Call of the Tiger National Park. Amur tiger - a rare species In which reserve does the Ussuri tiger live

The tiger belongs to the cat family. it distant relative leopards, lynxes, panthers and even domestic cats. Although on Latin its name sounds like panther tigris, the closest relative of the tiger is the lion.

There were nine subspecies of the tiger, three of which are currently extinct, and one (the South China tiger) may have already disappeared or will disappear in nature in the near future.

The Amur tiger mainly lives in the Primorsky and Khabarovsk regions of Russia, and in very small numbers in the territory of northeast China and North Korea.

The Indochinese tiger (also known as the Corbet tiger) lives in Cambodia, southern China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. The number of 1200-1800 animals, about 60 tigers are kept in zoos.

Bengal, or Royal Bengal tiger lives in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Myanmar, inhabiting different territories - rain forests and dry savannas.

The Malayan tiger is found only in the southern (Malaysian) part of the Malay Peninsula.

The Sumatran tiger is found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. About 400-500 individuals live in the wild and 235 live in zoos.

The South China tiger is the most endangered subspecies and most likely no longer exists in the wild. It is also one of the smallest subspecies. 59 individuals are now kept in captivity.

Currently completely exterminated:

• the Balinese tiger that lived on the island of Bali; the last tiger was shot on September 27, 1937 in western Bali;
• the Javan tiger that lived on the island of Java; the last time a Javan tiger was seen in 1979;
• the Turanian tiger, the Caspian tiger, lived from the foothills of the Tien Shan to the west along the river valleys in Central Asia(Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan) to the Caucasus. Last time A Turanian tiger was seen in the delta of the Amudarya River in 1958.

Our tiger is Amur

Of the five existing subspecies of the tiger, the Amur tiger is the largest. His winter fur is very thick and long, rather light in color. The main color tone is reddish or ocher-red. Black or brown transverse stripes run throughout the body. In summer, the color is brighter. In winter, the fur of the Amur tiger becomes long and thick.

Tiger - very big beast. It weighs 260 or more kilograms, some males weigh more than 300 kg! The body length of a male (with a tail) reaches 290-300 cm. Females are smaller than males, 160-180 cm, and weigh 140-160 kg.

The tiger runs fast. On snow, it is capable of speeds up to 50 km / h. Capable of jumping up to seven meters long!

The Amur tiger lives in highlands where broad-leaved and cedar trees. Groups of tigers are usually found close to mountain rivers at an altitude of 400-700 m above sea level.

Tigers lead a solitary lifestyle. Only tigresses live with cubs until they grow up. Each tiger has its own territory, which it constantly bypasses. The sizes of areas where tigers live are different and depend on the sex of the animal, age, whether there are cubs, and also on how much food is on the area. The smallest area (10-30 km2) is occupied by females with small cubs under the age of one year. The area of ​​sites inhabited by adult male tigers is 600-800, females - 300-500 km2.

Tigers follow the same paths year after year. In a day, an adult tiger travels from 10 to 41 km, a tigress - from 7 to 22 km.

Tigers are usually active in the evening, in the first half of the night and early in the morning. During the day they lie on a rock or on the crest of a ridge for better view. But in the snow and cloudy weather the tiger is active during the day. The tiger is not afraid of big snows and severe frosts, because it has thick hair and wide paws.

The main prey of the tiger is wild boar and red deer, as well as spotted deer, elk, and roe deer. On occasion, the tiger preys on brown and white-breasted bears, badgers, raccoon dogs and hares.

Tigers usually hunt at night at watering holes and animal trails. The tiger lies in wait for its prey from an ambush and attacks it with a sharp jump. At the same time, the tiger takes into account the direction of the wind so that the prey does not smell its scent.

The tiger eats 8-10 kg of meat per day, but after a long hunger strike, he can eat up to 18 kg of meat.

The life expectancy of individual tigers in nature reaches 15-20 years. In captivity, the tiger lives longer - 40-50 years. In nature, tigers die from diseases, injuries, they are killed by poachers.

Where does the Amur tiger live

The Amur tiger lives only in the south Far East- in the Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories, mainly on the right bank of the Ussuri and Amur rivers. In the Khabarovsk Territory, the tiger is common only in Bikinsky, Vyazemsky, im. Lazo, Nanai, Khabarovsk, Komsomolsk and Sovetsko-Gavansky districts. There are more tigers in Primorye.

At present, only the Sikhote-Alin has the only viable population of the Amur tiger in the world.

