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Tiger - Panthera tigris
Topic Started: Jan 7 2012, 08:50 PM (34,936 Views)
Taipan
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[quote =Taipan]Trouble for rhino from poacher and Bengal tiger

PULLOCK DUTTA

Guwahati, March 12: The rhino is being hounded by predators, and not only of the two-legged kind.

Royal Bengal tigers, which usually prey on baby rhinos, have begun killing adult ones in Kaziranga National Park since the last fortnight.

Alarmed by this development, a team of experts from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, will arrive at the national park tomorrow on a weeklong visit to survey the “phenomenon”.

Authorities at Kaziranga National Park have also informed the chief conservator of forests of the new trend.

Tigers killed 20 rhinos at Kaziranga last year, while this year eight rhinos have fallen prey to the big cats.

The worrying part is that tigers have started killing full grown rhinos. Earlier it was only the calves the tigers used to attack but now the full grown rhinos are being targeted,” said Bankim Sharma, the divisional forest official of the park.

Last evening, three tigers, probably a mother and her two grown calves, attacked an adult rhino near the East Haldhibari anti-poaching camp in the Kohora range of the park.

“It must have taken several hours for the tigers to nail the rhino. The entire area looked like a war zone with crushed grass and plants. The rhino had probably given up when it got stuck in the mud in a nearby water body,” the forest official said.

Forest officials later retrieved the rhino’s horn.

On February 26, a pregnant rhino was killed by tigers at Rutikhowa beel under Bagori range.

Gunin Saikia, another forest at Kaziranga, said there have been no instances of tigers attacking full grown rhinos till now.

Saikia said female rhinos generally venture out of the park along with their calves at night to escape from tiger attacks, since rhino calves are easy prey for tigers.

“But tigers always keep away from full grown rhinos,” he said.

The divisional forest official said male rhinos usually stay alone and tigers are finding it easier to prey on them than buffaloes, which stay in large groups.

There has been an increase in tiger population in the park, which could be another reason for the attacks on rhinos, he said.

According to the last census conducted in 2000, 86 rhinos were found in Kaziranga.

“There is no doubt that the figure has gone up since then,” the divisional forest official said.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080313/jsp/northeast/story_9012303.jsp[/quote]

Well it was old, but :


Female rhino killed by tiger in Kaziranga

Saturday, January 02, 2010
STAFF WRITER 22:10 HRS IST

Golaghat (Assam), Jan 2 (PTI) A female rhino was mauled to death by a tiger at Kaziranga National Park in Assam today, forest officials said.

The ageing rhino was attacked by the big cat near the Bagori range of the world heritage site, they said.

Though Five veterinary doctors rushed to treat the herbivore, but it succumbed to injuries because of low resistance power due to its old age, the officials said.
http://bigcatnews.blogspot.com/2010/01/female-rhino-killed-by-tiger-in.html
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Taipan
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Himalayan bear killed by tiger


11 November, 2009 - In the first recorded incident of its kind in Bhutan, a Himalayan black bear was killed and eaten by a royal Bengal tiger in the Jigme Dorji national park.

The carcass of the bear, with only its head, skin and paws remaining, was discovered by a team of foresters in Domenda, two days walk from Dodena in Thimphu, on November 7 at an altitude of 4,079 m. The kill has thrown up several questions on tigers being found at such high altitudes in winter, the relationship between bears and tigers in Bhutan’s wild and the implications of the tiger’s presence on the snow leopard habitat.

“It’s a confirmed kill by a royal Bengal tiger, since there are canine puncture marks on the bear’s throat and spine, as well as tiger claw marks lacerating the bears face and tiger pug marks in the area,” said Phub Tshering, the JDNP park beat officer, who discovered the carcass. He said that there were also signs of struggle between the bear and the tiger with rhododendrons bushes uprooted and claw marks on trees.

“Usually the Himalayan black bear is a powerful foe for any tiger and they avoid each other, but here the bear seems to be a juvenile at 2-3 years and hence did not have the muscle and fighting abilities it gets by the time it reaches its adult age of 5 years,” said Dr Sonam Wangyel, the chief forestry officer and wildlife biologist. He said that it was likely that the two animals met accidentally.

Phub Tshering said that some people, who were on tsam in the area, said that they had seen the same bear feeding on berries in late October. They also noticed tiger pug marks in the same area.

“We have, for the last three years, started noting multiple signs of the presence of tigers in such high altitude areas, ” said Phub Tshering.

