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Amur Tigers
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 Quote:东北虎豹国家公园红外摄像机拍摄的雄虎  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
Male tiger photographed by infrared camera in Northeast China Tiger Leopard National Park
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Tiger Advocate
... The Udege say: "To see a tiger is to see your death." He is not called by name - instead of "taskhu" (tiger), the indigenous peoples of the Amur region use the word "amba" (large). And if they see a tiger trail, they pray to him. - Have you heard such an expression: “Amba to you”? — chuckles Pavel Fomenko, game manager, WWF employee. If a tiger decides to kill someone, he will do it. The perfect death machine. Instantly bites the cervical vertebrae. We are sitting in a wooden house in the Utes nursery, having dinner and listening to hunters. Outside the window, snow, frost and wild animals. The taiga is not yet deaf here, but, according to the hunters, there were cases when the tigers went straight to the road leading to the Utes. The Ussuri tincture appears on the table. “The eyes of a tiger are scary, yellow…” says Pavel, and his own light blue eyes become almost motionless. He smiles rapaciously, and to me, exhausted from the warmth of the hunting lodge, it seems to me that this is the tiger himself and tells about himself ... Job: Forensic biologist Pavel is a hunter, coordinator of the biodiversity conservation program of the Amur branch of WWF Russia, "hero of the planet" according to Time magazine (for 2000). Fomenko's work is indeed full of heroism - he protects tigers from poachers. Not only them, but tigers - a special story. Amur, they are Ussuri, huge, yellow-orange with black stripes. A sacred animal for the Udege and Nanais. However, for our hunters too. Everything here revolves around tigers. ... There are only about 500 of them. Red Book. For the killing of a tiger in China, almost the death penalty, but in our country it is a criminal case. You can spit up to China from Khabarovsk. Poachers kill them, usually on order and sell them to China. There, the tiger is cooler than the ginseng root - local healers use it completely, from the mustache to the tail.  *This image is copyright of its original author Approximately forty tigers are born per year. So many die. Of these, fifteen percent are due to natural causes: worms, drowned ... “Last year I opened up a dead tiger,” says Pavel. - The striped one went along the channel on the ice and failed. He began to flounder - did not get out. Found only in the spring. It's a pity. The cat was healthy - fat two fingers thick. Pavel Fomenko is not only a hunter, but also a forensic biologist. This means that about forty tigers passed through his, as he puts it, "gentle hands". A dead tiger is a must-investigation. Even if there is only one bone left. If the bone is human - too. “As a rule, if a tiger attacked a person, then the person provoked him,” hunters say. - For example, a hunter in the forest with a dog. For a tiger, a dog is a competitor. It is rare that a hunter has not lost a dog in the process of hunting. The dogs of the tiger can smell a mile away - they are nervous, torn. They are like dumplings for a tiger. Delicacy. Easy prey. If a tiger has problems with hunting, he starts dragging dogs even from the yard. And it happens like this: a poacher shot a tiger, wounded it and left. Next comes the hunter - runs into a wounded tiger, hungry and angry. The tiger kills the hunter. At the same time, he remembers his offender and will seek a meeting with him even after years. Hunters tell stories when, fearing tiger revenge, poachers left the taiga. But when they returned, the tiger, if he was still alive by that time, found them. ... The scene of the crime is Primorye. The victim is an experienced hunter. The suspect is a tiger. Footprints. Witnesses. "Fingers". “The killer always returns to the scene of the crime,” Fomenko says about the last case. - He has already been seen twice - spinning around. Human remains found in tiger excrement. This proves that he ate a man. But it does not prove that he killed. Even the worst offender deserves a lawyer. I am the tiger advocate. - And if the tiger is not injured and there was no provocation ... The tiger will not be the first to attack? - Maybe. In the Criminal Code, this is called “negligent homicide,” Pavel says in the tone of an investigator. - For example, the animal is sleeping, and the hunter is quietly walking along the path. The surprise factor is aggression in response. The owner in the taiga is a tiger, and if a person sees him, then this is usually his, the tiger, initiative ... You, for example, have no chance of meeting a striped tiger in the taiga. Except when the tiger himself decides to meet you to eat. And hunters know how to walk quietly and imperceptibly. It's not always safe. How can you find the killer? After all, they are all yellow-striped ... on