Amur Tiger
Name: Panthera tigris altaica (sometimes
called the Amur, Siberian, Manchurian, Ussurian, or Northeast China
tiger).
Description: Amur tigers are the largest of the
tiger subspecies. Males can grow up to 3.3 meters (10' 9") long and
weigh up to 300 kilograms (660 pounds). Females are smaller, measuring
about 2.6 meters (8 1/2 feet) from head to tail, and weighing about 100
to 167 kilograms (200 to 370 pounds). Their orange coloring is paler
than the coloring of other tigers. Its stripes are brown rather than
black, and are widely spaced. It has a white chest and belly, and a
thick white ruff of fur around its neck.
Distribution: Wild Amur tigers are found primarily
in two populations in the Russian Far East, the primary population of
about 450 individuals covers 156,000 sq km in Primosky and Khabarovski
Krais, and another small population of about 35 individuals occurs on
the Russia-China border and into northeast China. Sightings of Amur
tigers in Changbaishan, near the Chinese border with North Korea, were
reported in Chinese newspapers in 1990, and some are still found along
the Russian border. The Cat Specialist Group estimates that there are
probably fewer than 35 Amur tigers in China. Some conservation
groups are working to grow the North China population and
improve the landscape management in the area to secure and grow this
small tiger population.
Biology: Amur tigers give birth year-round with a
peak in late summer. They reproduce at about 4 years of age with a
litter of 1-4 cubs after a gestation period of 103 days. The primary
prey of the Amur tiger is elk and wild boar. In the Russian Far East
these prey species are unevenly distributed and move seasonally. As a
result, the territory size of Amur tigers is quite large, ranging from
100-400 km2 (39–154 mile2) for females to 800–1,000 km2
(309–390 mile2) for males. Tigers compete with wolves for this
limited prey base and researchers have shown that wolves have increased
in numbers where tigers have been reduced, while recovery of tiger
numbers reduces wolf populations through competitive exclusion.
Status in the wild: About 450 Siberian Tigers live
in the Russian Far East, but the tiger conservation plan for Russia
indicates that a population of about 700 tigers is feasible for the
region. In this century, the Amur tiger, has survived four wars, two
revolutions, and now an onslaught on its forests. Between 1910 and 1947,
tigers were hunted as game or pests in Russia. According to some
accounts, this depleted tiger numbers to as few as 50
individuals. In 1947 The Soviet Union banned tiger hunting allowing them
some respite but poaching became a rampant problem during the economic
and political chaos surrounding the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Law of the Russian Federation on Environmental Protection and
Management of 1992 reestablished legal protection for Amur
tigers but in 1993, Russia’s Primoski Krai Ecology Committee
estimated that 60 tigers were still being poached each year from a
population of 200-300 tigers. Continued loss at this rate meant that
Siberian tigers could have become extinct by the year 2000. In December
1993, an international cooperative effort lead by Russian authorities
and several foreign NGO’s agreed to a detailed plan to save Amur
tigers with two main objectives 1) to stabilize tiger populations by the
year 2000 and 2) to secure sound tiger habitat to ensure that a stable
Amur tiger population would last well into the next century.
 A significant investment of funds in
anti-poaching, human-tiger conflict mitigation, education and habitat
management work in ensued over the next 10 years. Save The Tiger Fund
poured 2.7 million into tiger conservation work between 1995 and 2004
alonside several other conservation grant-making organizations. The plan
worked, and by 2005, a census of tigers in the Russian Far East
indicated that about 450 tigers remained in the Russian Far East
(334-417 adult tigers along with 97-112 cubs) indicating that tiger
numbers have stabilized since the last Russia-wide census in 1996
(330-371 adult tigers, with 85-105 cubs).
Several ongoing threats have been identified for wild tiger
conservation including poaching and human-tiger conflict. Only about 20% of
Russia's tiger population is found in protected areas. Outside these
areas, commercial logging and hunting of ungulates are on the increase.
One 9-year study convincingly demonstrated that tigers living near
primary roads died prematurely compared to their counterparts in
roadless areas.
Captive breeding: The captive program for Amur
tigers is the largest and longest managed program for any of the
subspecies. The Amur tiger served as one of the models for the creation
of scientifically managed programs for species in captivity in zoos and
aquariums worldwide. According to the 1997 International Tiger Studbook
there are about 501 Amur tigers managed in zoos. This captive population
is descended from 83 wild-caught founders. For the most part, the Amur
tiger is considered secure in captivity, with a large, genetically
diverse and stable population.
The Amur tiger global captive population is divided primarily into
two well-managed regional populations, the North American Species
Survival Plan population of about 150 tigers and the European Breeding
Program population of about 225 tigers. Another 90 or so Amur tigers are
maintained in zoos in Japan, but the level of captive management of this
population is undetermined. Tigers are exchanged between the the North
American Species Survival Plan population and the European Breeding
Program to maximize gene diversity in the two populations.
Gene drop analyses conducted on the Amur population revealed that
96.5% of the gene diversity has been retained in the population
representing 14.233 founder genome equivalents from 51 founders. Founder
representation in the population continues to approach target levels.
The mean inbreeding coefficient of the managed population is 0.017
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