In China, the Amur tiger is very rare. Scientists believe that he crosses the border from the Russian side. This subspecies is nowhere else in nature on the planet of tigers.

How many tigers are there in nature?

In order to protect the tiger, scientists need to know not only its number, but also its habits. For this, tigers are counted and observed.

Previously, tigers were not counted in nature, so we do not know how many tigers were in the Far East a hundred years ago. Due to the fact that tigers were hunted and the forests in which they lived were cut down, tigers became less and less. By the end of the 30s of the XX century, the Amur tiger was on the verge of extinction - there were only no more than 50 animals left. Therefore, in 1947, hunting for tigers was banned, and in 1956, catching them. Now hunting for tigers is prohibited all over the world.

The last tiger count was conducted in the winter of 2005. The population of the Amur tiger in the Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories was 334-417 adults and 97-112 cubs.

The tiger in nature is studied in many ways.

First, places on the map are marked where tigers can live, that is, with suitable living conditions for it. Then this territory is divided into equal sections of 1000 hectares (that's 10 square kilometers). In winter, hunters count by footprints how many animals are in each area.

Walking in the footsteps of a tiger in winter to determine the number of animals is called trailing. In order to find out whether an adult tiger or a young one, male or female, measure the width of the heel of the front paw of the beast. It is possible to say for sure that this is a male only when the width of the heel exceeds 10.5 cm.

Cameras (camera traps) are installed in the places where the tiger moves. When an animal passes by, the mechanism of the apparatus is triggered.

In order to monitor the location and movements of the tiger, radio tracking is used. Special radio collars are put on the tiger, from which signals are received.

Recently, collars with a GPS transmitter have come to replace radio collars. The battery charge of such a collar is enough for about 500 days, then it is automatically unfastened.

AT existing methods There are also bad sides to tiger protection. In order to put a radio collar on a tiger, you need to catch it. In places where the tiger appears most often, a special loop of steel cable is installed on the tree. A valerian mark is left on the tree. The tiger, like all cats, reacts to her smell. As the tiger passes by, its paws are caught in the loop, which is tightened, and a transmitter connected to the loop with a special fishing line sends a signal to trigger the trap.

When such a large animal as a tiger gets into a noose, the first thing he does is try to free himself from it. It jumps, pulls out a paw, gnaws a noose and a powerful steel corner with the same steel bolts with its teeth, scratches a metal cable and surrounding objects with its claws. As a result, the tiger breaks its claws and teeth, especially its fangs, and injures its paws.

Crippled tigers cannot then hunt normally in nature. They follow their pets to the nearest village and in most cases become victims of poachers.

More than half of the tigers caught with such a loop died in the first two years after capture. I think we need to use a different method of catching tigers, because trying to help the tiger in this way only makes things worse.

Why tiger numbers may be declining

In addition to the killing of a tiger by poachers, many other reasons affect its numbers, because in nature everything is interconnected. Forest fires destroy the habitats of the tiger and the ungulates that it feeds on. The less food, the less tigers in the taiga. People are cutting down the forest, and the area suitable for tigers is shrinking.

How are tigers protected?

The Amur tiger is one of the most rare representatives world fauna. It is included in the Red Books of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Russia. In the Red Book Russian Federation The Amur tiger has category II as a rare, declining subspecies.

Scientists started one very important experiment. In the spring of 2009, an orphan tiger cub was picked up, whose mother was killed by poachers. The scientists placed the baby in rehabilitation center- a large enclosure in which he learned to get ungulates, beware and avoid enemies, including humans. This is the first such experiment: a tiger cub was captured in March and released into the wild on September 16, and now zoologists are monitoring its behavior. For 2.5 months the tiger lives safely in the taiga.

I think that such an experiment should be carried out on tiger cubs that were born in captivity - in a zoo or a circus, because captivity contains a large number of tigers, and it would be right to release tiger cubs into the wild if they manage to live in it.

To protect rare animals and their habitats, protected natural areas are created - reserves. To protect tigers in Primorsky Krai, the Sikhote-Alinsky, and later - Lazovsky, Kedrovaya Pad and Ussurisky reserves were created in 1935.

The fate of the tiger worries not only the inhabitants of our country, but also people from other countries, therefore, international organizations are being created to protect the tiger.

The protection of the Ussuri tiger was one of the first programs in Russia conducted by the World Fund wildlife. This program includes the organization of brigades that fight poachers, the creation and support of protected areas, the fight against forest fires and deforestation.

