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

peter Offline
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( This post was last modified: 02-26-2016, 05:18 AM by peter )

(02-25-2016, 03:37 AM)Pckts Wrote: @peter
I know those posts require a ton of work but if you ever get any time, I'd love to see what you consider "reliable hunting records" for Amur tigers, I hate to say it but I think Amurs are probably my least known tiger sub species when it comes to size, I just want to know how they are all quoted to be so large in captivity and show that way in images. I mean, every big cat trainer I read about says the same thing, Amurs are the largest of the big cats, yet there recent wild measurements seem to be with in the normal spectrum of Bengal Tigers and I have a tough time finding old hunting info on them.
I know they have been decimated by man but I'd be curious as to early hunters recollection of their characteristics before they and their prey were hunted to near extinction?

When done with tigers in northern India and Nepal, I will do a number of posts on Amur tigers.

As to hunting records. I found some articles and stories in a few US magazins, but there isn't much. English and American hunters preferred British India and Indochina over Russia for different reasons. The most important of these were (a lack of) time and knowledge before, say, 1920 and politics and no access later.

I strongly doubt if there's much more in Russia. You have to remember that a large part of what now belongs to the Russian Federation was part of China only a century and a half ago. The Chinese, ehh, got an offer they couldn't refuse and Sichote-Alin was added to Russia. 

As to the Chinese. I don't think it's likely that tigers were extensively hunted in the their day. Russian officers and Cossacks, however, did hunt tigers. After the warning issued by Kaplanov in the forties of the last century, tigers were protected. They recovered until the old system collapsed, only to be decimated again when many struggled to make ends meet in the Russian Far East (RFE). Today, the situation seems to be stable. The last count says there are about 500 wild Amur tigers.  

My guess is that the number of Amur tigers always was limited. Just before the introduction of fire-arms, the number of tigers in Manchuria, Russia and Korea might have ranged between 3000-5000, maybe even less. The reason is difficult conditions and few large prey animals. 

This means that information on Amur tigers shot by hunters most probably is very limited. As far as I know, there never was a culture on tigers and measurements in Russia. If we add that not one biologist ever visited the natural history museums in Chabarowsk and Vladivostok to measure the hundreds of skulls of wild Amur tigers, the conclusion is we just don't have enough on the size of Amur tigers in the past to get to any kind of statement.

As a result, Amur tigers have been an enigma for a long time. After the Siberian Tiger Project (STP) was launched, tigers have been captured, measured and weighed. The problem is the samples are smallish. Furthermore, they include young adults and those who struggled. Another problem is they can't be compared to those shot a century ago. There are few historical records and most of these, as you know, were considered unreliable by Slaught. And then there is the effect of the population bottleneck in the thirties and forties of the last century. Are those who survived the unslaught, as many suggest, really smaller than those hunted a century ago? We don't know.

We do know that captive Amur tigers, most probably, are unsurpassed in size (averages). Although the captive population has been polluted, there's no question that captive Amur tigers measured and weighed by Mazak and a few others (Europe) were true Amur tigers imported not long after WWII. There's also no question that many of them were large animals. Were they perhaps selected for size? Unclear. 

I do know that those who saw (and worked with) Amur tigers just before and after WWII agreed that they were the largest. The size of some was described as prehistoric. If we add the information on size collected by the Jankowski's ('The Tiger's Claw', M. Taylor) and the info I found in a number of books written by German hunters, the conclusion is that Amur tigers produced quite many large animals a century ago. Compared to Indian tigers, they often were a bit taller and longer. 

G. Jankowski thought the heaviest could have ranged between 250-275 kg. (552-608 lbs.) about a century ago, but his sons shot one considerably heavier in 1943 and there are more reports on very heavy animals shot in that period (1940-1960) I consider reliable. Slaught accepted some of Baikov's records, but rejected others on dubious grounds.   

Today's wild Amur tigers compare to wild Nepal (Chitwan) and Indian (Nagarahole) tigers in length, but they lack quite a bit in weight. Wild Indian male tigers are large animals, but captive males in Indian zoos averaged 400-410 lbs. (recent information - sample ok). Captive male Amur tigers in European zoos and facilities seem to be over 450 lbs., but Slaught wrote captive male Amur tigers average about 375 lbs. Did Slaught refer to Amur tigers in Russian zoos? We don't know.  

After reading everything I have, I concluded that captive male Amur tigers in European facilities probably more or less compare to wild male Amur tigers before the population bottleneck. Today's wild Amur tigers are not as heavy and the most likely reason is difficult conditions. The (indirect) proof is in the difference between captive and wild male Indian tigers. Wild male tigers are considerably heavier than their captive relatives and the most likely explanation is good conditions.

The population bottleneck in the thirties and forties of the last century no doubt had an effect on Amur tigers. The largest animals were shot first, meaning they couldn't pass on their genes. Today's wild Amur tigers also show not much individual variation. Atypical in healthy populations, but typical for tigers facing pressure. Skulls of Javan tigers collected in the period they rapidly disappeared also show little individual variation. Sumatrans, also island tigers, did when Sumatra still had thousands of tigers. Apart from that, one has to consider the effect of habitat destruction, prey depletion and long winters. Tigers facing pressure often responded by losing size in the recent past and my guess is they still do. Today's wild Indian tigers say the opposite also is true. If the population size in Russia exceeds, say, 1000 and conditions keep on improving, chances are tigers will respond.

The very bulky males seen in some parts of India today, however, wouldn't prosper in Russia. Not enough large ungulates, too much deep snow, too much nordic long distance walking, too many agile deer and too many bears who outbulk them. A professional hunter in eastern Russia needs a long body to preserve heat, long legs and big paws to deal with snow, a large skull and big fore-arms to deal with powerful opponents and not too much weight. And this is what we see in wild Amur tigers. Tigers of exceptional size could have thrived in Manchuria in the recent past, but Russia is different.