one muzzle. - Well, what are you saying, the stripes of a tiger are almost like human fingerprints - in fact, they do not repeat. If the tiger's guilt is proven, he will be sentenced. It is impossible to leave a man-eating tiger in the taiga: after tasting human flesh, it will begin to kill again. Theoretically, they can save his life by sending him to the zoo. True, you will have to carefully hide his criminal background. But in practice, the tiger most often dies "during detention." — We used to burn the remains of a tiger — demonstratively, as part of an ideological struggle against poachers. And now we are transferring them to museums,” says Pavel. “I wonder how much a dead tiger costs?” I mutter under my breath. - Oh, you're appreciating! So-so ... - Pavel grins. “Maybe you have a tiger lying around somewhere?” Cattery: cat and wild animal The idea of scratching a tiger behind the ear no longer seems so attractive to me. I'm looking at a tiger named Stubborn on the computer monitor. He walks back and forth in the enclosure, and his maneuvers are broadcast directly to the hunting lodge. This was made possible thanks to an aviary equipped with surveillance cameras (the system was created with the support of Bosh Corporation, known for its home appliances). Uporny is in rehabilitation: soon the results of his tests will come, and he will be released into the taiga. He came to the nursery in an exhausted state, but now he is almost ready to return to an independent life. In the meantime, instead of a wapiti or wild boar, a large bag of meat appears in Pavel's hands. Dinner. “You can’t go to the tiger itself,” the hunters explain. He must not see you. For him, this is a big stress: after all, in nature you cannot just walk up to a tiger and look at him. And here he is locked in an aviary and, it turns out, loses control. In general, for successful rehabilitation it is very important that a wild animal collides with people as little as possible. The task is paradoxical: to fatten, cure and at the same time leave wild. If the tiger is tamed, it cannot be released into the taiga - it will come to people. Either he will be killed, or he will eat someone. Therefore, interaction with a wild tiger in the nursery is very difficult - while we are standing on the path and, shuddering, listening to the tiger's roar, Pavel climbs onto the roof of the enclosure to throw meat to Persistent. The stubborn should not associate his dinner with either a person or a specific time. - Five kilometers ... Heard? What do you think about this? - Fomenko returns without a package. - What? - A tiger roar is carried for five kilometers. Terrible sound. Everything vibrates inside. We go back, content with a roar, Pasha's stories and frozen lemongrass berries, which harsh taiga hunters collect for us along the way. - Do you want to Zhorik? You can visit Zhorik at any time. Zhorik is a domestic kitty. “Domestic kitty” is a tiger with huge paws and a through hole in the cheek: he once had osteomyelitis. Operated. A hot pink tongue hangs through the hole. Zhorik manual. As far as it is possible for a tiger. When we approach the enclosure, he, recognizing his guardians, begins to purr loudly and rub his head against the netting of the enclosure. I missed you. Meanwhile, a wire with current is passed through the grid - no matter how the tiger purrs, he is an ideal death machine. We are trying to photograph Zhorik, he plays with us like a cat, either lying in the snow or jumping out. I understand that the net, the aviary, the tension... And at the same time, if he comes closer than two meters, I feel an animal wave of horror rising inside me. In the entire history of the nursery, sixteen tigers have visited here. Someone was released into the taiga, someone went to the zoo. Zhorik stayed for good. Actually, Utes itself began back in the 90s with a tiger cub, Lyuty, who had a jaw injury. In the kennel he was cured - four operations for several hours. In 2000, American veterinarians from the Hornocker Wildlife Institute came to the nursery and, together with Russian colleagues, made Lyuty a canine prosthesis made of a gold-plated silver-palladium alloy. The director of the nursery at that time was the famous tigrolov Vladimir Kruglov. The hunters remember that he himself rolled the meat for Lyuty and gave him warm milk to drink. - The relationship between them was like between the owner and an ordinary cat. Kitty caressed, purred at the sight of Emelyanych ... - hunters recall. In addition to tigers, other animals live in the nursery: three bears, a roe deer. It is very expensive to rehabilitate tigers, and even more so for small tiger cubs. They need to be raised wild. Learn to hunt. To do this, hunters dream of breeding roe deer and wild boars on the territory of the nursery. As bloodthirsty as it sounds, a tiger must eat meat that has just run. Because together with fresh blood, kidneys, stomach, spleen, he receives the necessary vitamins and minerals. Approximately 