Hunting for tigers is prohibited, but in order to preserve the species, this is not enough. It is necessary to protect the forests where he lives. Keeping coniferous broadleaf forests with all their inhabitants, we also save the Amur tiger, because it is impossible to save the species without taking some measures to save its habitat and the animals on which it feeds.

I also think that everyone needs to know what a beautiful and rare animal it is, then no one will hunt it, but will admire the tiger in the photographs.

Story Lazovsky Reserve began in the 19th century, when the first scientists-researchers appreciated the enormous significance of this natural complex. A whole constellation of scientists, including N.M. Przhevalsky, A.F. Budischeva, V.M. Babkina, V.K. Arsenyev conducted comprehensive studies of the territory. At the beginning of the 20th century, these studies were supplemented by detailed studies by B.P. Kolesnikov, K.G. Abramova, A.I. Kurentsov. However, the issue of giving these lands the status of a reserve proceeded painfully slowly. In 1928, there was the Sudzukhinsky nature reserve with an area of ​​70,000 hectares. In 1935, the Lazovsky branch of the Sikhote-Alin Reserve was created; five years later, in 1940, it was declared an independent reserve. After the war with the territory of the reserve, all kinds of administrative changes were constantly taking place. As a result, the territory of the reserve in its current form finally took shape only in 1999.

Now the area of ​​​​the Lazovsky Reserve named after L.G. Kaplanova is more than 120 thousand hectares, the vast majority of this territory is occupied by forests. Here is the largest yew grove in the Far East. Most of territories of the Lazovsky Reserve is difficult to access due to the highly rugged terrain and the steepness of the slopes of the Sikhote-Alin Ridge. The average height of the mountains is 500-700 meters, but some peaks reach a height of 1400 meters.

The climate is determined by the fact that the territory of the Lazovsky Reserve is located at the intersection of climatic zones and is a place of collision of the sea monsoon climate and temperate continental. Summers are traditionally humid, with prevailing southeasterly winds turning into dry, sunny winters.

The total length of rivers, streams and other bodies of water in the reserve is approximately 1,300 kilometers. There are two large rivers - Kievka and Chernaya. There are several small lakes, some of which are recognized as natural monuments.

More than 300 species of birds live in the Lazovsky Reserve. Of the mammals, the Amur goral, the Amur tiger, the giant shrew, the Far Eastern leopard, the common long-winged, the Ussuri spotted deer are taken under protection. Among the protected fish species are Sakhalin sturgeon and Sakhalin taimen. Among amphibians under protection is the Ussuri clawed newt.

At present, the infrastructure for receiving tourists has been prepared in the reserve, excursion routes have been developed, including those to two islands in the Sea of ​​Japan, which are part of the reserve. If you want to visit this masterpiece of wildlife, then you need to contact the administration of the Lazovsky Reserve, which is located in the village. Lazo of Primorsky Krai on Tsentralnaya street, 56. Postal code - 692890, phone numbers 42377-20130, (42377)20139, (42377)20132.

The largest and northernmost predatory cat in the world, the Amur tiger, lives in Russia. The people dubbed the animal by the name of the taiga - Ussuri or by the name of the region - the Far East, and foreigners call the animal the Siberian tiger. In Latin, the subspecies is called panthera. tigris altaica. There is no difference, but official name Still - the Amur tiger.

Characteristic

The Amur tiger is a predator from the cat family, the genus Panthera, a class of mammals. Belongs to the species of tigers, is a separate subspecies. The size is almost like a small car - 3 meters, and the weight is three times less - an average of 220 kg. By nature, males are a quarter larger than females.

Rare the animal has thick long hair - it protects from taiga frosts, and black stripes on it mask from enemies. The fur coat of the Amur tiger is not so bright and striped, unlike other subspecies. The color does not change in winter and summer - it remains red, but in winter it is a little lighter than in summer. The animal has rather wide paws - they help to walk in deep snow.

Black stripes serve as a camouflage © Camera trap NP "Land of the Leopard"

Thick wool protects from taiga frosts © Maia C, Flickr.com

The symbol of the Far East is listed in the International Red Book. In the 1930s, hunters exterminated 97% of the Far Eastern tigers. To save the animal from extinction, the state banned hunting for it, and since the 1960s, the number began to grow. For 90 years, the population has increased by 20 times, but this is not enough: the Amur tiger still has the status of a rare animal.

