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

[peter]

THE FUTURE OF THE AMUR TIGER ACCORDING TO PIKUNOV (2015) - Part I

a - Introduction

You might have noticed that most of my posts in this thread are longish. Long posts often take a lot of time. Time I don't always have. Although things will change a bit in October, I decided for a few shorter posts. This is the first of a series on the history and future of the Amur tiger.

Most posts of the series will be based on an article written by Dmitry G. Pikunov: 'Population and habitat of the Amur tiger in the Russian Far East'. It was published by ScienceDirect in 2015. I read the article more than once and underlined the most important parts. When done, I concluded it consisted of 30 crucial points. Not all of them will be discussed, but they are the backbone of the series.

b - History of the Russian Far East

Before we start, I decided to add some information I found in 'Taming tiger country: Colonization and Environment in the Russian Far East, 1860-1940'. The dissertation of Mark Sokolsky is on the internet and it's a great piece of work. If you're interested in the history of the Russian Far East, it's a must read: 

*This image is copyright of its original author

 
Most of what's now called the Russian Far East (RFE) belonged to China in the 19th century. In 1858, the Russians made them an offer they couldn't refuse. The territory gained by Russia in the, ehhh, 'Treaty of Aigun' was immense.

Two years later, the Chinese got another offer they couldn't refuse. During the 'Treaty of Peking' in 1860, the Russians gained the most eastern part of China.

Here's a map with the geographical consequences. It also shows the Russo-Chinese boundary according to the 'Treaty of Nerchinsk' (1689):

*This image is copyright of its original author

In the beginning of the 19th century, the tiger situation in central, northern and northeastern Asia was excellent. The reports discussed in 'Saugetiere der Sowjetunion' (V.G. Heptner and A.A. Sludskij, Band III: Raubtiere - I have the German translation published in 1980) showed that tigers moved freely in most of northern Asia. Halfway the 19th century, things rapidly changed. One reason was politics, meaning the Russians moved east. Another was progress, meaning rifles had become available.   

Half a century later, tigers were threatened in most of central, northern and eastern Asia. Just before World War Two, Kaplanov sounded the bell. In the late thirties of the last century, Russia only had 20-30 Amur tigers. Not much later, the Sovjet-Union closed the border. Two years after the war (1947), hunting was banned.  

One could say that Amur tigers survived the unslaught because of the treaties in 1858 and 1860 (1), the outbreak of the Second World War (2) and Kaplanovs warning (3), which resulted in a hunting ban (4) and be close. And a close call it was. Reply