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

[peter]

PANTHERA TIGRIS ALTAICA 3


3a - Position of the Russian government on conservation and poaching

Between 1890-1910, those who knew about Amur tigers thought they would be gone in a decade. Two maybe. They were close. In the thirties and forties of the last century, 20-40 individuals were left. Lev Kaplanov was the one who rang the bell. Although he was shot (most probably by poachers), the Sovjets heard the bell and quickly acted. Amur tigers have been protected ever since and it had an effect. 

Today, almost a century later, there are 480-540 Amur tigers. Most live in the Russian Far East, but there is a small population in the northeastern part of China again.  North-Korea most probably also has a few tigers. Not bad. But it took a long time to get there. Why was that? 

It wasn't tigers, as they quickly respond to good conditions. There could have been 500 Amur tigers some decades ago. It didn't happen, because of a number of reasons.

One is that the whole region had been neglected for a long time. People took the 'sea of forest' and its natural wealth for granted, which resulted in a lack of interest and, in the end, in near-total destruction. Habitat destruction, a lack of prey animals and severe winters offered few chances for professional hunters. For this reason, Amur tigers needed very large territories. They still do. 

A tigress collared only a few years ago by researchers of the AMUR TIGER PROGRAMME needed about 900 square km. to survive! This surprised many, as the situation had improved quite a bit in Russia in the last decades. Although true, there is a difference between 'improved quite a bit' and 'good'. In some of the well-stocked reserves of India and Nepal, 10-20 square km. will do for a tigress with cubs. A big difference.

Another factor that limited the number of tigers is poaching. Poachers can be divided into 4 groups: locals (villagers and farmers mostly), local hunters (in the RFE, over 60 000 have a hunting license), professionals and opportunists. In general, locals start poaching when they need to (after the collapse of the Sovjet-Union, many lost their job and savings and turned to the forest for food). Hunters consider big predators as competitors (a confirmed habit everywhere). Professionals like markets and rare animals and opportunists like, ehhh, opportunities. 

There are different ways to fight poaching and habitat destruction. The most effective of them is government. Theoretically, government represents all. Based on everything I read, I'd say that many Russians feel connected to nature. A good start. Most know that the present situation is far from perfect. 

If you want to change a situation not to your liking, you first need to describe one you prefer. When done, you need to describe a way to get there. All of this requires extensive research. The next step is starting a project directed by a well-known institution. One connected to government. Central government, if possible. From there, it gets tricky. The reason is that most of those involved in politics don't really care about conservation. More often than not, it's right at the bottom. Not so in Russia. Putin has been around for quite some time now and there's no question that he is interested in conservation. This is important, as it will speed thing up in many ways.

In 2008, a project was started to protect the Amur tiger: THE AMUR TIGER PROGRAMME. It's an independant project carried out

" ... as part of the Russian Academy of Sciences' ungoing expedition to study the animals in Russia's Red Data Book and other particularly important species of animals in Russia. The expedition was launched in 2008 as part of work of The Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEE RAS). The research supervisor of the expedition is Academician Dmitry Pavlov, who also is the director of IEE RAS; the head of the expedition is Doctor of Biology Vyacheslav Roshov, who also is a deputy director at the institute ... " (THE AMUR TIGER PROGRAMME). 

What was achieved so far? Apart from the project mentioned above, there was an international meeting in St. Petersburg in 2010. At the Tiger Summit, it was decided to double the number of wild tigers in 2022. In The Russian Far East, new reserves and buffer zones were created. If all proposals are adopted, Amur tigers will have 160 000 square km. at their disposal. Unprecedented. The Russians and the Chinese are discussing plans to enlarge the number of Amur tigers in northeastern China and facilitate movement. Talking corridors.

And poaching? One of the goals of THE AMUR TIGER PROGRAMME is to increase awareness among those living in and near Amur tiger territory. Popular science is used to get there, but the project also addresses educational and social issues. 

Did it have an effect? Based on what I saw so far (schools, zoos, articles in Russian newspapers, videos and reports about poachers on television), I think it had. One long-distance train carries an enormous pictures of an Amur tiger all over Russia and I also saw a large Boeing with an Amur tiger on the nose.

Locals in particular seem to have changed their attitude. They alert specialists when they find deserted cubs and adolescents and young adults entering villages in winter are no longer shot, but darted and rehabilitated.

How about the local hunters? That one was easy, as researchers used a bigger enemy to convince them that tigers are not too bad. What enemy are we talking about? The big bad wolf, of course. There are way more wolves than tigers, meaning wolves hunt much more wild animals. More food for wolves = less for hunters. If we add that tigers actively hunt wolves at times, it wasn't difficult to convince them to choose sides.

How do the Russians deal with the illegal trade in rare wild animals? 

According to Sergei Donskoi, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of Russia, the value of the global market was 17-20 billion euros or about 20-25 billion US-dollars roughly. Yes, billion. Every year. Rare wild animals. 

At the moment, the legal framework to do something about professional poachers is not up to par. In October 2016, Sergei Donskoi proposed to intensify efforts to fight poaching and toughen punishment.

Is it needed? Most certainly.

In 2015, the Russians discovered over 600 adds in which (parts) of about 2 500 rare wild animals were offered. In about 30% of them, tigers featured. I'm not saying that hundreds of Amur tigers are poached every year, but we're also not talking about a few individuals only:   

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

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