Life expectancy depends on conditions. In captivity, the animal will live up to 20 years because it has a safe home, food and veterinarians. In the wild taiga, the opposite is often the case: frost is -40 ° C, the absence of animals for food, the struggle for free territory, poaching. Tigers live in freedom happy life, but twice as short - about 10 years. Although this is enough to live longer than their fellow species.

Amur tiger habitat

The Amur tiger lives in the southern part of the Far East. The main habitats are on the banks of the Amur and Ussuri rivers in the Khabarovsk Territory and at the foot of the Sikhote-Alin Mountains in the Primorsky Territory. Also, part of the animals is located in the Jewish Autonomous Region.

Some animals live in reserves, national parks and reserves - "Sikhote-Alinsky", "Lazovsky", "Bikin", "Land of the Leopard". Inspectors protect territories from poachers, rescue injured animals. It does not look like a zoo: predators live in free conditions, without restrictions on movement. But there is a problem - there is not enough space for the entire population, and 80% of the subspecies lives in unprotected forests of the taiga and hunting grounds.

Far Eastern tigers choose for life cedar-broad-leaved forests of the Ussuri taiga. If the cuttings are not stopped, the animals will lose their homes.

In Russia, the largest population of the Amur tiger is the pride of the Far Eastern taiga. Among all subspecies of tigers, Russia ranks second - we have 13% of the world population, the first place remains with India. Sometimes Amur tigers make a cross-border transition: by land or river, they get from Russia to neighboring countries - China or to the north of the DPRK. But this does not prevent our country from leading in the number of individuals.

Food

The tiger is the top of the food chain in the Ussuri taiga ecosystem. This means that the entire Far Eastern nature depends on its numbers: if there is no tiger, there will be no nature. To prevent this from happening, there should be enough ungulates in habitats.

10 kg
a tiger should eat meat a day

The main diet is wild boar, spotted deer, red deer and roe deer. If these animals are not enough, tigers feed on badgers, raccoons, hares, fish, and sometimes overwhelm bears. In severe famine, Amur tigers attack livestock and dogs. But in order to be full and healthy, one tiger still needs fifty ungulates a year.

Lifestyle

Ussuri tigers are solitary in their way of life. The male meets with the female for a couple of days, does not participate in the upbringing of the cubs, and the female also lives her own life when the offspring reaches puberty. Amur tigers even go hunting alone, although it is more difficult to get food.

Amur tigers live for years in one territory, if there is enough food around. And only the factor of its absence can make them make the transition to another place. The territory is assigned to the tiger with odorous marks, scratches in the ground and bullying on trees. So if strangers decide to enter his territory, then only because of arrogant behavior - then a fight will occur.

The Amur tiger hunts around its territory. He sees the victim, crawls closer to her, arches his back and puts emphasis on the ground with his hind legs. If you manage to go unnoticed, after the jump, the predator takes the trophy, but according to statistics, only one in ten attempts is successful.

Amur tigers are solitary in their way of life © Leonid Dubeikovsky, WWF-Russia

The tiger hunts around its territory © Vladimir Filonov, WWF-Russia

1 out of 10 attempts to get food ends in success © Viktor Nikiforov, WWF-Russia

Each cat has its own place: 20 km2 is enough for a female, and 100 km2 for a male in the Far Eastern taiga. Tiger cubs settle in places hidden from strangers, which the mother equips in thickets, crevices and caves. One male has 2-3 females with offspring in the territory.

Amur tigers breed once every two years. After 3-4 months, the tigress hatches from two to four cubs. At first, the mother feeds the cubs with milk, they try meat only at two months. Around the clock, the mother is next to the children only for the first week, then she goes hunting. Until the age of two, the tigress teaches her cubs to get food, they live with her. Tiger cubs become mature by the age of three or four.

Animals show their emotions with sounds and touches. For example, when you need to greet each other, they exhale rhythmically through their mouths and noses. To show sympathy or tenderness, they rub against each other and purr like domestic cats. In irritation, they wheeze and growl softly, in rage they make sounds similar to coughing.

A male has up to 3 females with cubs © Victor Zhivotchenko, WWF-Russia

tiger and man

Relationships with humans for Russian tigers complex issue. On the one hand, because of people, they were on the verge of extinction, but thanks to people, the population grew. Population growth also raised a question: now the animals need more space and food. Again, human activity interferes with this through logging, fires and poaching.

