Poverty threatens the Siberian tiger genetics

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

Siberian Tiger Population Is Drastically Low, Scientists Report

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?

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

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

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

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.