The Siberian tiger is a Panthera tigris tigris population in the Russian Far East and Northeast China,[3] and possibly North Korea.[4] It once ranged throughout the Korean Peninsula, north China, Russian Far East, and eastern Mongolia. Today, this population inhabits mainly the Sikhote Alin mountain region in southwest Primorye Province in the Russian Far East. In 2005, there were 331–393 adult and subadult Siberian tigers in this region, with a breeding adult population of about 250 individuals. The population had been stable for more than a decade due to intensive conservation efforts, but partial surveys conducted after 2005 indicate that the Russian tiger population was declining.[1] An initial census held in 2015 indicated that the Siberian tiger population had increased to 480–540 individuals in the Russian Far East, including 100 cubs.[5][6] This was followed up by a more detailed census which revealed there was a total population of 562 wild Siberian tigers in Russia.[7] As of 2014, about 35 individuals were estimated to range in the international border area between Russia and China.[8] The Siberian tiger is genetically close to the Caspian tiger of Central and Western Asia. Results of a phylogeographic study comparing mitochondrial DNA from Caspian tigers and living tiger subspecies indicate that the common ancestor of the Siberian and Caspian tigers colonized Central Asia from eastern China, via the Gansu−Silk Road corridor, and then subsequently traversed Siberia eastward to establish the Siberian tiger population in the Russian Far East.[9] The Caspian and Siberian tiger populations were the northernmost in mainland Asia.[10][11] The Siberian tiger was also called Amur tiger, Manchurian tiger, Korean tiger,[4] and Ussurian tiger, depending on the region where individuals were observed.
Characteristics
The tiger is reddish-rusty, or rusty-yellow in colour, with narrow black transverse stripes. The body length is not less than 150 cm (60 in), condylobasal length of skull 250 mm (10 in), zygomatic width 180 mm (7 in), and length of upper carnassial tooth over 26 mm (1 in) long. It has an extended supple body standing on rather short legs with a fairly long tai size
Body size
Historical sources refer to large Siberian tigers. A wild male killed in Manchuria in the area of the Sungari River in 1943 reportedly measured 350 cm (140 in) "over the curves", equivalent to 330 cm (130 in) "between the pegs" with a tail length of about 1 m (39 in). It weighed about 300 kg (660 lb). Unconfirmed weights between 318 and 384 kg (701 and 847 lb) and even 408 kg (899 lb) have been stated in dubious sources. An unconfirmed account refers to a male tiger shot in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains in 1950 allegedly weighing 384 kg (847 lb) with an estimated length of 3.48 m (11.4 ft). A captive Siberian tiger named "Jaipur" allegedly reached a body weight of up to 465 kg (1,025 lb)
In the 1980s, the typical weight range of wild Siberian tigers was indicated as 180–306 kg (397–675 lb) for males and 100–167 kg (220–368 lb) for females. Exceptionally large individuals were targeted and shot by hunters.
In 2005, a group of Russian, American and Indian zoologists published an analysis of historical and contemporary data on body weights of wild and captive tigers, both female and male across all subspecies. The data used include weights of tigers that were older than 35 months and measured in the presence of authors. Their comparison with historical data indicates that up to the first half of the 20th century both male and female Siberian tigers were on average heavier than post-1970 ones. The average historical wild male Siberian tiger weighed 215.3 kg (475 lb) and the female 137.5 kg (303 lb); the contemporary wild male Siberian tiger weighs 176.4 kg (389 lb) on average with an asymptotic limit being 222.3 kg (490 lb); a wild female weighs 117.9 kg (260 lb) on average. Historical Siberian tigers and Bengal tigers were the largest ones, whereas contemporary Siberian tigers are on average lighter than Bengal tigers. The reduction of the body weight of today's Siberian tigers may be explained by concurrent causes, namely the reduced abundance of prey due to illegal hunting and that the individuals were usually sick or injured and captured in a conflict situation with people.[Measurements taken by scientists of the Siberian Tiger Project in the Sikhote-Alin range from 178 to 208 cm (70 to 82 in) in head and body length measured in straight line, with an average of 195 cm (77 in) for males; and for females ranging from 167 to 182 cm (66 to 72 in) with an average of 174 cm (69 in). The average tail measures 99 cm (39 in) in males and 91 cm (36 in) in females. The longest male measured 309 cm (122 in) in total length including a tail of 101 cm (40 in) and with a chest girth of 127 cm (50 in). The longest female measured 270 cm (110 in) in total length including tail of 88 cm (35 in) and with a chest girth of 108 cm (43 in). A male captured by members of the Siberian Tiger Project weighed 206 kg (454 lb), and the largest radio-collared male weighed 212 kg (467 lb).
The Siberian tiger is often considered to be the largest tiger.
Siberian Tiger
Reproduction and life cycle
Siberian tigers mate at any time of the year. A female signals her receptiveness by leaving urine deposits and scratch marks on trees. She will spend 5 or 6 days with the male, during which she is receptive for three days. Gestation lasts from 3 to 3½ months. Litter size is normally two 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 sexes 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, making them more vulnerable to poachers and other tigers
However, Wildlife Conservation Society camera trapped an adult male and female Siberian tiger with three cubs.