And then there is the former Imperial Hunting Reserve mentioned in Mary Taylor's book on the Jankowski's. For many centuries, animals in the reserve were not hunted. The result was large tigers. After the system in China collapsed, tigers moved to Korea, Manchuria and Russia. Manchuria, described as a 'sea of forest', could have had the best conditions. The largest Amur tigers I know of were shot in Manchuria. The 560 lbs. male shot just north of Korea by Baikov most certainly wasn't the heaviest I saw, but he did provide a photograph and some details. The largest he shot (well exceeding 300 kg.) were not accepted. This, however, doesn't mean they didn't exist. There's more than enough circumstantial evidence to conclude that at least some of them did. The great size of some captive Amur tigers today underlines that the genes are still there.

Many no doubt reject this conclusion, but captive male Sumatran tigers, like their wild relatives, seldom, if ever, exceed 350 lbs. Rumours about the size of some males in southeast Asia were confirmed by some of the Thai temple tigers and there's no question as to their identity as well. Same for lions. Some captive males, like their wild relatives, well exceed 550 and even 600 lbs. empty. There could have been a few close to 650. But captive Amurs well exceeding that mark are a result of hearsay and pollution? I would get to double standards. The Amur tigers in European facilities I saw were pure. The US, however, is a very different story.

It seems that many just don't realize that today's wild Amur tigers really struggle. Remember the WCS-table with measurements and weights of today's wild Amur tigers? How many males were considered as 'problem tigers'? Why do you think that tigers in many parts of Sichote-Alin hunt brown bears as often as they do? Sure, they prefer small bears, but researchers recently admitted that bears could be a more important food source than they thought. It's also clear that not all brown bears hunted are immatures. Hunting takes a lot of effort. For this reason, tigers hunt large animals. As large as possible. Not the big males, but according to those in the know (read J. Vaillant's 'The Tiger'), Amur tigers are prepared to engage similar-sized bears. Talking brown bears here. Ever seen a bear ranging between 150-200 kg.(332-442 lbs.)? I saw a few documentaries about brown bears in Alaska. Females often reach 150 kg. and well over. Impressive animals, definitely capable to defend themselves. Why do you think tigers are prepared to take the risk?

If conditions in wild Russia improve and tigers can hunt deer and wild boar more often, chances are we will see males well exceeding 500 lbs. in the near future. We will also see more individual variation. Bears, always interested in tiger kills, will remain an important food source, especially in summer. The reason is they are easier to hunt than deer and wild boar. Experienced male tigers no doubt will try to progress to large animals. Some will succeed and some will perish. One day, a researcher will be at the right place to witness something only very few saw.

Can male Amur tigers reach the dimensions of their wild relatives a century ago? Based on what I know and saw, I think they can. But I wonder if large and bulky tigers would be able to cope with long winters, deep snow and mass migrations of prey animals (crop failure is not uncommon in Russia). Manchuria was more suited for large tigers, but that was in the days it was covered by immense forests.
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Messages In This Thread
RE: ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - TIGERS (Panthera tigris) - peter - 02-25-2016, 02:46 PM
Demythologizing T16 - tigerluver - 04-12-2020, 11:44 AM
Tiger Data Bank - Apollo - 07-28-2014, 09:54 PM
RE: Tiger Data Bank - Apollo - 07-28-2014, 10:02 PM
RE: Tiger Data Bank - Apollo - 07-29-2014, 12:56 AM
RE: Tiger Data Bank - peter - 07-29-2014, 07:05 AM
Tiger recycling bin - Roflcopters - 09-04-2014, 01:36 AM
RE: Tiger recycling bin - Pckts - 09-04-2014, 02:22 AM
RE: Tiger recycling bin - Roflcopters - 09-05-2014, 01:01 AM
RE: Tiger Data Bank - Apollo - 11-15-2014, 10:07 PM
RE: Tiger Data Bank - Apollo - 11-15-2014, 10:57 PM
RE: Tiger Data Bank - Apollo - 11-15-2014, 11:33 PM
RE: Tiger Data Bank - Apollo - 02-19-2015, 11:25 PM
RE: Tiger Data Bank - GuateGojira - 02-23-2015, 11:36 AM
Status of tigers in India - Shardul - 12-20-2015, 03:23 PM
RE: Tiger Directory - Diamir2 - 10-03-2016, 04:27 AM
RE: Tiger Directory - peter - 10-03-2016, 06:22 AM
Genetics of all tiger subspecies - parvez - 07-15-2017, 01:08 PM
RE: Tiger Predation - peter - 11-11-2017, 08:08 AM
RE: Man-eaters - Wolverine - 12-03-2017, 11:30 AM
RE: Man-eaters - peter - 12-04-2017, 09:44 AM
RE: Tigers of Central India - Wolverine - 04-13-2018, 01:17 AM
RE: Tigers of Central India - qstxyz - 04-13-2018, 08:34 PM
RE: Size comparisons - peter - 07-16-2019, 05:28 AM
RE: Amur Tigers - peter - 05-20-2021, 07:13 AM
RE: Amur Tigers - Nyers - 05-21-2021, 08:02 PM
RE: Amur Tigers - peter - 05-22-2021, 08:09 AM
RE: Amur Tigers - GuateGojira - 04-06-2022, 12:59 AM
RE: Amur Tigers - tigerluver - 04-06-2022, 01:08 AM
RE: Amur Tigers - tigerluver - 04-06-2022, 09:08 AM
RE: Amur Tigers - tigerluver - 04-06-2022, 11:30 PM
RE: Amur Tigers - peter - 04-08-2022, 07:27 AM



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