Due to the lack of ungulates, predators sometimes come to the villages for cattle and dogs, which disturbs the locals. Between 2000 and 2016, there were 279 such conflicts in which 33 tigers died. Tigers avoid contact with people: instincts are responsible for hunting wild animals, in rare cases, domestic ones. There are two cases when a tiger reacts to a person - he is injured or he has nowhere to run.

At the same time, local residents help the tigers, but they do not touch people. When the townspeople encounter the beast near the settlements, they call in a task force. Conflict minimization specialists arrive and take the predator to a rehabilitation center. There are two of them in the south of the Far East: Utes in the Khabarovsk Territory and the Tiger Center in Primorye.

In rehabilitation centers, animals are fed and cared for, but they are not allowed to get used to captivity - this is how they retain their instincts. Before being released into the wild, predators are put on a GPS collar: it allows specialists to make sure that the animal does not come to people anymore.

Tiger Uporny came to the village of Vyazemsky and crushed three local dogs due to lack of food. Residents did not fight and called inspectors to resolve conflicts. The exhausted predator was taken to the Utes rehabilitation center, and six months later they were released into the taiga, wearing a GPS collar. Thanks to the collar, the staff of the center made sure that the wild instincts did not disappear: Persistent hunted without problems and established contacts with other tigers in the wild, but he no longer came to people.

The Amur tiger is a unique representative of the fauna preserved from ice age and survived all natural disasters. This is one of the most large predators our planet. The length of the Amur tiger reaches 3 meters (of which 1 meter falls on the tail), and the weight is up to 300 kilograms. The Amur tiger has thick, long and fluffy red fur with black stripes on the skin, the number of which reaches 100. It is believed that the pattern of these stripes is strictly individual and will never be repeated in two tigers. Black and red stripes, despite their brightness, help the tiger to merge with environment, be it taiga or a field with tall grass. In nature, the life expectancy of the Amur tiger reaches ten years. Like any cat, the tiger prefers to "walk by itself", that is, to conquer territory and get food alone.

Where does the Amur tiger live?

The range of the Amur tiger - southern part Far East, the entire territory of Primorsky Krai and the south Khabarovsk Territory. The length of the range from north to south is approximately 1000 km, and from west to east - 600-700 km. About 10% of tigers live in the northeast of China, and an undetermined number - in the north of the DPRK.

How did tigers appear in the Far East?

Less than 100 years ago, tigers inhabited a vast territory from eastern Turkey and the Caspian Sea to the Russian Far East in the north and Bali in the south. However, for last century The number of tigers in the world has decreased by 25 times - from 100,000 to 4,000. In a number of regions, tigers disappeared completely - in Transcaucasia (1930s), Central Asia (1960s), on about. Bali and Java (Indonesia, 1960-1980s). Currently, tigers have been preserved on the territory of 14 countries - in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand, and also, according to some sources, in the DPRK.

There are 6 subspecies of living tigers: Amur, South China, Indochinese, Sumatran, Indian and Malayan. The Amur tiger differs from its southern relatives - it is the largest and the only one capable of living in the snow.

Where are the Amur tigers protected?

In the Far East of Russia, the tiger is protected in nature reserves and national parks. These tracts of land, water surface and air space above them are called protected areas - specially protected natural areas. Protected areas are completely or partially withdrawn from economic use, and experts monitor the number of tigers in these areas.

On the territory of Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories, there are 12 protected areas in which the Amur tiger lives. First of all, this is the Sikhote-Alin Reserve, the largest in Primorsky Krai. The tiger is guarded in the Lazovsky Reserve and in national park"Land of the Leopard", where tigers coexist with Far Eastern leopards also listed in the Red Book. The following protected areas are also places of tiger protection: the Anyuisky National Park of the Khabarovsk Territory and the Bolshe-Khekhtsirsky Reserve, combined into " Reserved Amur region", reserve Bastak, Khingansky reserve, Komsomolsky reserve, Botchinsky reserve, national park"Udege legend" and the Ussuri Reserve.

How does the Amur tiger live, hunt, take care of its offspring?

Like most cats, the Amur tiger prefers a solitary lifestyle. He lives on a certain piece of land, inside which he hunts and breeds. The size of a tiger's personal territory depends on the habitat, the abundance of prey and, in the case of males, on the presence of females in the area. The "possessions" of the Amur tiger, as a rule, are large - up to 500 km² for the female and up to 1000 km² for the male. If there is enough food within its possessions, then the tiger does not leave its territory. Tigers fiercely protect their habitats, and mark their territory: they leave a specific smell, loosen snow and earth, rub against tree trunks or scratch them.

