Siberian Tiger Re-population Project

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File:Die Gartenlaube (1897) 445.jpg
Caspian tiger (up), Bengal tiger (left), Sumatran tiger (right), Siberian tiger (down).

The Siberian Tiger Re-population Project involves re-establishing populations of Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) back to their former habitats, expanding their range and also reintroducing the appropriate subspecies as replacements for the genetically identical Caspian tigers (Panthera tigris virgata) that previously existed in Central and West Asia. Currently, the Siberian tiger populations occur in cold regions of Russian Far East and northern China.

History

File:Harbin Siberian Tigers.jpg
Two Siberian tigers at Harbin Siberian Tiger Park, Northeast China.

Siberian and Caspian tigers were revealed to be genetically close and shared the same ancestor that colonized Central Asia. They separated from each other for less than 10,000 years ago which is not enough time for subspecies level differentiation.

Siberian tigers used to be common in Northeast Asia from the Russian Far East, China, northeastern Mongolia to South Korea and near the Amur river whilst the Caspian tigers lived near the Caspian sea, in the Middle East, from Turkmenistan to Kazakhstan and western Mongolia in northern Central Asia. Caspian tigers became extinct in the 1970s after several years of hunting, poaching and habitat loss. The Siberian tigers lost most of their ranges in Siberia and China and became extinct in the wild of Korea and Mongolia.

Siberian Tiger Project

File:Amur (siberian) tiger prowling.jpg
A Siberian tiger at Minnesota Zoo.

A conservation project entitled Siberian Tiger Project was founded back in 1992.[1]

The goal of the Siberian Tiger Project is to collect the best possible scientific information on tiger ecology for use in conservation plans. Through radio-tracking of more than 60 tigers since 1992, WCS specialists have studied their social structure, land use patterns, food habits, reproduction, mortality, and relationship with other species, including humans.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has been active in the Russian Far East since 1992, working to conserve landscape species including Amur tigers, Far Eastern leopards and Blakiston’s fish owls, whose survival ultimately requires the conservation of the forest ecosystem as a whole.[2]

As a result we have consistently made sound conservation recommendations based upon comprehensive knowledge of tiger ecology and the role of tigers in the forested ecosystems of the Russian Far East. The Siberian Tiger Project positions WCS as scientific leaders in Russia, and gives us the credibility to engage policy-makers as scientists with a real understanding of tiger conservation needs.

The Siberian Tiger Project has always sought to combine traditional Russian approaches to field research, such as snow track counts, and best approaches from abroad, such as radiotelemetry, in order to achieve new, ground-breaking results. Current research is focusing on cub mortality, dispersal and survivorship, comparison of density estimation techniques, and understanding the relationship between poaching and population structure and dynamics.

More than 500 Siberian tigers are left in the wild, with 95% of them in the Russian Far East and some remain in China. Within the tiger's range in Siberia, the largest protected area is the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve, a 401,428 ha (4000 km2) biosphere reserve at Primorsky Krai that has been a stronghold for the Amur tiger since its creation in 1935. In 1992 WCS (initially as the Hornocker Wildlife Institute) in cooperation with the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve began intensive studies of tiger ecology under the Siberian Tiger Project, today the world's longest running radio-telemetry based tiger research and conservation effort.

Reintroduction efforts

File:Zoo Ebw Sibirischer Tiger DSF5667.jpg
A Siberian tiger.

A reintroduction project for tigers was proposed for the Middle East, Central to North Asia, choosing the Amur tigers are appropriate subspecies for reintroduction.[3][4]

Kazakhstan

Siberian tigers are set to be reintroduced to suitable habitats in Kazakhstan where Caspian tigers once lived.[5][6] A national park tentatively known as Caspian Tiger National Park for reintroduced Amur tigers might be opened in 2019.[7]

The Amu-Darya's delta was suggested as a potential site. A feasibility study was initiated to investigate if the area is suitable and if such an initiative would receive support from relevant decision makers. A viable tiger population of about 100 animals would require at least 5,000 km2 (1,900 sq mi) of large tracts of contiguous habitat with rich prey populations. Such habitat is not available at this stage and cannot be provided in the short term. The proposed region is therefore unsuitable for the reintroduction, at least at this stage.[4]

Potential sites at southeastern Kazakhstan's river deltas such as Lake Balkhash and Ili River were also chosen as suitable habitats for the Siberian tigers.[8][9] Dr. Igor Chestin of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) hopes to reintroduce tigers into the wild in Kazakhstan’s marshy Balkhash region within the next few years, though there are needs to reestablish the potential prey base in the areas first,[10] such as saiga antelopes and goitered gazelles. A reintroduction of the Bactrian deer to the Ili delta and the Asiatic wild ass to the Kazakh steppes are under work.[11]

Iran

Caspian tigers used to live in northwestern to northeastern Iran. In 2010, two Siberian tigers sent from Russia to Iran's Tehran Zoological Garden in exchange for a pair of Persian leopards were set to be reintroduced in the wild to replace the Turan tigers at the Miankaleh peninsula within the next five years, another region near the Caspian sea.[12][13] In December 2010, one of the captive Siberian tigers exchanged for the Persian leopards died in Eram Zoo.[14] In 2011, Iran requested four more Siberian tigers and invited conservation experts from Russia to support the reintroduction project to the Caspian Sea coast.[15] Iran received two pairs of Siberian tigers in 2012.[16][17]

Siberia

The future reintroduction of Siberian tigers is planned as part of the rewilding project at Pleistocene Park in the Kolyma river basin in northern Yakutia (Russia), providing the population of herbivores has reached a size warranting the introduction of large predators such as Asiatic lions, spotted hyenas and Amur leopards.[18][19][20]

A Siberian tigress cub was rescued at the Primorsky Krai in February 2012, after losing her mother by poachers, and eventually have been released to the wild in May 2013. In 2015, the very same Siberian tigress gave birth to two wild cubs at Bastak Nature Reserve.[21] She is known as the first Siberian tiger to be in the care of Siberian conservationists and eventually released back into the wild.

Korea

North Korea urged to join Russia and China for the Siberian tigers, after the latest census revealed 562 individuals in total live in the wild. According to the director of the Amur branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the northern part of North Korea has suitable conditions for the Amur tigers and analysis of satellite imagery of North Korea has shown this to be the case. An adult female with two cubs has once crossed the border between Russia and North Korea.[22]

See also

References

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  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Jungius, H., Chikin, Y., Tsaruk, O., Pereladova, O. (2009). Pre-Feasibility Study on the Possible Restoration of the Caspian Tiger in the Amu Darya Delta. WWF Russia
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