10 kilograms per day. About 70 roe deer or wild boar per year. Taiga: death triangle Taiga is a place where hunting is not a profession, but a philosophy, religion and way of life. Hunters, poachers and wild animals are triune. The line between them is unrealistically thin. If they meet, someone dies. Gamekeepers and hunters track game and poachers. Predators compete with hunters for wild boars and roe deer. Poachers are the same hunters, only below the law, nervous, armed, they have nothing to lose. “In the taiga, it happens like this: first you follow him, and now he is behind you,” says Fomenko. - There was such a case: my partner, Tolya Belov, and I detained twelve people together. The detainees looked at each other - they were all armed. Well, and we - one has an unloaded carbine, the other has a camera without a film ... And there is ginseng root - such money that you can kill three times for them. Further, as in the movie: “Calm down. You are surrounded. Help is about to arrive,” and run down the river. The girl swam naked in the river. And here we jump out with a carbine. "Fearfully?" - we ask. “Yeah,” he says. - "U.S. too". But lucky: another hunter drove up, followed the trail. And yet we stopped them. Hunters begin to go to the taiga as children, with their fathers. Learn to survive: any mistake can cost a life. Winter hut is half a year in the taiga. Everything is prepared in advance: firewood, food supplies. The first week the hunter settles in, and then workdays begin. There is a clear plan: for example, to get 300 sables. Previously, all hunters worked for hunting farms, now more often for themselves. This means that the preparation and removal of prey falls on the shoulders of the hunter himself - his own manager.  *This image is copyright of its original author Hunters often die: one in the taiga is a potentially deadly story. But the ability to survive is amazing. “Taiga is freedom,” says Pasha. - Hunting is a passion. I am a happy person: God gave me this passion. After the taiga, all feelings are sharpened, you return sterile. And young girls - oh! They are just queens after you returned from the taiga! - But if the family and every year for half a year in the taiga ... - And again I was lucky: my wife puts up with me, a fool. Once I marked the days when I was in the taiga with a cross - it turned out to be six months. And we went together until the children were gone. This is a completely different story: you come to your hut exhausted, frozen, and there is a loved one and a hot dinner ... And there is someone to talk to. I even noticed that hunting becomes more effective with my wife: so I beat 20 sables, and when my wife was waiting - 50. Do tigers have their own tigress too? - No, tigers have a different family life: tigers are loners. For three thousand kilometers one is like a ship in the taiga. There are several females on its territory. Also single. The tiger visits them. To one he turns: “Vark, how are you?” - "No, not now, go to Nyurka." She goes to Nyurka, and she, if she is ready, accepts. Well, then the kittens. The tigress raises kittens herself. — Hunters probably wake up still dark? - Successful - no. I’m like a normal predator: I caught my prey, I ate and I sleep, - Pavel laughs. - But in general, the hunter's regime is tough: I walk 20-25 kilometers a day. I come, drink tea and fall asleep. At about eleven o'clock in the evening I wake up and run around the hut like a cockroach: I need to make skins, firewood, weapons ... Don't I embroider with a cross. And sleep again. Breakfast in the morning and off to the taiga. There is especially no time to suffer: the hunter knows why he is in the taiga, and no one will stay there for too long. Although then pulls again - like a drug. I listen to Pavel and think that we city dwellers often imagine wildlife as a lost paradise: rivers of milk, plush leopards. In fact, wildlife is blood. Excitement. Call. The laws. And it's nothing personal. The tiger kills instantly. Breaks bones. And licks the meat with his tongue - like a rasp. Only the polished skull remains. “Hunting is killing,” Pavel says, and I shudder, as if he had overheard my thoughts. - But you need to kill beautifully: so that the beast does not suffer. And, sorry, not to spoil the skin. “If you have a plan to get 300 sables, don’t you get used to killing?” - When I hunt, I am sausage like a carduelis. Just shaking. Still. And if not, I'm not a hunter, but a killer. Hunting is a passion. This is a fight with the beast. - How can a hunter and a defender of wildlife coexist in one person? - They can do great. It is impossible to protect nature if you do not hunt - that is how you are included in this relationship. Elementary: to catch poachers, you need to be a good tracker. This is practice, not theory. Paul says that balance is very important in nature. If you kill roe deer that cannot run in deep snow - as the local gopota does - there will be a shortage of roe deer. What will affect