Siberian Tiger

The Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) is a rare subspecies of tiger (P. tigris). Also known as the Amur, Korean, Manchurian, or North China tiger, it is the largest of all animals in the feline family Felidae.

The Siberian tiger is critically endangered. In the early 1900's, these tigers lived all over the Korean peninsula, southeastern Russia, and northeastern China. Today, they have virtually disappeared from South Korea and are almost totally confined to a very small part of Russia's southern Far East (the Amur-Ussuri region of Primorye and Khabarovsk, a location where they and the Amur leopard are now being actively protected). There are very few in Manchuria (northeastern China) and even less in North Korea. Captive breeding and conservation programs are currently active.

The tiger population in the Sikhote-Alin was 250 in 1992, increasing to 350 as of 2004, despite significant losses of cubs due to car accidents on the single road that crosses their territory. Illegal poaching has been brought under control thanks to frequent road inspections. It is rumoured that there are still around 20 of these tigers in the Mount Changbai area of China.

As the total population of these tigers fell to 150 in the wild, many subpopulations are possibly not genetically viable, subject to potentially catastrophic inbreeding. However, Russian conservation efforts have led to a revival of the subspecies, and the number of individuals in the Primorsky region of Russia has risen from 450 to 500 in the past decade, indicating positive growth.

A Siberian tiger named Hodori was chosen to represent the 1988 Summer Olympics held in Seoul, South Korea.

Physical description

The Siberian tiger male can weigh as much as 700 pounds (318 kg) or more, although in years past, scientists believed that these cats could weigh up to 800 pounds (350 kg), a supposition based largely on the estimates of hunters. On average, a tigress weighs about 160kg, and a male weighs about 225 kg.

Apart from their size, Siberian tigers are differentiated from other tiger subspecies by their paler fur and dark brown (rather than black) stripes and diverse diet (see below).

Diet

Like all other cats, Siberian tigers are carnivorous predators; adept hunters, they prey primarily on red deer, wild boar, roe deer, sika deer, and goral, but will also take smaller prey like lagomorphs (hares, rabbits, and pikas) and fish, including salmon. They have sometimes even been known to kill and eat Asiatic black bears, weighed between 100 - 200 kg. Like all other species of the big cats they take unprotected dogs as prey. Since it is estimated that 85 percent of a Siberian tiger's diet is composed of red deer and wild boar, protecting these and other prey animals from illegal hunting may be just as important to the tiger's survival as preventing direct killing of the big cats.

Unlike the slightly smaller Bengal tigers, Siberian tigers rarely eat humans.

Siberian tigers in captivity

The captive population of Siberian tigers comprises several hundred specimens. A majority of these tigers are found in Europe, North America and Japan, but there are also a few specimens living in Asian zoos. The Siberian tiger is bred within the Species Survival Plan (SSB), a project based on 83 wild caught tigers. 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 to release captive bred specimens into the wild is small. Conservational efforts that secure the wild population are therefore still of imperative importance. 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 breed tigers can also approach humans and villages since they have learned to associate humans with feeding and lack the natural shyness of the wild Siberian 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 face great difficulties.

Siberian tigers sometimes cross breed with Bengal tigers. A white Siberian tiger is usually the result of such cross breeding and it is unsure whether pure white Siberian tigers exist.

Gallery

Image:A03 3028 640x427.JPG|St. Louis Zoo Image:A03 3038 640x427.JPG|St. Louis Zoo

References

Database entry includes a brief justification of why this subspecies is critically endangered and the criteria used

External links