Saving the Tiger

Tigers were heavily hunted in the turn of the century for the use of their body parts for traditional Chinese medicines. The Soviet Union outlawed poaching tigers but the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, left Russia with no regulations on poaching them. Poachers went on a hunting binge until 1992 when Russia founded the Siberian Tiger Project. It is estimated that 240 tigers were killed between 89-92 before poaching them was outlawed by the new Russian government. (7) The poaching of tigers increased so rapidly because every tiger killed could be sold in China for $50,000 (7). In Russia, there are laws that prohibit the hunting and killing of a tiger. The area where the tigers are found is bigger than just eastern Russia and extends into its neighboring countries; China and North Korea (5). Soon after Russia took action in deferring poachers, China outlawed the use of any tiger parts for medicine in 1993 (3,7). Operation Amba in Russia is also doing a great job in protecting and preventing the hunting of these majestic animals. This organization works with the Russian government to enforce laws and spread the awareness of siberian tigers as a disappearing species. (7,5) There is a reported 450-900 tigers living freely in the wild, and numbers are only increasing. (1,2,3,4,5,7) In captivity, around the world tigers are being bread and some will be released back into the wild (1,2,3,4,5,7). China is the leader of releasing animals back into the wild, a center in china has bred and plans to release 620 tigers back into the wild. This would double the tigers living in the wild and double their chances of survival. (7)

Mating!!!

Tigers mate year round, there is no distinct time of the year in which they come together and mate. They do not come together in a group and pick the best mate, in fact the female iniciates the whole thing(7). Tigers start to reproduce when they reach full maturity, they are completely mature at about 4 years of age(5). The females allures the attention of a male by leaving scent marks (7)(which she does by peeing on things) and leaving scratch marks on trees. The female is in estrus (her most fertile time) for three to seven days. During the estrus period, the male and female will mate several times until they conceive. Like most cats, there is a change of focus when mating time arises.(7) They focus less on hunting and prey, and more on the act of mating. When a female tiger achieves pregnancy, the gestation period last 103 days (5) or three to three and a half months (7). A single pregnancy can produce up to six cubs or as little as one. Usually, tigers will have an average of 2-4 cubs (5,7)and gives birth to her young in a den. Baby tigers are born blind, and completely helpless. The mother will keep a watchful eye over her young and seldom leave them alone. She will only leave to hunt and to excrete waste.

lifestyle

Siberian tigers are thought of as solitary animals. They live alone, not in packs like its cousin the lion(7, 2). Living in the cold eastern forests of Russia, (along the Amur River, hence the name amur tiger) they live competitalively because food is scarce. They leave their scent marks to mark their territory. these territories are huge, sometimes up to 4,000 square miles for a single male tiger. A male's territory occassionally will overlap with neighboring female's(6), and males rival for territories with the best game. Although they may have overlapping territories, the males do not share their kill with their neighboring females and vice versa for the females. Females are only invited to eat after the male has eaten his share(6).


Usually, tigers will eat any animal that is feasible to kill. Their prey can range from wild boar, elk, moose, roe deer, sika deer and red deer(7,2). Their kill is usually a large herbivore, and some records show these tigers eating up to 60lbs of meat from its kill. In rural east Russia, there are few people but the people that live there hunt to provide food. So the tigers have to compete with humans and other predators of the forest. A tiger can travel up to several square miles in a single day. (7) There is one record of a single female that traveled 600 square miles in a span of 3 weeks in search of food. (7)

To watch a video of Siberian Tigers follow this link below
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/animals/mammals-animals/cats/tiger_siberian.html

1

The scientific name or latin name for the siberian tiger which is also referred to the amur tiger is Panthera Tigris Altaica. The siberian tiger is also referred to by several other names besides the ones previously mentioned, like the Manchurian, Ussurian, or Northeast China tiger. These names for the siberian tiger should not be confused with the other subspecies like the bengal tiger, the indochinese tiger, the south china tiger, the malayan tiger and the sumatran tiger. Although they are very similar in appearance, the siberian tiger is distinctly different. The habitat or location of the tiger attributes to the names of the tiger, but the features the amur tiger has developed due to its location seperates them from the rest.
The siberian tiger is the largest of all the tiger, males are the largest of all weighing in at an average of 660 lbs and nearly 11 feet in length, some reports have records of male tigers as big as 13 feel from head to tail. Females are almost half of the weight at an average of 285lbs and 8ft in length. They live in northeastern birch forest Russian tundra where the weather is cold and harsh. The animals have developed a thick coat which insulates them from the snow. Their fur is also different in that it is a lighter orange hue than most tigers and its stripes are not black but instead are brown and their are fewer stripes on the cat than most other subspecies. There is an estimated 350-450 living in the wild and these number suggest growing stability in the populations. The areas that the big cats mostly live have very low human population or intervention with the food of the amur tiger. in the early 1990's a Cat Specialist Group from china estimated that there were only 35 living amur tigers in the wild and were rapidly on the verge of extinction. Since thte awareness rose, all tiger numbers have modestly grown. Today there are only 5 subspecies of tiger when only a hundred years ago there were 8. Three subspecies were driven to extinction through poaching because tigers arw prize game. Developing communities (of people) also have driven the tigers out of their natural habitats. Although poaching of tigers still exist, th awareness of them as critically endangered has decresed hunting incentives.
(National Geographic, Save the Tiger Fund and Discovery Channel)