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

[peter]

(02-06-2025, 07:45 PM)Apex Titan Wrote: Biologist Dr. Feng Limin on Amur tigers and Bears 

Here's a video with a recent interview of Northeast China's leading tiger expert, researcher, and field biologist, Dr. Feng Limin.

Feng Limin says that according to their analysis, data, and findings, bears (both Ussuri brown bears & Asiatic black bears) make-up 10% of the tigers diet throughout the year. Through DNA data analysis of tiger feces, biologists found that bears make-up a large portion of the tigers diet in the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park. They found that the main food of tigers, in addition to large and medium-sized herbivores such as wild boars and sika deer, is actually large carnivores such as bears.

Here's the report:

https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1823004...5%E7%86%8A

It's also mentioned that cases of Amur tigers killing and eating both leopards and bears are constantly being recorded. Feng Limin also mentions that in the past, their infrared cameras have recorded shots of tigers chasing bears.

Due to their recent observations, data, and findings over the years, biologist Feng Limin and his team now have a more in-depth understanding and knowledge about the relationships between Amur tigers, leopards, and bears in this ecosystem.

Go to 0:55 in the video:

Just like in the Russian Far East, in Northeast China, the Amur tiger is the undisputed apex predator and dominates the other carnivores (bears, leopards, wolves) that share its habitat, and also regularly hunts and eats both black and brown bears, and kills and eats leopards whenever the opportunity arises.

Bears making up 10% of the Amur tigers annual diet in Northeast China is a significant percentage, considering the fact that both Ussuri brown bears and Asiatic black bears hibernate for about 4-5 months in the Northeast China taiga forests, which makes bears much less accessible for tigers to hunt throughout the long and very harsh winter months.

Regarding this recently captured footage of a young tiger chasing a large adult male brown bear last year; Feng Limin says the tiger was young, and had not yet mastered the skills of hunting brown bears:

*This image is copyright of its original author

APEX

A short, but interesting video. Good find. Dr. Feng Limin was discussed in a number of posts in the recent past. As he's an undisputed authority on tigers, his conclusion about tigers and other predators in northeastern China is of interest. 

The question is why Amur tigers hunt co-predators and scavengers in some districts and not in others. I went over a number of recent studies discussed in this thread and reread all of Gotvansky's reports about tigers in Anyuisky in the period 2015-2022. The conclusion is bears are an important seasonal source of food in some districts and seasons, whereas they're hardly hunted in others. 

I'm in particular referring to Anyuisky. According to Aleksej Gotvansky, tigers living in Anyuisky thrived. Same for Himalayan black bears and, in particular, Ussuri brown bears. When the population of wild boars suddenly decreased as a result of a disease, tigers suffered. Not a few cubs starved to death because their mothers left them. Adult males, as a result of the situation, left Anyuisky to hunt elsewhere. Most returned after some months, but others were not seen for a much longer period of time (even up to a year). During their absence, their sons often took over. Some of them were young adults when their father returned, but Gotvansky never saw a struggle for control. The young adults moved to the fringes, where they seemed to do quite well. Gotvansky also saw new males enter Anyuisky. I'm not referring to young adults trying to find a new home, but to adult males. 

The conclusion, therefore, is the sudden decrease of the number of wild boars resulted in quite a bit of movement, in particular in adult males. Females and young adults, however, stayed in Anyuisky. In the period tigers struggled, Ussuri brown bears, again according to Gotvansky, also suffered. In spite of that, he never found an Ussuri brown bear hunted by a tiger. He did find the remains of a fewHimalayan black bears, but most of them were inexperienced youngsters. 

Not too far from Anyuisky, however, tigers hunt both Himalayan black bears and Ussuri brown bears. I'm referring to Tkatchenko's paper, the interviews of Batalov and the video in which Yuri Kya featured. That's still apart from tiger 'Borya' ('Boris') who also hunted bears on a regular basis (referring to a number of articles discussed in this thread). In this part of the Khabarovsky Krai, a male tiger exceeding 200 kg is considered as large. In Anyuisky, however, males apparently well exceeding that mark do not hunt bears and if they do, they seem to select young Himalayan black bears. This, first of all, suggests size doesn't seem to be a factor in tigers hunting bears. Something else is, and it could be culture. The question is why tigers in Primorye, Manchuria and, today, northeastern China were, and are, more involved in bears than in the Khabarovsky Krai.                   

Anyhow. You've been posting about tigers and bears for quite some time now, meaning it's likely you have some ideas about the reasons tigers hunt bears. If so, you're invited to inform us about your opinion. In my next post in the series about man and tiger in northeast Asia, I'll post some of the reports of Gotvansky. Reply