Amur Tigers

[Apex Titan]

The Amur tiger reached Yakutia. This is a rare event, but not new - visits to the northern region have been recorded before. Some of them were confirmed, and some remained at the level of rumors. Now, thanks to the development of technologies and means of communication, more can be learned about the phenomenon.

The tracks of the Amur tiger at the mouth of the Bollokhtokh River, the right tributary of the Uchur River (58 ° 02'08 "N, we do not specify the longitude deliberately) were met by Andrei Ivanov, observer pilot of the Uchur air department of the Yakutsk Avialesokhrana air base. He made an unusual find on November 9, filmed her in the photo and video.

Traces in Yakutia, when they were discovered by Andrei Ivanov, were fresh. The author of the video voiced the width of the "heel" as 12 cm. However, when you apply your hand to the print, you can see that it is almost equal to the palm. The average width of the palm at the base of the fingers in men is 9 cm. Therefore, the imprint of the width of the footprint is approximately 9-9.5 cm.

Andrei applies his palm to the print of the hind paw, and the print of the front paw in tigers is about 1 cm larger than the hind paw. It turns out that the "clean" size of the front paw print - it is it that is measured during counts and for identification of tigers - is 10-10.5 cm. This is most likely a young male. 

From the place of their discovery to the valley of the Uda River is about 400-450 km. The distance is long, but not a record one, given that the crossing of 20-30 km per night for the Amur tiger is a common thing. It will be possible to draw up a more detailed route of the tiger and try to determine whether it is the same tiger later, after collecting all the information. So, for example, not far from the place where the tracks were found, about 30 kilometers away, there is a camp of reindeer herders and it is possible that they also saw tracks or even the tiger itself.

If this is a different individual, then it is already the second wanderer tiger in the past few months.

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“When we hear the word Yakutia, we imagine the Laptev Sea and the city of Tiksi, although in reality a significant part of the Khabarovsk Territory is located much farther north than the southern part of Yakutia, where the wanderer tiger entered. Most likely, he has already returned to the Khabarovsk Territory, ”comments Sergey Aramilev, General Director of the Amur Tiger Center.... - The wandering behavior of males of large predators is in no way related to their numbers, since earlier visits of tigers to Yakutia were noted when the number of tigers was far from ideal. There is no relationship. The version with a lack of food or a search for a wild boar is even more implausible, since the boar does not live in the places where it came, and the point is not in African swine fever, but in habitats unsuitable for boar. What pushed the tiger north? The phenomenon that allows animals to expand their range is similar to the mechanism of settlement in humans. In my opinion, it was vividly described by Lev Gumilyov. He asked to imagine the entire population of a particular region as a burning "fire" from which "sparks" fly off, which, as we know, for the most part go out, but some, once on the fertile "substrate", form a new fire. The wandering tigers are precisely those "sparks".

In any case, for such long transitions at negative temperatures, the tiger needs strength and, therefore, food. Most likely the tiger is hunting reindeer. In addition to them, in those places there are red deer and roe deer, many hares and Yakut horses on free grazing. Despite the presence of potential victims, another reason for wandering is the search for a habitat.

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“The behavior of tigers is flexible, they know how to adapt to the environment. The search for unoccupied plots by other male tigers leads to the fact that tigers appear in unusual places , ”comments  Alexander Batalov , director of the Durminskoye Forestry Hunting Enterprise and the coordinator of the Amur tiger inventory at the Khorsky site, located in the central and northeastern part of the district. Lazo of the Khabarovsk Territory. -  Where is the tiger going? He probably won't go further north. Perhaps he will turn to the Amur Region or return to the Sea of Okhotsk, to the Tugur River basin in the Khabarovsk Territory, where he, most likely, was photographed on a camera trap in August-September of this year .

The first documented information about the appearance of a tiger in Yakutia dates back to 1827. tiger visits to Yakutia were recorded 3 more times. Penetrations of the predator resumed after more than half a century. In the XX century. tiger visits were recorded 5 times, until the end of the 70s. The last case of finding tracks of a tiger on the territory of Yakutia occurred in 2012 on the ridge. Suntar-Khayata (Tompon district), 350-400 km north of the places of previous appearance (not scientifically confirmed). More details about these cases can be found in the  scientific work of  A.V. Argunova "On the penetration of the Amur tiger into Yakutia."

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