The Amur tiger is active in the evening, in the first half of the night and early in the morning. In search of food on its territory, on average, it travels 9.6 km per day, therefore, it is supposed to rest appropriately - up to 12-14 hours.

Tigers hunt exclusively alone, using two methods of hunting: sneaking up on prey and waiting for it in ambush. Tigers usually track and wait for prey on trails and near watering holes. Having tracked the animal, the tiger sneaks up to it from the leeward side, moving with short cautious steps, often falling to the ground. Having approached the prey at a close distance, the tiger overtakes it with several huge jumps (up to 5 meters in length). When approaching prey, the Amur tiger makes a quick dash for a short distance, reaching speeds of up to 80 km/h.

Most females give birth for the first time at 3–4 years of age. It is at this age that they become sexually mature. The pregnancy of the Amur tigress lasts 97–112 days (average 103 days). There are usually 2 tiger cubs in a litter, rarely 1, and even more rarely - 3 or 4. Tiger cubs are born blind, helpless, but after about 6–8 days they begin to see clearly. For the first 6 weeks, they feed on their mother's milk. At the age of 8 weeks, the cubs become able to follow their mother and leave the den. Finally, young tigers become ready for independent life at the age of about 18 months, but usually stay with their mother for 2–3 years, and sometimes up to 5 years.

After the start of independent life, young females usually remain close to their mother's territory, while young males travel long distances in search of own territory; usually they have to win their own territory from other males or, if there is a small population of tigers in the area, they occupy empty territories.

Are tigers dangerous to humans?

In the coastal taiga there is not a single predator for which a person would be an object of food. The tiger is no exception.

The tiger does not seek to attack a person, but, on the contrary, takes measures in advance to avoid direct contact. This is confirmed by the words of experienced hunters who claim that seeing the Amur tiger is a rare success. Even the so-called conflict tigers that approach settlements in search of food, they try not to meet a person. The Amur tiger has well-developed sense organs, it is the first to notice a person and leave the meeting place.

But what if the meeting with the beast still happened? What if he does not run away, but shows aggression, growls, makes warning attacks? The reasons for this behavior may be different - there may be a prey of a tiger or its offspring nearby. Perhaps the animal was injured or was not ready for a meeting and now shows that it is ready to defend itself.

Your calm voice should calm the beast and yourself. Slowly and calmly step back, try to reach open area forests - a riverbed, a road, a clearing, a clearing. Animals do not like open spaces. Do not look the animal in the eye and in any case do not run away. Any predator, at the sight of a fleeing person, has a persecution reflex. Running away from the beast is also unacceptable for another reason - an accidental escape can occur in the direction of hidden cubs, and the female will inevitably perceive this as human aggression towards her offspring. In this case, any predator is especially dangerous.

Are people dangerous to a tiger?

The indigenous population of the Russian Far East revered the tiger as a sacred animal - the master of the taiga - and never hunted it. If people happened to encounter a tiger in the taiga, they prayed that the owner would not touch them.

But with the arrival of the first settlers from central Russia attitude towards animals has changed. AT early XIX centuries in the south of the Russian Far East, the tiger has become common commercial species. Here, 120-150 individuals were harvested annually. For commercial purposes, they exterminated predators, cut down forests and developed taiga territories for industrial and agricultural needs, which led to a sharp decrease in the number of these animals.

By the 30s of the last century, the tiger was on the verge of extinction - no more than 20-30 individuals remained in the wild.

In 1949, tiger hunting was banned in the USSR, and the USSR became the first of the "tiger" countries that tried to stop the decline in the number of striped predators at the legislative level. The killing of an Amur tiger in the Soviet Union was investigated as thoroughly and inexorably as the killing of a human. And it was these measures that led to the fact that the number of the Amur tiger increased by more than 10 times by the beginning of the 90s of the XX century. The collapse of the USSR changed everything. The borders opened, and dealers began to come to the country and export raw materials from the country - forests, seafood and drugs Chinese medicine, including those prepared from the tiger. Once again, the threat of destruction loomed over the fate of the predator.