Dr Sonam Wangyel said that, though there was no conclusive proof, it is possible that due to climate change the tree line was being pushed higher giving cover to the tiger. “This may also be due to shrinking and disturbed habitat at lower altitudes and hence the mountains may be the only undisturbed areas for the tiger,” he said. However, the real impact of tigers moving higher could be on the snow leopard, whose own snowline habitat could be shrinking. He said that clear scientific evidence was needed to establish the above hypothesis.

The incident has also given a peek into the relationship between the Himalayan black bear and the royal Bengal tiger.

In a camera trap set up in Nabji in 2006, it was found that a bull killed by a tiger was also being fed on by a bear at alternate intervals. “One day, the bear took away the whole carcass and the camera captured a bewildered look on the face of the tiger when it came back to feed again. The bear could be benefiting from the tigers kills,” said Dr Sonam.

He said in the wild carnivores would try to eliminate competition and the bear killed may have been a potential competitor. “Though it happens, this is rare incident since the tiger usually goes after smaller, less aggressive and weaker prey,” he said.

He also said that it was possible that tigers would be coming to these heights to cross into other valleys and that more of them were being detected due to better detection devices.

Old data show that around 115-150 tigers are found in Bhutan on the basis of sightings.

By Tenzing Lamsang

http://www.kuenselonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=13949
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Taipan
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Taipan
 
Tiger kills mother, baby elephant

Thursday November 23 2006 10:37 IST

BHUBANESWAR: It was a fight that even surprised the Forest officials of Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR). A duel between a tiger and an elephant in which the big cat prevailed. The tiger reserve rarely has witnessed such incidents in the past although tigers are known to kill elephant calves. Every year, two or three calves are hunted by the tigers in the reserve.

This incident was not any different. A male tiger, trailing a calf, came face to face with its mother in Jadapola in Nara South range of STR.

On Tuesday, the Forest officials detected carcass of the female elephant in the deep forests. There were enough indications of a tiger attack on the carcass. Moreover, officials found pugmarks of the tiger. And the calf, whose presence was evident from the footprints, was missing.

‘We have recorded several incidents in which the calves are made prey for, big cats have a liking for the calves. But what was surprising was that both the mother and the calf were not in their herd. They were isolated which is rare,’ STR Field Director Dr Debabrata Swain said.

The incident is believed to have occurred in the first week of November but was discovered only on Tuesday. The carcass was sent for post-mortem and the finding confirmed a tiger attack.

Swain said Forest guards had been sighting a male Royal Bengal Tiger in the Jadapola area for the past few weeks. That’s the one they think has killed the mother-baby duo.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEQ20061123001623&Page=Q&Title=ORISSA&Topic=0


Here is another case:

Tiger kills elephant in Corbett Reserve

A 20-year-old female elephant has been killed by a tiger in the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR), a forest official said.

The half-eaten body of the pachyderm was found by a forest patrolling team on Friday morning, Uttarakhand Chief Wildlife Warden Srikant Chandola said.

‘Rare incident'

“The killing of elephant calves by a tiger is a common incident in jungles, but this is a very rare incident when the tiger has attacked and killed an adolescent elephant,” he added.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article1134163.ece
Edited by Taipan, Apr 28 2012, 02:48 PM.
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Taipan
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Some interesting info on tiger prey selection:
Posted Image
Posted Image
Tiger weights:
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All From Wild Cats of the World

And notice the tiger skull dimorphism between female and male manchurian tiger:
Posted Image
Posted Image
Full study.

The difference is huge. :o
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Taipan
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Mystery Tiger Deaths Solved: Canine Distemper Plagues Siberian Tigers

By John R. Platt | October 11, 2011 |

Posted Image
A camera trap image of an Amur (Siberian) tiger in the Russian Far East. Courtesy of WCS Russia Program

In June 2010, an emaciated and disorientated female Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) named Galia wandered into the Russian town of Terney seeking any prey she was still strong enough to kill. Authorities were forced to put her down, a sad day for a subspecies that numbers maybe 250 to 300 animals in the wild.

The story got worse as all three of Galia’s 3-week-old cubs were also found nearby, dead, their bellies empty.

Galia was the fourth similar death of a radio-collared Amur (or Siberian) tiger in the 10 months leading up to her shooting. At the time, there was no indication of what caused the tigers’ illness, and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which has been heavily involved in Amur tiger conservation, voiced fears of a mystery illness, possibly an epidemic spreading through the species.

