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

[peter]

AMUR TIGERS - TWO VIDEOS


1 - Tracking tigers in the snow

In order to count the number of Amur tigers, many hundreds of rangers, hunters and volonteers are needed. Tracking tigers in the snow seems easy, but it isn't. Not if you're interested in details that matter. For this reason, all trackers have to be instructed. In this video (in English), the essentials of tracking are discussed.

Interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHneXF_x_mw


2 - Secrets of a smell tree

In the Russian Far East, many animals share the forest. In order to avoid problems, animals inform others about their situation and their whereabouts. In contrast to humans, they don't use their ears or eyes but their nose. The best place to leave a message is a tree on a well-used track. When you place a camera-trap close to a smell tree, the result will be good enough for a newspaper.

Anyone interested in differences in size between, for example, wild boars, Ussuri brown bears, Himalayan bears and tigers should watch the video (just over 8 minutes). When you see the animals, you will understand why it is difficult to get to an average. A healthy population always is very diverse.

As to animals and sharing the forest. In the forest, there are no walls. Any animal has access to any section at all times. Every section has a smell tree that is used to inform other animals. 

In a recent report I read on the site of the Amur Tiger Project (Russian), a man in the know wrote that male brown bears can be troublesome in summer. The reason is mating. During the mating season, males often make themselves known. They frequent some forest sections more than others, they appropiate forest sections often used by tigers and they often are high strung and quite aggressive, which can result in confrontations. For this reason, tigers move out of sections used by male brown bears in the mating season. How do tigers know about the bear mating season? The answer is they were informed by smell trees.

Nice video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqHHeBFKQ9U Reply