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

[peter]

FORD BARCLAY - 'THE MANCHURIAN TIGER' (London, 1915)

In February of this year, I was contacted by a South-Korean Wildlife Conservationist (not a biologist, but a lawyer). He wanted to join AVA, but it was impossible because AVA had been hacked. We lost contact after February. A pity, because I would have invited him to join our forum.

He sent me a number of articles. This is also from him. Ford Barclay's article ('The Manchurian Tiger') was published in 1915 (London). It's short, but interesting.

This also is the article that fooled many biologists some decades ago. I'm referring to the alleged frozen Amur tiger with a head and body length of 10.5 (...) that found it's way in a number of books (like V. Mazak's 'Der Tiger' and Heptner and Sludskij's 'Mammals of the Sovjet-Union'). Those fooled, of course, had to pay later.

Anyhow. Barclay's article was, so it seems, first published in a magazin ('The gun at home & abroad'). I never read it before and that probably is true for most of us. I tried to post it some months ago, but failed as a result of the quality of the scans. I hope the result is a bit better this time:
     

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Below is the story on the giant Amur tiger that fooled many:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Here's some information on tigers in Korea. In the first decades of the 20th century, they allegedly were more numerous in the northern part of the country. In spite of that, it was easier to contact them in the southern part of the country. It wasn't quite the contact tigers would have preferred. Near mining concessions, they were killed by dynamite hidden in baits (...). This continued until it was forbidden by the Japanese. Poison also was much used and later forbidden by the Japanese. Most tigers, however, died in drop traps:   

*This image is copyright of its original author

Tigers not only reached the coast in south-west Korea (near the port of Mokpo), but they also swam to islands. The island of Chindo, about the size of Wight, apparently was known for tigers. They crossed the 2-3 miles wide channel to the mainland, but apparently it wasn't without danger: in 1914, a tiger washed up on the west coast of Japan (near Matsue):     

*This image is copyright of its original author

Barclay thought tigers were a bit larger in the north of Korea. He never saw exceptional skins in Korea. On the other hand, he shot one of 9.7 'between sticks' (292,10 cm.) in the extreme south of Korea in 1903. That tiger, according to experienced locals, was no less than 3 feet shorter than a tiger shot in 1893 (...). I can't make head or tails of it, but a 9.7 tiger is a large animal anywhere.

Also read the part on a tiger passing close (within a few yards) to Barclay, without him hearing or seeing anything on page 231: 

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

This is a tiger shot by Barclay near Mokpo (a port in south-west Korea):

*This image is copyright of its original author

This tiger was shot near Shin-do:

*This image is copyright of its original author

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