Now the world ecological community has come to the aid of the Amur tiger. One of the first to respond to the new threat of extermination of the Amur tiger was WWF. Working together with others public organizations and public services the fund equipped and paid for the work of anti-poaching brigades, began to fight forest fires, illegal logging of the Ussuri taiga, which destroyed the habitats of this animal. Today, thanks to the efforts made, the number of tigers in the Russian Far East is relatively stable.

What factors affect the size of the Amur tiger population?

The main reasons for the decline in the population are the destruction of the natural habitats of the tiger, the reduction in the number of food resources (various ungulates), as well as the direct extermination of tigers by poachers. There is an opinion that medicines from tiger parts cure diseases, but no scientific evidence this is not. Such drugs are not so much medicine as a component of Eastern beliefs.

In China, there are "tiger farms" where more than 5,000 tigers live in cages. Trade in tiger body parts is banned worldwide, but the owners of the "farms" do not close them in the hope that the ban will be lifted. In China, various parts of the tiger's body - from bones to whiskers - are illegally used to produce pseudo-drugs, mainly to treat impotence. World Foundation wildlife supports demands to ban tiger farms in China. However, there are serious concerns that if these farms are closed and the market for medicines made from tiger parts remains, our population of wild Amur tigers will face a new threat of poaching.

In 2002, more than 1,400 people were involved in the protection of the tiger, its habitats and food resources. In 2009 total number inspectors was halved - to 760 people, and their funding was more than halved. At present, the responsibility for the protection of the tiger has been transferred to the subjects of the federation. On the territory of reserves and national parks, tigers are protected by their security services, in non-protected territories - by the departments for the protection, control and regulation of the use of wildlife objects of the Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories.

In addition to poachers, complicated relationship fold at the tiger and with local residents. Try to imagine yourself in the place of a man who in the forest every day in the back of his head breathes a real live wild tiger. It is quite natural that a significant part of the non-urban population of Primorye refers to the tiger as dangerous neighbor. Feels fear, dislikes it, and perhaps wants to get rid of it. WWF spends a lot of effort to change the attitude of the local population towards the tiger. But this is a difficult and lengthy process.

Why should a tiger be protected?

According to experts, one tiger needs to eat at least fifty adult ungulates a year. It feeds on wild boars, red deer, sika deer, roe deer, sometimes elk, Himalayan and brown bears, badgers and raccoon dogs.

Hunters often ask the question: does the tiger interfere with the preservation of those animals that it feeds on? No.

Long-term studies have shown that it is the tiger that is the “softest” predator, which is simply not able to seriously reduce the number of ungulates. Where hunters seriously undertook, with the help of various measures, to increase the number of game by new level, the number of tigers is also starting to grow. However, soon the number of tigers living in this "supermarket" becomes stable, and the number of ungulates continues to increase. But where the tiger disappeared, the wolf instantly comes. The wolf, unlike the tiger, can and can seriously undermine the number of ungulates. Therefore the tiger takes important place in the ecosystem of the south of the Far East.

AMUR TIGER

Panthera tigris (subsp. altaica)

Spreading: In the south of the Far East of Russia, sowing passes. border of the tiger range. The Sikhote-Alin mountains currently contain the world's only viable population of Amur tigers. At the end of the XIX century. the area of ​​​​permanent habitation extended to the left bank of the Amur. Sev. the boundary of the range passed from the west. foothills of the Lesser Khingan to the mouth of the river. Gorin, crossing the river. Urmi and Kur in their middle reaches. Further, descending to the south and skirting the axial part of the north, partly the middle Sikhote-Alin, the border went to the sea several south. R. Samarga - approximately at 46 ° 30 "N. Subsequently, the range of the tiger began to decrease significantly, mainly to the north, and by 1940 its border had shifted to the basin of the Bolshaya Ussurka (Iman) river. In the same years agricultural lands of the Khanka lowland and its environs fell out of the range major cities. Since the mid 50s. As a result of the protection measures taken, the tiger's habitat area began to expand noticeably. At present, the range consists of three relatively isolated and unequal in importance areas: the large Sikhote-Alin, located to the west. and east. macroslopes of the Sikhote-Alin south of the river. Gur (Hungari) and r. Koppi, respectively (95% of tigers are concentrated in it), and two small ones - southwest, located in the south of the Khasansky district of Primorsky Krai and stretching from the Shufansky (Borisovsky) plateau along the spurs of the ridge. Black mountains to bass. R. Close (Cherukhe), and west, located in the bass. upstream R. Komissarovka (Sintukha). In the latter, tigers reappeared relatively recently - in the late 80s, having been absent here since the early 70s. . On the left bank of the Amur, tigers are practically not found at present, with the exception of rare visits of individual individuals below the mouth of the Ussuri. A small group of tigers that lived in the bass. R. Bidzhan (southeastern part of the Bureinsky Range) ceased to exist until the beginning of the 70s.