Now, thanks to a cross-continental team of experts from the WCS and Russian health and veterinary organizations, we have an answer: Galia was infected with canine distemper, a viral disease which causes fever, diarrhea, labored breathing, dehydration and seizures, among other symptoms. It is usually fatal in the wild. The virus likely left Galia too weak to hunt, either for herself or for her young, and she probably entered the village looking for domesticated dogs, which would be easier to kill than wild game. The team presented their findings in September at a Russian symposium on wildlife diseases.

“With all the threats facing Siberian tigers—from poaching and habitat loss—relatively little research has been done on diseases that may afflict tigers,” WCS Director of Russia Programs Dale Miquelle said in a prepared statement. “There are no records of tigers entering villages and behaving so abnormally before 2000, so this appears to be a new development and new threat. Understanding whether disease is a major source of mortality for Siberian tigers is crucial for future conservation efforts.”

Now that canine distemper has been identified, the next step, according to WCS Chief Pathologist Denise McAloose, is to identify the source of the infection, which could be coming from domesticated dogs or other local carnivores such as wolves, badgers, red foxes or raccoon dogs. “From a vaccination perspective, vaccinating dogs would be a good first step,” she says. “If this were to be a recommended strategy, decisions about the safest vaccine for dogs and tigers that might eat the dogs would need to be made.” Distemper vaccinations are required for most pet dogs in the U.S., but not in Russia.

Vaccinating the tigers themselves would be next to impossible, Miquelle told me. “Siberian tigers live at extremely low densities (generally less than one in 100 square kilometers) and are very elusive. We are lucky to catch two to three tigers in two months of trapping effort when we are attempting to radio-collar tigers.”

Even catching a tiger and vaccinating it once wouldn’t do the trick, as a tiger could require multiple boosters over several weeks to properly vaccinate it against the disease, according to 2002 vaccination recommendations from the Siberian Tiger Species Survival Plan at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Neb. Captive tigers are often routinely vaccinated for canine distemper, as well as the related feline distemper virus and other diseases.

One method used to vaccinate other wild carnivores, such as Ethiopian wolves, is leaving out bait injected with vaccines, but in that wouldn’t work in Russia, where “it is more likely that any bait put out would be eaten by other carnivores (fox, sable, badgers, bears) before it was found by tigers,” Miquelle says. Instead, he suggests it would be “better to focus on the source population.”

Vaccinating local dogs to protect wild big cats has precedence. In Africa, dog-vaccination campaigns around the Serengeti appear to have reduced the impact of canine distemper on lions.

In addition to coming up with a vaccination program in Russia, WCS and Primorskaya State Agricultural Academy hope to set up a wildlife lab in Ussurisk to facilitate local diagnostic testing and help identify sick tigers faster. “Currently,” McAloose says, “samples can be shipped to the US for histology and PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing,” but she says this takes “considerable time and is problematic in outbreak situations.” Setting up a lab in Russia will take several years, though, as it requires not only funding and equipment but also trained staff.

It’s uncertain how many Amur tigers, one of six living tiger subspecies on Earth, remain in the wild. The last official survey, conducted in 2005, estimated the population at between 430 and 500 animals. “Since then,” Miquelle says, “nearly all experts agree that tiger numbers have declined in Russia, but nobody agrees on the extent of the decline.” At 2009 report from WCS estimated the population at just 300 tigers.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/2011/10/11/mystery-tiger-deaths-solved-canine-distemper-plagues-siberian-tigers/
Edited by Taipan, Jan 10 2012, 07:38 PM.
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Taipan
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I know this isn't a Tiger kills Rhino thread, but since it involves Tiger predation on big game I thought I'd post this article here,

Tiger kills rhino in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve
PTI | 07:12 PM,Dec 27,2011


Lakhimpur (UP), Dec 27 (PTI) A six-year-old rhino was attacked and killed by a tiger in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, its deputy director said here today. "The park authorities came to know of the rhino killing by a tiger, when its partially eaten carcass was recovered near Salukapur," Ganesh Bhat, DTR deputy director, said. This is the second incident of a tiger attack on an adult rhino, he said. Earlier, a tiger had attacked and injured a female rhino in Dudhwa.

http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/tiger-kills-rhino-in-dudhwa-tiger-reserve/943332.html

