Siberian Tigers in Russia

Siberian Tigers in China

Siberian Tigers in Zoos

The Largest Cats

Siberian tigers are very massive and powerful animals. The Siberian tiger can reach a length of 130 inches (286 centimeters) which makes it the largest of the different tiger variants. The Siberian tiger also has a very broad muzzle compared to other tiger variants, and male Siberian tigers usually have mane. The typical body length for male Siberian tigers is 106 - 130 inches (233.2 - 286 cm) while females are smaller and usually stay between 95 and 108 inches (209 and 237.6 centimeters). Siberian Tigers are measured between from nose to tail tip. They male Siberian tigers are much heavier than the female tigers and usually weigh from 419 - 675 lb (190 - 306 kg). The really large male Siberian tigers weigh 800 lb (364 kg) or more. Female Siberian tigers tend to stay around 221 - 368 lb (101 - 168 kg). The biggest one ever recorded was 1,025 pounds.
 

Prepared for the Winter

Siberian tiger's coat is very long and warm. The white coat also helps to camouflage it in the snow. It also grows a longer and thicker coat than other tigers to help it survive the cold weather. The yellow stripes become reddish in the winter. Out of all tigers, Siberian tiger 's fur is most pale and has least of stripes.
 

Dangerous Cats

Siberian tiger's legs are heavy, the hind legs are larger and allow them to be good jumpers. Siberian tiger's huge paws have retractable claws (similar to domestic cat's).
When hunting, the Siberian tigers can make rapid attacks and run faster than 50 miles per hour. Keeping this pace is however extremely energy consuming and Siberian tigers will only run short distances at this velocity. Siberian tigers have a well developed night vision and prefer to hunt during the night when it can surprise its prey. It will also use its sensitive hearing and sense of smell to locate and strike down on prey.
 

All Tigers Species are Endangered

Until 1940 there were 8 subspecies of tigers. Three of them are now extinct and the other 5 subspecies of tigers are endangered. Despite the tiger's amazing strength, it's hard to find room to roam these days. Number of these animals living in a wild is unknown, but it is believed to be around. There are about 500 animals living in zoos around the world. Other subspecies are also endangered - there are less than 5,000 of the tigers living in the wild.

All are endangered but the Siberian tiger or Amur tiger, Panthera tigris altaica, and the South China tiger, Panthera tigris amoyensis, are under the greatest threat of extinction in the wild. Indeed the South China tiger may have become extinct in the last few years - a count of between 20 and 30 living in the wild in 1998 suggests the population is too small to survive.

Through the dedication and sheer hard work of a few people, the Bengal tiger population is the healthiest having stabilized at between 3,000 and 4,000 in India alone. This has been achieved by educating and involving the local people in the preservation of these magnificent animals.

The Sumatran tiger, Panthera tigris sumatrae, population was thought to be between 400 and 500 in 1994 and Australians have been working hard to preserve them but, with the disastrous economic downturn in Asia followed by the political upheaval in Indonesia, the future is looking precarious.

Siberian Tigers are Few and Endangered

A count of the Siberian tiger or Amur tiger, Panthera tigris altaica, published in 1996, gave figures of between 330 and 371 adults most of them on the slopes of the Sikhote-Alin mountain range in the Russian Far East.

Situation in the Russian Far East

It is difficult to put briefly the situation in Russia, but here are some of the problems. In the early 1990s, following the collapse of the USSR, several things happened which directly affected the future of Siberian tigers. The opening of Russia's borders with her South East Asian neighbors made smuggling easier. Increased mining and forestry encroached on the Siberian tiger habitat and also resulted in increased road construction which opened up the area to poachers. Government funding for conservation dwindled. All this led to an increase in poaching. Siberian tiger body parts are highly prized in Chinese medicine and, unfortunately, the Siberian tiger habitat in the Russian Far East is close to the Chinese border. A tiger can fetch upwards of $30,000 - far more than most Russians earn in a year.

In 1992 two sets of Siberian tiger cubs were orphaned in the Russian Far East. Victor Yudin, Head of the Laboratory of Vertebrate Zoology at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Vladivostok, was asked to raise them. Two of the cubs died from malnutrition but Victor and his wife, Lena, an animal nutritionist, saved Koucher and Nyurka, caring for them on a few hectares of forest in Gaivoron, north of Vladivostok.

Main source: http://www.siberiantigers.org/ - a good "Save the Tigers" site.
 

Siberian tiger References
 

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Last updated-5-13-07
6:51 AM