests of the Talysh lowlands in areas where streams and reed thickets along marine lagoons were adjacent. In Turkmenia, Uzbekistan and Tadzhikistan, the tiger favoured river and lake basins, densely grown reeds, plume grass or tugai forests consisting of poplar, oleaster and willow. The Siberian tiger was sometimes encountered in montane belts, in summer ascending up to the permanent snowling in Kazakhstan and Kirgizia. Tigers were captured in fir and juniper groves at heights of 2,500-3,000 meters above sea level in Kirgiz, Trans-Ili and Dzhunarsk Alatau. Generally, the western Siberian tiger populations thrived in areas with an abundance of wild boar and Bactrian deer, large water supplies, dense thickets and low snow cover.

The Siberian tiger in the Far East is mostly confined to low mountains, having been displaced by humans from lower areas. Its most common habitats are mountain river valleys and pads overgrown with pine and oak, as well as among mountains teaming with deciduous shrubs or in oak or nut-tree groves. It travels only through dense spruce forests, and is attracted to rocky areas and forests abundant with wild boar, wapiti and moose. In times of food scarcity, it can travel through village outskirts and hay fields. In areas of heavy snowfall such as the Primor'e region, the tiger avoids areas of deep snow due to the scarcity of game in such areas, as well as the frost causing the tiger's presence to be more conspicuous.

Siberian tiger facts

2010-01-22T00:33:00.000-08:00

This is a larger list of the most interesting facts about the Siberian tigers on the internet.

-Male Siberian tiger can weigh up to 320 kilograms (850 pounds), and they are the biggest cats in the world.

-They are length from 3 to 3.5 meters (10 to 12 feet).

-On an average, only 1 out of their 10 hunting attempts are successful.

-As per records, a tiger is known to have traveled more than 600 miles in search of food.

-Their height measures 3 to 3½ feet till the shoulders when in a standing position.

-Siberian tiger can jump as far as 23 feet.

-Siberian tigers need 20 pounds of meat for their daily diet.

-A full grown tiger can eat even 200 pounds of meat in a single day, and as much as 100 pounds at one sitting.

-They need to come within 30 to 80 feet distance of their prey in order to launch an attack.

-In case of a fight, they warn the intruders beforehand by rattling their tail.

-According to the National Geographic Website, Siberian Tigers are currently endangered, having a total of 300 to 400 individuals that form the stable, wild population.

-Some Siberian tigers live on areas being greater than 4000 square miles.

-Siberian tigers that live in the wild survive for as long as 15 years, but those in captivity have a smaller life span.

-During winter months, the fur can measure 21 inches long and 3,000 hairs per centimeter.

-A further unconfirmed report tells of a male tiger shot in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains in 1950 weighing 384.8 kg (846.6 lb) and measuring 3.48 m (11.5 ft).

-Depending on the type of tooth, the size can vary from > 1 inch to 3 inches (canine teeth are typically the longest).

-Like all other animals, a tiger's whiskers are senstive and are used in sensory perseption. A tiger's whiskers average around 6 inches (15 cm), and are around 1/8 inches (3.0 mm) thick at the base. Male whiskers are typically longer than female's.

-After a gestation period of three to three and a half months, three or four blind cubs are vorn is a sheltered den. they are nursed by their mother, who rarely leaves them. At about two weeks old their eyes open and their first teeth begin to grow.

-The cubs are less than a year old when they start to hunt for themselves. At two years old they can kill large prey, but they will not leave their mother until they are three to five years old.

Siberian tiger weight

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The maximum known weight for females was 240 kg. Although tigers from Turkestan never reached the size of Far Eastern tigers, there are records of very large individuals of the former population.Weights of up to 318 kg (700 lb) have been recorded and exceptionally large males weighing up to 384 kg (847 lb) are mentioned in the literature but, according to Mazak, none of these cases can be confirmed via reliable sources. A further unconfirmed report tells of a male tiger shot in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains in 1950 weighing 384.8 kg (846.6 lb).

The "Siberian Tiger Project", which has operated from Sikhote-Alin Zapovednik since 1992, found that 206 kg (454.2 lb) seemed to be the largest that they were able to verify, albeit from a limited number of specimens. According to modern research of wild Siberian tigers in Sikhote-Alin, an average adult male tiger (>35 months) weighs 176.4 kg (the average asymptotic limit, computed by use of the Michaelis-Menten formula, gives 222.3 kg for male tigers) and an adult tigress 117.9 kg. The mean weight of historical Siberian tigers is supposed to be higher: 215.3 kg for male tigers and 137.5 kg fore females. At least one authority suspects that this is the difference between real weights and hunter's estimates.