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Taipan
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"Like all other felines, the tiger holds down its prey with its paw. It never attacks head-on but prefers an approach from the rear or over the shoul-der, going for the nape and neck. Its canine and ripping teeth are indeed formidable, and their structure allows the tiger to thrust these teeth deep into the intervertebral spaces, thereby causing themedullary lesions visible in the present case. More-over, the proprioreceptive receptors in the teeth andj aws make it possible for the tiger to detect bone contact with the canine teeth. A usual manner of killing its victim is to shake the latter violently by the neck, thereby causing cervical lesions due to hyperextension (1,3,9,10,12,13)."
Basic Instinct in a Feline Stéphane Chapenoire, M.D., D.D.S., Ph.D., Bernard Camiade, M.D., and Michel Legros, V.S.

http://www.bigcatrescue.org/laws/AMJForensicFeline.pdf

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Wow that's a LOT of information and @ Taipans first post I've been to Chitwan but I slept while riding the elephant and missed the tigers  :'(
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As the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night, and he's watching us all with the eye of the...
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How Do Tigers Get Their Stripes? Science Not So Certain Now

LiveScience Staff
Date: 27 April 2012 Time: 07:57 PM ET

Posted Image

A decades-old explanation for how tigers get their stripes has come into question as researchers challenge what’s called the morphogen theory. The research does not nix the theory, but science may now have a hypothetical tiger by the tail as they try to figure out this aspect of how Nature works.

The morphogen theory posits that proteins controlling traits are arranged as gradients, with different amounts of proteins activating genes to create specified physical features.

This theory was first put forth in the 1950s by mathematician and World War II code breaker Alan Turing and refined in the 1960s by Lewis Wolpert. It has been used to explain why a tiger has stripes, among other phenomena.

But some biologists have raised questions about the theory, which contends that physical features are necessarily tied to absolute concentrations of proteins within the morphogen gradient.

If a certain critical mass of protein is present, then a given physical feature—for example, cells that make the skin on your forehead—will appear. If less than that critical mass is present, a different structure—say, the skin that makes your eyebrows—will appear, and a boundary will be formed between the two structures.

Alternative views have suggested physical features are not necessarily the result of a specified number of proteins, but, rather, come from more complex interactions between multiple gradients that work against one another.

New York University biologists explored this process by studying the fruit fly Drosophila, a powerful model for studying genetic development as it is amenable to precise genetic manipulations. They focused on one protein, Bicoid (Bcd), which is expressed in a gradient with highest levels at the end of the embryo that will become the mature fly’s head.

The researchers, headed by Stephen Small, chair of NYU’s biology department, examined a large number of target genes that are directly activated by Bcd. Each target gene is expressed in a region of the embryo with a boundary that corresponds to a specific structure.

By examining DNA sequences associated with these target genes, the researchers discovered binding sites for three other proteins—Runt, Capicua, and Kruppel—which all act as repressors. All three proteins are expressed in gradients with highest levels in the middle part of the embryo, and thus are positioned in exactly the opposite orientation compared to the Bcd activation gradient.

By changing the spatial distribution of the repressors and by manipulating their binding sites, Small and his colleagues showed that these repressors antagonize Bcd-dependent activation and are absolutely critical for establishing the correct order of boundaries that are found in a normal embryo.

In other words, contrary to Turing’s theory, a single gradient of proteins does not have sufficient power to form the same body plan in each member of a species; however, if there are multiple gradients that work against each other, then the system becomes robust enough for normal development.

While the results, reported in the journal Cell, raise questions about morphogen theory, the researchers explained that their findings did not “falsify” it, but, rather, suggested it needed some additional refinement.

http://www.livescience.com/19967-tigers-stripes-science.html
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Panthera tigris soloensis
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http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0425-amur_tiger_china-pod.html?utm_campaign=General+news&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_source=SNS.analytics

Amur tigers in China.

Copied from article:

Tiger spotted in China (Pictures)
mongabay.com
April 25, 2012

Posted Image
Amur Amur tiger in China. Photo credit: Hunchun Amur Tiger National Nature Reserve. Click image to enlarge.

Camera traps have captured rare images of Amur or Siberian tigers in China.

The images, released today by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), show two tigers in China's Hunchun Amur Tiger National Nature Reserve in Jilin Province, northern China.

Once abundant in China, tigers have declined due to habitat destruction, hunting as vermin, and poaching for the traditional Chinese medicine market. At least one type of tiger — the South China tiger — was driven to extinction within the country's borders. Conservationists and the government are now working to restore tiger populations.

Read more: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0425-amur_tiger_china-pod.html#ixzz1u0NWMhkq

Posted Image
Amur Amur tiger in China. Photo credit: Hunchun Amur Tiger National Nature Reserve. Click image to enlarge.
Edited by Panthera tigris soloensis, May 5 2012, 11:52 PM.
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Red Dog


Below is study detailing tiger prey preferences from numerous areas. This study is analagous to prey preferences studies done by same author for lion, spotted hyena, african wild dog, leopard and cheetah. These studies are posted in the species profile section.

