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

[Greatearth]

KOREAN TIGERS

I am writing paper of the Korean tiger since last year. I needed to buy and read actual book by myself since news, blogs, and articles have bunch of different information.

The Korean tiger was smaller than other Siberian tigers in general. One clear fact was that the Korean tiger was smaller in term of weight unlike other tiger in Asia due to prey depletion in Korea. Male Korean tiger was generally a little bit smaller than other male Siberian tigers, though male Korean tigers are still large animals. Despite smaller size, a few of male Korean tigers were enormous enough to rivaling the size of the Ussurian tiger and even gigantic Manchurian tiger. On the contrary, majority female Korean tigers were very small. Female Korean tigers were about the size of the South China tigress, Malayan tigress, Sumatran tigress, Javan tigress, and male Bali tiger while male Korean tiger was bigger than male/female South China tiger, Indochinese tiger, Malayan tiger, Sumatran tiger, Javan tiger, and Bali tiger.



SIBERIAN TIGERS IN USSURILAND RUSSIAN FAR EAST

The Ussurian tiger is the only alive Siberian tiger, mainly surviving in Sikhote-Alin. We all know their size is smaller than past and they were also came from 30s populations. My strong belief is due to low prey in their habitat along with hunting and habitat loss in early 20th century. 
Hunters were highly active in these areas and over hunted ungulate as well since 19th century. Low number of prey caused a lot problems for declining of the Siberian tiger population and their size. Worse problem was this affect serious decline of the Amur leopard. There is Korean tiger documentaries of the Siberian tiger family. PBS documentary 'Siberian Tiger Quest' used many videos from this this Korean documentary. From this documentary, there is a dead Siberian tiger cub after fought with other cubs because of small food. Food was a medium size dog from village. One Russian zoologist clearly said something like "there is no food for tiger and leopard to survive, let see what will remain next 10 years." with checking dead tiger cub. For their survival, there should be a law for completely ban on the hunting of ungulate like deer and boar. While Korea has a huge problem by water deer and boar today since they are somewhat overpopulated. Korea still need to reintroduce extinct sika deer from Russia. Does anyone knows sika deer in Russia is doing okay? A problem of Korea is that it is so small place for tiger to survive. The Amur leopard would do well if they reintroduce in South Korea. I wish biologists and conservationists can solve these problems along with geneticists could discover some way to increasing "gene pool" by using remaining specimen or skin beside introducing other animals. 

This is what I am planning to do for my career to reintroduce and study the Siberian tiger and Amur leopard. 



MANCHURIAN TIGERS

As for the last Manchurian tiger, I clearly remember published paper written by the Korean biologists team. It is mainly about how to reintroduce the Siberian tiger and Amur leopard in South Korea. Although it is written in Korean, but they mentioned some history of the last Manchurian tiger. That pdf file is disappeared now, but it is in somewhere of my USB or portable drive. I have to find it.
The Siberian tigers survived in southern Manchuria until 1990s just like the last Siberian tigers of North Korea. All I know is that it could be possible that some numbers of Amur leopards are still survive in North Korea. But I don't know if anyone can go to North Korea and study Pantherinae these days. 


There is one riddle. Which Siberian tiger in Manchuria was the largest? 
The Manchurian tiger was the biggest and largest of all Felidae in modern history, but we don't really know about mysterious Manchurian tiger. The biggest title belongs to central/northern Manchurian tiger or southern/western Manchurian tiger? Southern and western Manchuria boarder of Korea/Russia are a lot of mountains while central and northern Manchuria between the Great and Lesser Khingan mountain ranges are plains. Majority of old photos of the Manchurian tigers looks mainly caught it from southern and western part of Manchuria. Jankowski lived in northern part of Korea and mainly hunted in Korea and southern Manchuria. I don't know about Baikov. The size records of the Manchurian tigers are so small unlike the Siberian tiger in Sikhote-Alin and other parts of the Ussuriland. There is almost no photos, stories, and size records of the Manchurian tiger from central and norther part of Manchuria. Prey animals like deer and boar were larger in Manchuria and northern part of Russian Far East. Is there any location of where did giant Sungari river tiger was hunted? Was it Heilongjiang or Jilin? Was Manchurian tiger lived in Harbin areas were bigger than old photos of the Manchurian tigers from Baikov and Jankowski? Also, what about the Siberian tiger lived in Great Khingan mountain, Lesser Khingan mountain, northern Primorsky Krai, Amur Oblast, Zabaykalsk Krai, and Khabarovsk Krai? Reply