Habitat:Cedar-broad-leaved and broad-leaved forests are the best habitats for tigers. In most of the range today, they have been cut through multiple fellings and cut up by roads with varying traffic intensity. The basis of nutrition is wild boar and red deer, in the southwest. districts of Primorye and south. Sikhote-Aline - sika deer. The quantitative ratio of tiger prey for various parts range is not the same. On the back macroslope cf. Sikhote-Alin, wild boar and red deer account for about 60% and 30%, respectively, in the east. (Sikhote-Alin Reserve), these figures are more than 3 times lower for wild boar and almost 2.5 times higher for red deer. To the east macroslope south. Sikhote-Alin (Lazovsky Nature Reserve), the share of wild boar and red deer is equivalent - about 30%, sika deer among tiger victims is 18.2%. Shelters - rocky ledges and niches, voids under fallen trees. The area of ​​habitats of tigers: males - 600-800 km2, females - up to 300-500 km2. The migration routes of tigers in the area are relatively constant and are supported by animals from year to year. Animals willingly use trails and logging roads. An adult male's home range may contain individual home ranges of several females; sex ratio 1:2 or 1:4. Polygamy is typical for the Amur tiger. The breeding season often occurs in the second half of winter. Pregnancy 95-107 days, average 103 days. There are usually 1-4 tiger cubs in a litter, more often 2-3. The average size of a brood according to one information is 2.37, according to another 1.5. Most females give birth for the first time at 3-4 years of age. Tiger cubs are separated from their mother in the second year of life. Accordingly, tiger broods may appear with an interval of 2 years, and in the case of the death of tiger cubs - more often. The mortality of young is high - about 50%. Cases of death of tigers from bears and facts of cannibalism are rare, they do not significantly affect the well-being of the subspecies.

Number:In the last century, the tiger was a common species in the south of the Russian Far East. On the turn of XIX-XX centuries 120-150 tigers were harvested here annually. The intensive extermination of these predators, accompanied by the reduction of their habitats under the influence of human economic activity, led to the fact that at the beginning of this century the number of tigers began to decline sharply. By the end of the 30s. the Amur tiger was on the verge of extinction - only 20-30 individuals remained. The situation began to change for the better only after conservation measures were taken - a ban on hunting tigers (1947) and trapping of cubs (1956-1960), followed by its restriction. At the turn of the 50-60s. the number of tigers was estimated at 90-100 individuals. The most noticeable recovery in numbers occurred in 1960-1970. At the beginning of the 70s. in the region there were 150 tigers, and by the middle of this decade their number had increased to 160-170 individuals. A further increase in the number occurred mainly due to the districts confined to the middle Sikhote-Alin, with their most favorable conditions for tigers. environmental situation. For 1980, the number was determined at 180-200, and for the mid-80s. in 240-250 individuals. Max. the density of the population of these animals, according to the results of recent surveys, was noted in the west. macroslope of the middle Sikhote-Alin (up to 5 individuals per 1000 km2), in the districts least affected economic activity person. Approximately the same high density was noted in the Sikhote-Alin and Lazovsky reserves and in the territories adjacent to them. With the maximum number of tigers inhabit today sowing. Primorye, with the most difficult conditions existence, characteristic of sowing. limit of the range of the species, but with relatively preserved habitats. Until 1990, inclusive, the number in the densely populated south remained high. districts of the Primorsky Territory (1-2 individuals / 1000 km2) in the region of the Lazovsky, Ussuri nature reserves and on the Borisovsky plateau. This was facilitated by the high number of spotted deer, characteristic of these places. Winter 1995/96 the most detailed count of the tiger was carried out throughout the territory of the Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories inhabited by it. According to its results total strength tiger is estimated at 415-476 individuals, including 330-371 adults. AT last years The main limiting factor in the number of tigers is poaching. Only in Primorsky Krai for two winter season 1991/92 and 1992/93 more than 70 tigers were killed by poachers. The reason for this situation is the smuggling of skins, bones and other parts of tiger carcasses to the Republic of Korea, China, Japan, Thailand and Taiwan. Others, no less an important factor is the reduction in the number of wild ungulates, especially the wild boar.