
The slow rise back to life of the Amur Tiger
Life in the Anthropocene Vol. 07
Before we start this short journey of ours through the elusive trails that the biggest wild cat, the Amur Tiger (also known as the Siberian Tiger, and more correctly Panthera tigris altaica) have left behind it in Russia and China I would like to make one thing perfectly clear.
The Amur Tiger is in no way back on safe land. The sharp decline have slowed down, the poaching have been halted (for now). But it´s rise back to life and sustainable numbers is still a very ephemeral thing and the Amur Tigers survival is still 100% at the mercy of the human race. We put it at the brink of extermination and we are the ones that, once we came to our senses, managed to give it the tiny glimmer of hope and refugee that the species now, slowly is clawing it´s way back to.
And in what can only be thought of as a slight twist of irony, for all his major faults and shortcomings as a human being and national leader when it comes to pretty much everything equal, healthy, peaceful and human rights related, today, the one man on Earth that has meant more for the Amur Tigers come back from the land of the dead is Russian leader Mr. Putin.
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The change started with Vladimirs personal interest
Due to human poaching, greed, illegal logging and other unsustainable industries and practices that ravaged mother Earth, human health and well-being as well as its prospering wildlife for mere profit in both Russia and China, the Amur Tiger was wiped out of existence in China more than 60 years ago. And while the species managed to hang on to a thread and outsmart and survive the human onslaught in Russia, it´s numbers still dwindled down until just a few hundred Amur tigers remained alive in the wild. But as long as an animal species is smart enough to avoid all contact with us Humans and we don't destroy all of its habitat in our perpetual chase for more profit then, there is always hope for a better tomorrow.
For the Amur Tiger (and the even more endangered Amur Leopard), that hope rekindled in strength when the Russian President Vladimir Putin took a personal interest in its future a few years ago. And since then, through a combination of securing vast areas of land upon which it can safely prowl as well as coming down hard on poaching and illegal deforestation, and protecting not just the Tiger, but also its prey, poaching have plummeted in a big way, and the decline of the Amur Tiger is now thought to have come to a halt, possibly even, that it has slowly begun to increase it´s numbers in Russia, as well as re-establishing its long lost habitat in China.
It is as always near impossible to get an exact estimation of any wild animal population, let alone, a big cat as fierce and cunning at hunting and surviving and remaining out of sight as the elusive Amur Tiger. So the current Russian census, the first one since 2005 when it was estimated that only 450 Amur tigers remained alive in the wild, have a steep road ahead, but all signs do point towards the big cats breeding and hunting in safety, and as a result, both increasing its habitat and numbers.
For the first time, last year, conservationists even managed to film a Siberian Tiger mother and her cubs inside of inland China where the species haven't been seen in the wild in more than 60 years.
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The Long Road Ahead
Slow and steady, our hope continues to grow
While there is a long, long road ahead to safe land. And while the Amur Tiger, like so many other wild species today, might never again be able to co-exist with us human beings if we ever again lose our ways, there is hope. Good hope even thanks to the hard work on both sides of the Russian and Chinese border to make sure that the Amur Tiger (and Leopard), as well as their prey and other animals in the region have a real future too in the wild.
The north-eastern area of China where the tigers family where spotted is prime habitat for both Tigers and other species with tens of thousands of kilometers of untouched birch forest. Much of if still intact despite decades of previous large-scale commercial and often times illegal logging, which, together with the poaching is what once killed off the tigers in the area.
Another positive change is that all the hard work in both protection as well as education and information slowly but surely is shutting down the market for fairy tale like products such as the Chinese traditional medicines, where the Tiger (and other endangered animals) are chopped up, ground down to powder and everything from the whiskers and eyes, bones and all other parts of the animal is made use of and served as a scientifically non-functional soup meant to boost virility. Or just displayed as high society status symbols and other meaningless trinkets.
Amur Tiger Family in China, by WWF International
Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, in Russia where Pavel Fomenko who works for the WWF said in a recent interview with 'The Guardian' “Since Putin got involved, every regional official knows that if he is found with so much as a tiger whisker, he’ll be in serious trouble,”. “It has been a pretty effective method of stopping poaching”. Sentences for illegal poaching can now get you in a Russian prison for as long as seven years.

Tigers needs their prey
huge areas of land and big numbers of prey
But, it´s not all about curbing illegal poaching and superstitious medicine productions. An adult Tiger and Leopard needs huge land areas to thrive and hunt, as well as remain out of sight from us humans (which protects both them and us). Nutrition wise, each adult Tiger need around 50 boars or deers per year to sustain themselves. So conservation does not just come down to keeping people from illegally killing and encroaching upon the Tiger, but like with wild Wolves, it´s also about protecting the entire ecosystem in which Tigers, Wolves and bears all have a very healthy and functional part.
“We have covered around 40km and found traces of three tigers,” said Anatoly Andreyev, a 63-year-old gamekeeper who took part in the Russian survey on a chunk of land about 100 miles away from Vladivostok. His daily work also involves organizing feeding grounds for boars to keep the population up.
In other words, just as it is with Wolves, a healthy Tiger population is not only good for mother Earth, but it also ensures that we human beings, even the hunters amongst us, get a more healthy nature and wildlife to enjoy. Fears and superstitions and greed is what usually drives us people to take out what we perceive as animal threats and competition to our own activities, no matter if that is purely for profit endeavors or about hunting.
But in reality, both Tigers and Wolves keeps mother nature and all of it´s plants and wildlife healthy and naturally strong. Something we humans still haven't been even close to master. And these apex predators do so while also providing plenty of commercial opportunities for people that choose to embrace a more sustainable and healthy life and planet.
So, finally, before I go. It is almost a little bit funny, how the human-induced climate change is actually helping the Amur tiger on its road back from the brink of extinction. The more it snows, the more wet the snow, the easier it get´s for the Tiger to hunt its prey. And perhaps, that is nature's very own way of showing us all that there truly is some form of karma in the combined sensitive ecological system that is our one planet.
Writer and photography
Michael A Koontz
Lion Photography by
Johan Swanepoel
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