At 35 months of age, tigers are subadults. Males reach sexual maturity at the age of 48 to 60 months.
The average lifespan for Siberian tigers ranges from 16–18 years. Wild individuals tend to live between 10–15 years, while in captivity individuals may live up to 25 years
Interspecific predatory relationships
Following a decrease of ungulate populations from 1944 to 1959, more than 32 cases[quantify] of Amur tigers attacking both brown and Asian black bears were recorded in the Russian Far East, and hair of bears were found in several tiger scat samples. Tigers attack Asian black bears less often than brown bears, as latter live in more open habitat and are not able to climb trees. In the same time period, four cases of brown bears killing female and young tigers were reported, both in disputes over prey and in self-defense. Tigers can tackle bears larger than themselves, using an ambushing tactic and jumping onto the bear from an overhead position, grabbing it by the chin with one fore paw and by the throat with the other, and then killing it with a bite in the spinal column. Tigers mainly feed on the bear's fat deposits, such as the back, hams, and groin.
Amur tigers regularly prey on young bears and sub-adult brown bears. Reports of preying on fully grown small female adult Ussuri brown bears by a big male tiger are common as well.[29][52] Predation by tigers on denned brown bears was not detected during a study carried between 1993 and 2002. Ussuri brown bears, along with the smaller Asian black bears constitute 2.1% of the Siberian tiger's annual diet, of which 1.4% are brown bears. Certain tigers have been reported to imitate the calls of Asian black bears to attract them.[57]The effect the presence of tigers has on brown bear behavior seems to vary. In the winters of 1970–1973, Yudakov and Nikolaev recorded two cases of bears showing no fear of tigers and another case of a brown bear changing path upon crossing tiger tracks.[58] Other researchers have observed bears following tiger tracks to scavenge tiger kills and to potentially prey on tigers.[ Despite the threat of predation, some brown bears actually benefit from the presence of tigers by appropriating tiger kills that the bears may not be able to successfully hunt themselves. Brown bears generally prefer to contest the much smaller female tigers. During telemetry research in the Sikhote-Alin protected area, 44 direct confrontations between bears and tigers were observed, in which bears in general were killed in 22 cases, and tigers in 12 cases. There are reports of brown bears specifically targeting Amur leopards and tigers to abstract their prey. In the Sikhote-Alin reserve, 35% of tiger kills were stolen by bears, with tigers either departing entirely or leaving part of the kill for the bear. Some studies show that bears frequently track down tigers to usurp their kills, with occasional fatal outcomes for the tiger. A report from 1973 describes twelve known cases of brown bears killing tigers, including adult males; in all cases the tigers were subsequently eaten by the bears.
Tiger and bear
In captivity
A tigress with cub in captivity
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. 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 population in the framework of the European Endangered Species Programme numbers about 230 individuals, including wild-caught founder
In recent years, captive breeding of tigers in China has accelerated to the point where the captive population of several tiger subspecies exceeds 4,000 animals. Three thousand specimens are reportedly held by 10–20 "significant" facilities, with the remainder scattered among some 200 facilities. This makes China home to the second largest captive tiger population in the world, after the US, which in 2005 had an estimated 4,692 captive tigers. In a census conducted by the US based Feline Conservation Federation, 2,884 tigers were documented as residing in 468 American facilities
In 1986, the Chinese government established the world's largest Siberian tiger breeding base, that is Heilongjiang Northeast Tiger Forest Park and was meant to build a Siberian tiger gene pool to ensure the genetic diversity of these tigers. Liu Dan, Chief Engineer of the Heilongjiang Northeast Tiger Forest Park, introduced a measure such that the Park and its existing tiger population would be further divided into two parts, one as the protective species for genetic management and the other as the ornamental species. It was discovered that when the Heilongjiang Northeast Tiger Forest Park was founded it had only 8 tigers, but according to the current breeding rate of tigers at the park, the worldwide number of wild Siberian tigers will break through 1,000 in late 2010.
couples goal
Ecology and behavior
Siberian tigers are known to travel up to 1,000 km (620 mi), a distance that marks the exchange limit over ecologically unbroken country.
In 1992 and 1993, the maximum total population density of the Sikhote-Alin tiger population was estimated at 0.62 tigers in 100 km2 (39 sq mi). The maximum adult population estimated in 1993 reached 0.3 tigers in 100 km2 (39 sq mi), with a sex ratio of averaging 2.4 females per male. These density values were much lower than what had been reported for other subspecies at the time
In 2004, dramatic changes in land tenure, density, and reproductive output in the core area of the Sikhote-Alin Zapovednik Siberian Tiger Project were detected, suggesting that when tigers are well protected from human-induced mortality for long periods, the density of female adults may increase dramatically. When more adult females survived, the mothers shared their territories with their daughters once the daughters reached maturity. By 2007, density of tigers was estimated at 0.8±0.4 tigers in 100 km2 (39 sq mi) in the southern part of Sikhote-Alin Zapovednik, and 0.6±0.3 tigers in 100 km2 (39 sq mi) in the central part of the protected area
Siberian tigers share habitat with Amur leopards, but in the Changbai Mountains have been recorded more often in lower altitudes than leopards