the tigers. If you ditch the cedar… Or if you dig up the whole ginseng root… If you don’t hunt the wild boar and there will be too much of it… I listen and understand that this is a different world. At first glance, rough and cruel, but very finely arranged. And here you can’t meddle with our standards of the metropolis, where it’s normal to lay a track through the forest, so that it’s more convenient to drive. Taiga is a temple. My St. Isaac's Cathedral, says Pavel. - If you want, there is always with me a god and spirits, his assistants. In the taiga, all feelings are heightened. You walk through the taiga and in a second you understand: now the tree will fall. And it falls. - Pavel, tell me honestly ... - I doubt it to the last, but still I ask this question: - Are you a tiger? - Not. I am a wolf, - Fomenko answers without frowning. “And my spirit animal is a bear. So said my friend, the shaman Vasya. And since then I haven't shot bears for fifteen years. Once a bear saved my life... I think that if I go into the taiga with these hunters, then their stories will replace my Wi-Fi. They are heroes and storytellers themselves. Occasionally meeting at the winter hut and returning to civilization, they talk about what happened in the taiga. They hone this skill for years. And they really appreciate the meeting and real human relations. “A taiga hunter has nothing superfluous: no kilograms, no things, no emotions,” they say to themselves. But there is a primitive sense of the world, bizarrely combined with a good education and a scientific approach. “I have studied tigers all my life. And now I’m defending,” says Pavel. - I think it's logical. https://ology.sh/conceive/advokat-tigrov/ 
The Siberian Tiger - soul of the Russian wilderness
Powerful, dangerous and charismatic: the Siberian tiger is the largest wild cat in the world. He lives in Russia's Far East, in the Sichote-Alin, a 1,500-kilometer forested mountain range between the Sea of Japan and the border with China. In 2018, a "Universum" camera team headed by wildlife director Franz Hafner traveled to this area for the first time to prepare a documentary about this tiger. The impressive result of the co-production by Interspot Film in cooperation with National Geographic, ORF, arte france and BR, funded by Fernsehfonds Austria, will be shown on Tuesday, June 1, 2021 at 8:15 p.m. in ORF 2 in “The Siberian Tiger – Soul of the Russians Wilderness”: As part of the ORF/MUTTER ERDE focus “Protect the climate, protect species.” (Details at presse.ORF.at), the new “Universum” documentary presents unique recordings of this charismatic wild cat, its prey and its habitat. Working on this film has shown: Siberian tigers are the key species of the forest ecosystem in the Far East of Russia. Their home ranges are vast; if you protect tigers, you protect the entire community. Siberian tiger, Sikhote-Alin (Russia).  *This image is copyright of its original author The Siberian tiger has had an eventful history. Threatened with extinction around 1940, strict protective measures have not failed to have an effect since then. At that time there were about 30 wild tigers; the stock has now grown to around 600. In contrast to India, Siberian tigers mostly live in the pathless jungle, hidden in dense undergrowth. And although there are more tigers again, it is very difficult to get them in front of the camera. During the preparations, it was already apparent how complicated the shooting would be. First, areas with good tiger stocks had to be found, then the transport had to be solved in the rough terrain. Finally, the teams traveled by boat in the summer and by snowmobile in the winter; neither was possible, on foot - with all the equipment in the backpack. Siberian tigers roam vast territories of up to 100,000 hectares. Finding her was a challenge for the camera crew. Tigers' senses are extraordinary; they see, hear and smell far better than humans. If a tiger wants to remain hidden, you will not see it. After the film team had waited in vain for weeks, film traps were the last resort: at least their use proved to be promising and there were first impressive insights into the behavior of the shy big cats. The shooting of the team around Franz Hafner finally lasted one and a half years - in winter at -40 degrees, in summer with monsoon rains, tormented by swarms of mosquitoes - and was extremely exciting: "The tigers always knew that we were nearby." Siberian tigress, Durmin (Russia).  *This image is copyright of its original author How did director Franz Hafner come up with the idea for this film?: “When I was in the Far East of Russia for the first time, I came across the fresh track of a tiger in the winter forest. It was incredibly large, the size of a soup plate. My Russian friends then told me about their experiences with tigers, the unique habitat, the cold, the hunting skills. For them, the tiger was the soul of the Russian wilderness, the epitome of wildness and the power of nature. Ever since then I have been fascinated by the big cats and the desire to make a documentary about them arose.” And Franz Hafner continues: “In the jungle of the Far East, the tiger is the master. It feels strange walking through the forest and knowing an animal nearby that - stronger and equipped with better senses - could kill you at any moment. A story about tigers is also a story about wilderness, about our origins and our future place in nature. As powerful, clever and superior as the tiger is, it will only survive if we humans want it to survive.” Interspot producer Niki Klingohr: “This international high-end documentary shows the need for species protection. We were able to film the majestic Siberian Tigers in their remote habitat - one of the most pristine and beautiful natural areas in Russia. The film impressively shows the value of the tiger as a so-called 'umbrella species' for the entire ecosystem. The necessary protective measures, both for tigers and for humans, offer exciting aspects that I was not aware of." https://tv.orf.at/program/orf2/universum238.html
Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve, November 27, 2021
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 *This image is copyright of its original author A camera trap installed on the territory of the Bastak nature reserve in the Jewish Autonomous Region (JAO) captured the unusual behavior of the Amur tiger. We managed to get a unique video from the camera, which is installed opposite the so-called marking object. The footage shows how the Amur tiger hugs a tree and rubs its muzzle against it. The strange behavior of the animal was explained in the reserve. “This video clip shows a Bastak tiger exhibiting marking behavior by rubbing against a tree, leaving scent marks. The age of the male, according to the tiger's passport, was not determined, it was first recorded on November 29, 2016 in the vicinity of the town of Skalistae Sopka,” the reserve told the Ecology of Russia website. During the year, tigers come to the place of "marking" several times. In total, three adult Amur tigers live on the territory of the Bastak Reserve: the male Bastak, the females Cinderella and Tala. There is also one tiger cub, which is only one and a half years old and its gender has not yet been determined. https://ecologyofrussia.ru/strannyy-tigr/
TIGER BATTLE IN KHABAROVSK REGION ENDED WITH ONE PARTICIPANT DEATH
On February 18, near the village of Yuzhny in the Lazo area of the Khabarovsk Territory, the corpse of a young tiger was discovered, which most likely died from wounds received in a fight with a larger male. The corpse of the animal was submitted for examination to the Amur Tiger Center. An external examination carried out by the employees of the hunting supervision of the Khabarovsk Territory at the scene showed the presence of numerous lacerations. Based on the tracks, including blood, left by the tiger, it was possible to establish an approximate picture of what happened in the forest. A young tiger entered into a duel with a larger male, the size of its front paw print is 12.5 cm. The forces were not equal, and the winner left, and the loser, having received numerous wounds, remained on the battlefield. A few days later he came out on the road, where he died.  *This image is copyright of its original author The corpse of a young tiger will be delivered for examination to the Amur Tiger Center. Specialists are yet to determine the exact cause of death. “As we know, tiger cubs, entering adulthood, actively move around the range in search of their own territory. Such tigers are also called "transit". And, unfortunately, such tragedies can happen during wanderings: a young tiger in a duel with a larger male gets wounds that become fatal for the loser, - comments Sergey Aramilev , Director General of the Amur Tiger Center . “Specialists recorded the location of the tracks, traces of blood, “laying” and a large amount of wool, which quite clearly indicates the reasons for the death of the tiger. However, there are times when one of the tigers may be injured or injured, or weakened by illness, which determines the outcome of the fight. We will clarify these points in the course of the examination.” http://amur-tiger.ru/ru/press_center/news/1681/ 
https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-on-the-...#pid161113
 *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author https://books.google.com.au/books?id=Fw1...edir_esc=y Hi Apex Titan. I am unable to post in the edge of extinction. However, I believe I found an addition to the Soviet Literature account. Hope to here your comment on this. Also since there accounts of interactions and some pictures of size comparisons between amur tigers and Ussuri brown bears, I am hoping it is alright to post this addition here.  *This image is copyright of its original author Is anyone able to tell me how heavy Final 16 (tiger on the right) is? |
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