Siberian tiger size

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The Siberian tiger is typically 5–10 cm (2-4 inches) taller at the shoulders than the Bengal tiger, which is about 107–110 cm (42–43 in) tall. Males measure 270 to 330 cm long, females measure 240 to 265 cm long. The largest male, with largely assured references, measured 350 cm (138 in) "over curves" (330 cm/130 in. between pegs) in total length.The tail length in fully grown males is about 1 m (39 in).

The bodies of the now extinct western populations were generally less massive than that of their Far Eastern cousins, and their average size was slightly less. In Turkestan, male tigers exceeded 200 cm in length, though an estimated body length of 270 cm was recorded. Females were smaller in size, normally ranging between 160–180 cm. The body measurements, taken by the scientist of the Siberian Tiger Project in Sikhote-Alin, states that the average head and body length, measured in straight line, is of 195 cm (range 178-208) for the males and 174 cm (range 167-182 cm) for the females. The average tail measure 99 cm in the males and 91 cm in the females. The longest male (“Maurice”) measured 309 cm in total length (tail of 101 cm) and had a chest girth of 127 cm. The longest female (“Maria Ivanovna”) measured 270 cm in total length (tail of 88 cm) and had a chest girth of 108 cm. These measurements show that the present Amur tiger is longer than the Bengal tiger and the African lion. The skull of the Siberian tiger is distinguished by its larger overall size, as well as the great development of its sagittal crest, whose height and strength exceeds that of other tigers and the lion.

Maximum skull length in Amur male tigers is 361.8–383 mm, while the females range from 279.7-310.2 mm. The skull length of the males of Turkestan had a maximum length of 297.0-365.8 mm, while that of females was 195.7-255.5 mm. On January 10, 1954, a tiger killed on the Sumbar in Kopet-Dag had a skull greatest length of 385 mm, which is considerably more than the known maximum for this population and slightly exceeds that of most Far Eastern tigers. However, it condylobasal length was of only 305 mm, smaller than those of the Amur tigers, with a maximum recorded condylobasal length of 342 mm. Based on skull measurements, it appears that the biggest Siberian tigers came from Manchuria, where today the cats are reduced to a handful of individuals. The largest Manchurian skull on record measures 406 mm in length, which is about 20–30 mm more than the maximum skull lengths achieved by tigers from the Amur region and northern India.

This text is borrowed from Wikipedia.

Siberian Tiger Fur

2010-01-01T11:08:00.000-08:00

Siberian tiger fur is moderately thick, rough and sparse in comparison with other animals that live in the former Soviet Union. Compared to, summer and winter coat of tigers from the Far East Siberia is drastically different from other subspecies. Generally, western population fur is lighter and more uniform than far eastern population. Summer fur is harsh, short and rare, while winter is longer, thicker, softer and silkier ( this is the main reason why they hunted mostly in the winter). Winter fur looks pretty shaggy at the back, and evidently longer at the front end, almost covers the ears. Whiskers and hair on the occipital and top of the neck are very elongated, and looks like a mane, as in lions. Color of winter coat in the background is less bright and rusty compared to summer fur, and tends to be more orange. As winter fur is long, patterns appear broader with less defined outline.
Summer fur on the back is 15-17 mm long, 30-50 mm along the top of the neck, 25-35 mm in the stomach, and 14-16 mm in the tail. Winter coat on the back is 40-50 mm long, 70-110 mm along the top of the neck, on the throat is 70-95 mm, 60-100 mm on the chest and on abdomen is 65-105 mm long. Whiskers are 90-115 mm long.

Siberian tiger

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Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) is also known as Amur, Manchurian, Altaic, Korean or Ussuri tiger. In the past, inhabit region from Western and Central Asia to Eastern Russia, but due to poaching, now inhabits only the Amur-Ussuri region of Far East Siberia, where it is now protected by law. Genetic research from 2009 showed that Siberian tigers are nearly identical Caspian tiger, now extinct, although previously that it was the other subspecies.
Siberian tiger is the largest of the eight species of tigers that exist today, and also largest cat in the world. Male Siberian tiger can reach a weight of 320 kg (700 lb),and consumes 50 kg (100 lb) of meat at once, and females can be difficult to 260 kg (520 lb). At the same time it is the strongest cat in the world, it's even recorded that they attacked brown bears, which can weight up to 600 kg (1250 lb).
Siberian tigers are an endangered species due to poaching. Mosley for traditional Chinese medicine, which is especially appreciated tigers fat, but also because of fur, on black markets, they fur can cost several thousand dollars. Today, they are protected in eastern Siberia and the number is stable.