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

[Pckts]

(10-09-2014, 07:48 AM)'peter' Wrote: SICHOTE-ALIN - LANDSCAPE AND ANIMALS

1 - IN THE CEDAR FOREST (source unknown)

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2 - BELOBORODOWSKIJ KLJUC IN WINTER (Heptner and Sludskij, 1980 - photograph taken by E.N. Matjuskin in 1964 - tiger habitat)

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3 - NEAR THE ORIGIN OF THE ULACHE RIVER (Heptner and Sludskij, 1980 - photograph Pankrat'ev - home of a tigress with cubs)

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4 - ISJUBR KILLED BY A TIGER (Heptner and Sludskij, 1980 - neck broken - the photograph is very similar to one take by Bengt Berg of a wild buffalo killed by a tiger close to the Bhutan border many years earlier - In India, many years ago, some hunters thought chance was involved regarding broken necks, but Berg and many others concluded experienced animals were able to break the neck of large animals time and again - the largest tiger Berg saw only hunted large male buffalos and all were killed in exactly the same way - Berg didn't want to shoot 'The Killer of Men', as the tiger was known, but he saw him on many occasions and was sure he was more robust and quite a bit heavier than the largest and heaviest he had shot and weighed - that animal was 292,1 cm. in total length and weighed 256,28 kg.)

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5 - ORPHANED CUBS (photograph WCS - when their mother didn't return, the cubs were seen on the same road for days by different members of the WCS-team - Miquelle and his collegues decided to catch the cubs - it took some time, but all were caught and now live in a rehabilitation centre - the rescue operation was filmed and broadcasted by the BBC - still the best photograph I saw by far, as it shows the ultimate result of poaching in a very definite way)

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6 - AMUR TIGER (no information available)

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7 - SICHOTE-ALIN (photo taken by the well-known Russian biologist and hunter Kretschmar - first posted by Grahh on AVA)

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08 - USSURI FOREST

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09 - TRACKING AN AMUR TIGER IN THE SNOW (photograph WCS - there's no info on the tiger, but at the time the photograph was taken no tiger over 200 kg. had been collared - today's Amur tigers have longer bodies than all other wild big cats, but adult males seldom exceed the weight mentioned - the heaviest weighed by a Russian team, a young adult male of 183 cm. in head and body, was 212 kg. - one would expect to find some males exceeding that weight every now and then, but only four wild males recently collared, as far as I know, barely exceeded 200 kg. - it has to be mentioned, however, that two large males were able to escape the foot snare when biologists arrived at the scene - Krechmar said he had seen very large prints some years earlier and is sure animals well over 200 kg. are still there - A.G. Yudakov and I.G. Nikolaev, in their great monography recently republished, wrote one of the males they didn't see had a pad width of 13,5 cm. - most adult males range between 10,5-12,5 cm.)

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10 - WILD BOAR SHOT BY THE JANKOWSKI'S IN NORTH KOREA ('The Tiger's Claw' - close to the Russian border - 20 animals mentioned in the book averaged 420 pounds or 190 kg., but it is not known if they are the animals in the photograph )

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Still one of my favorite accounts to this day. The power it takes for a animal to break the necks of these large bovines is quite impressive. The most impressive thing about the Buffalo killer was that he broke the necks with soo much force, its horns would be burried into the ground.

I would imagine the footprints and the fact that the snare were broke by some large males would mean that there are still some wild Amur males out there that are over 210kg, at least I hope so.
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