Prey preference measures whether a carnivore preys on species more, less, or as expected based on numbers of prey species in area. Carnivores tend to prefer species that the carnivore is more adapted to killing.

Source: Hayward, M. W., Jędrzejewski, W., Jêdrzejewska, B. (2012), Prey preferences of the tiger Panthera tigris. Journal of Zoology, 286: 221–231. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.2011.00871.x

Abstract

Tigers Panthera tigris continue to decline despite the best efforts of the worldwide scientific and conservation communities. Prey depletion has been linked to this decline, but a clear definition of what constitutes preferred prey and preferred prey weight range does not exist. This is critical information if we are to assess tiger reintroduction potential, monitor unforeseen poaching of predators and prey, and successfully conserve the species. Here we reviewed the available literature on tiger diet and prey availability and calculated Jacobs's electivity index scores from 3187 kills or scats of 32 prey species. We found that wild boar and sambar deer are significantly preferred by tigers, with red deer and barasingha likely to be significantly preferred also with a larger sample size. Prey body mass was the only variable that related to tiger prey preference with species weighing between 60 and 250 kg preferred by tigers yielding a ratio of predator to preferred prey of 1:1, which is similar to other solitary felids. This information can be used to predict tiger diet, carrying capacity and movement patterns, as it has been for Africa's large predator guild, and has important implications for tiger conservation throughout its distribution.

Here are the details on the specific prey species. Species with a small + or - next to the Jacob's Index Value have enough data to be "statistically significant" (i.e. significantly preferred: sambar, wild boar; significantly avoided elephant, nilgai, chital, langur, macaque, peafowl).

Jacobs Index measures preference from +1 to -1. +1 is strongly preferred, -1 is strongly avoided, and 0 is neither preferred nor avoided. Prey body mass is assumed 3/4 of adult female weight which is same assumption for african carnivore studies.

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Taipan
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Cameras Spy Endangered Siberian Tiger in China

OurAmazingPlanet Staff
Date: 20 June 2012 Time: 10:50 AM ET

Posted Image
A Siberian tiger photographed by a camera trap in northeast China.

Photos of the endangered Amur, or Siberian tiger, have been taken for the first time by a camera trap in a nature reserve in northeast China, suggesting that the cats are expanding their range south from Russia where they are more plentiful.

The two photos were taken in April in the Wangqing Nature Reserve in northeast China's Changbai Mountains. The tiger likely came from Hunchun, close to the Russian border, where multiple images of Siberian tigers were taken in March. Several Amur leopards, which are even more endangered, were also spotted at that time in the Hunchun reserve.

Although footprints of the Amur tiger have been discovered many times in the Wangqing area since 2008, this is the first time that a camera trap set up in the reserve has captured photos of the rare species. Experts will try to identify the individual tiger photographed by comparing it with the Hunchun photos, according to a statement from the conservation organization WWF, which helped set up the cameras.

"The photos give hope of the real possibility that tigers could return to their previous habitat if steps are taken to manage it," said Zhu Jiang, head of WWF-China's Northeast Program Office, in the statement. "It shows that the camera trap is a very effective tool in monitoring rare wildlife species. We have to expand its use."

The WWF and other groups are working together to set up automatic infrared cameras to build the monitoring platform to cover areas of Amur tiger habitat elsewhere in the Changbai and nearby Wanda mountains.

"Data collected through this technology will help greatly in monitoring the Amur tiger population and its distribution," said Jiang Jinsong, Jilin Forestry Department's tiger and leopard program officer. "It would also help us determine whether there are settled individuals or breeding families, and therefore support conservation measures."

Amur tigers were once widespread in northeast China, but have declined due to habitat degradation and fragmentation, poaching and a small prey base. Estimates put the current wild Amur tiger population in northeast China, mostly confined to the Changbai Mountains in Jilin province and the Wanda mountains in Heilongjian province, at about 18 to 24 individuals. About 430 to 500 live in the forests to the north in Russia.

http://www.livescience.com/21062-siberian-tiger-camera-trap-photo.html
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tyrannotitan
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The best animal in the world.
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221Extra
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Some sad info on Amur Tiger:
Posted Image

Keynote from that scan: "To date, no prime adult male has been captured".

From "Wild Cats of the World".

Slowly but surely the Amur Tiger population growing:
Posted Image
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