ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris)

[Apex Titan]

Summary of Recent Documented Interactions/Conflicts between Amur tigers and adult male Ussuri brown bears (2017 - 2024)

While heading into the new year, here's a list of recent cases of interactions and conflicts between Amur tigers and adult male brown bears documented in very recent years:

1) Biologist & game warden Alexander Batalov reported a case of a male tiger 'Ochkarik' who killed and completely devoured a huge male brown bear named 'Chlamyda' or 'Chlamys' who was repeatedly following and stealing the kills of the tigress 'Rashel' (Ochkarik's mate & mother of his cubs). The following dates given are the specific years when this incident was reported by Batalov in various sources such as interviews, articles, emails, and video. (2017, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024).

2) Male tiger 'Odyr' hunted and killed a large male brown bear of impressive size (palm callus width of 18 cm) in a prolonged fight (2022). Yuri Kya and his team of seasoned forest rangers/experts found and examined the kill-site, and saw clear signs and evidence (badly trampled snow, broken bushes and trampled grass) of a fierce, prolonged battle and saw the killed adult male brown bear's partially eaten carcass, as well as the resting place of the tiger right near the killed bear carcass. 

3) Tigress chases an adult male brown bear out of her territory in Primorye (2023). Experts suggested that the tigress returned to her kill, found the scavenging male brown bear, displaced him and chased him out of the area.

4) Tigress chases away a much larger adult male brown bear in Northeast China (2024).

5) Male tiger 'Odyr' deliberately roars and wakes up a very large (hibernating) male brown bear and expels the bear from his territory (2024).

https://www.gazeta.ru/social/news/2024/0...ml?updated

In recent years, 5 interactions have been documented of male (and female) Amur tigers and (mostly) large male Ussuri brown bears. In all cases, the tiger established its dominance. I'm not saying an Amur tiger always dominates a large male brown bear in every encounter, but we see a consistent pattern that usually occurs, which also confirms what most Russian biologists, zoologists, naturalists, rangers, hunters, and all natives (and John Vaillant) say about tigers and brown bears: The tiger is the usual winner and the dominant predator of the Ussuri taiga (Primorye & Khabarovsk Krai).

Interestingly, there are no recent accounts of male Amur tigers interacting with or killing female brown bears. There are only recent cases of male tigers interacting with, and killing and eating large male brown bears! ...

Which proves that the tiger-bear interspecific relationships data and information published by the Siberian Tiger Project (Chapter 19, 1992 - 2003) was far from presenting the complete picture on tiger-bear relations. Just like their tiger weight data/samples, their data, observations, and info on tiger-bear relations was also limited and inconclusive. They only studied the relationship of tigers and bears in the Primorye region, particularly in the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve. Much more recent info/data from the Khabarovsk region, confirms that male tigers do indeed kill and eat large adult male brown bears sometimes. The information and accounts from biologist Kucherenko and others also confirms this.

Both the giant male brown bear 'Chlamyda' and the large male brown bear killed in the Khekhtsir reserve in 2022, were killed and eaten by male tigers from the Khabarovsk territories. Biologists such as Ivan Seryodkin, Dale Miquelle, Linda Kerley, and John Goodrich do not study Amur tigers in the Khabarovsk region.
 
The male tiger 'Odyr' clearly doesn't tolerate bears in his territory, including large male brown bears. At 10 years old, he hunted and killed a large male brown bear, and 2 years later, when he was 12 years old, he purposefully woke up and expelled a huge male brown bear from his territory and forced the bear to hibernate elsewhere. Odyr is a seasoned male tiger, and Yuri Kya, who's known Odyr very well for many years, noted that Odyr is a very bold, confident, and dominant male tiger by nature. No wonder he's willing and able to confront, displace, and even kill large male brown bears. Like most male Amur tigers, Odyr most likely has killed and eaten many bears throughout his lifetime.

Its likely, that in 2025, more interactions between Amur tigers and adult male Ussuri brown bears will be recorded or documented. Or maybe, another case of a tiger killing and eating an adult male brown bear is reported. There's no doubt that in recent years, the evidence and accounts, as well as the testimonies from experienced Russian biologists, confirm the Amur tigers' (general) dominance over brown bears. Reply