There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
It always makes me happy to hear about former hunters turned naturalist. Hopefully the photography boom that is going on continues to increase tourism and protection in many more places across the world.
Great Soul of Siberia.
Even at a glance, I could tell they were huge. There was probably only one tiger in Lazovsky with a paw this size: Khajain. Before Khajain took over Lasovsky, his prints had usually been found in the south of the region. This meant he'd been born there. It was possible he was related to Bloody Mary, whose territory was in southeastern Lazovsky. It was unlikely that they had a parent-child relationship because there wasn't enough of an age difference, but they might have been siblings or half-siblings. They were both over ten years old and in their prime.
Khajain's footsteps took a detour before Urine Rock and led to a birch by the mountain path. There are claw marks on the thick tree trunk. It seemed he had dug his claws in as high as he could on the trunk and then dragged them down. The claw marks were over three meters high. I could barely reach their height by standing up straight and raising my walking stick above my head. Tigers compete with one another by leaving the thickest claw marks on the highest spot. Most tigers leave their marks at about one and a half to two and a half meters, and the Great King is the only tiger who can leave a claw mark at the highest point. Above the base of the trunk was a black stain from years and years of tiger urine. There was some yellowish hair on the black mark. Khajain had made his claw mark and then rubbed his face and neck against the urine stain to cover the scent of other tigers with his own. Tiger hair has a unique scent that can also be used to mark territory in spots other animals and tigers frequent.
The number of territory markers one tiger leaves is far greater than you might think. We have yet to discover the correlation between the number of tigers in a given region and the number of territory markers they leave, but it's clear that the more tigers that use a certain path, the more marks each of them leave. If one tiger leaves a territory marker, this triggers a competitive spirit in other tigers who also rush to leave a mark.
Great Soul of Siberia by Sooyong Park.
After sundown, we pitched our tents by the stream and started a fire. Over dinner, Galina brought up a story about Khajain.
"We have a record of Khajain traveling ninety-two kilometers in fifteen hours. It was a coincidence that we were able to record it. A forest ranger in northern Lazovsky happened to pick up a fresh dropping, and the dogs confirmed that it was Khajain's. But then the next day, another forest ranger from southern Lazovsky brought in another fresh dropping, and it was also Khajain's. The elapsed time was fifteen hours. He'd managed to travel ninety-two kilometers in that time.
It is very rare for tigers to move in a straight line so quickly. And even if the tiger really does it, it's difficult to measure the time and distance it travels. Tigers generally travel at a leisurely pace. If prey is abundant, the tiger stays for a while, but if it isn't, it leaves. There are many places tigers stop along the way - places to mark territory, places they've hunted before, places suitable for rest, the place they were born, and so on. Even if the tiger is traveling a mere ninety-two kilometers, the trip could take a month or two.
Continued from post #331...
But if a male picks up the scent of a female in heat or a mother is looking for her cubs, it's a different story. When such urgent matters come up, tigers forget everything else and head to their destination in a straight line. But they don't run at full speed like they do when hunting. Carnivores like tigers are good short-distance runners, but lack the endurance to run long distances. They get tired after running just a few kilometers at full speed, so they jog at a steady pace instead. This way, tigers can cover a distance of close to one hundred kilometers over twenty-four hours. I'll bet they could go faster if they wanted to.
Great Soul of Siberia by Sooyong Park.
We carefully made our way down the Dragon Spine and along the river. Cascading mud had erased the path and made the riverbank very slippery. The river and forest were inundated with a milky mist. I couldn't see so much as a foot in front of me and felt as though I were in a sea of fog. In the fog, I saw something black moving along lazily. It waded across the river and approached me. My heart pounded. The wind stirred the thick fog and unveiled the mystery: it was a towering Asian black bear.
Perhaps it was the fog or its bad eyesite, but it continued heading toward me even though I was standing right in its path. My heart raced faster. I thought about retreating, but stood still. The bear that had been looking straight at me finally grasped the situation, and his expression changed instantly. He quickly turned and ran down the wild, muddy river and disappeared into the fog again.
It's curious. I never see bears when I'm wandering the forest looking for them, yet in a moment like that, when the forest was in disarray after the storm and all parties were distracted, we had tun into each other. It may have had bad eyesight, but bears have good senses of smell and hearing, and it had come up to me all on its own. It had all happened so quickly that I could hardly believe I had just seen a bear except for the fact that I distinctly remember thinking that bears swim as well as tigers do.
Great Soul of Siberia by Sooyong Park.
The uproarious sound of crows cawing came closer. Tracks of several tigers appeared. The cubs had joined the hunter. It was Bloody Mary. We ventured deeper into the forest and saw frenzied crows flying about in the thick fog. When we got closer, a flock of crows scattered and the outline of the prey became clear. it was a doe. The flesh was still fresh and blood had not congealed yet. Only a quarter of it remained. There was another deer about ten meters away. It was a fawn, maybe one or two months old. All that remained of it were its hooves, bones, and head. Its young eyes, still open, were stricken with fear.
I could see in my mind's eye a clear image of Bloody Mary out for a hunt the moment the storm had passed. She would have used the thick post-storm fog and the wet forest ground that muted the sound of movement to her advantage. The Ussuri sika deer mother and daughter had fallen prey to her cunning. A cub had got the fawn as it tried to get away. Of the three cubs, the female with the smaller paws had killed the fawn a short distance away and dragged it over here to eat it.
(12-08-2016, 03:06 PM)brotherbear Wrote: Great Soul of Siberia by Sooyong Park.
We carefully made our way down the Dragon Spine and along the river. Cascading mud had erased the path and made the riverbank very slippery. The river and forest were inundated with a milky mist. I couldn't see so much as a foot in front of me and felt as though I were in a sea of fog. In the fog, I saw something black moving along lazily. It waded across the river and approached me. My heart pounded. The wind stirred the thick fog and unveiled the mystery: it was a towering Asian black bear.
Perhaps it was the fog or its bad eyesite, but it continued heading toward me even though I was standing right in its path. My heart raced faster. I thought about retreating, but stood still. The bear that had been looking straight at me finally grasped the situation, and his expression changed instantly. He quickly turned and ran down the wild, muddy river and disappeared into the fog again.
It's curious. I never see bears when I'm wandering the forest looking for them, yet in a moment like that, when the forest was in disarray after the storm and all parties were distracted, we had tun into each other. It may have had bad eyesight, but bears have good senses of smell and hearing, and it had come up to me all on its own. It had all happened so quickly that I could hardly believe I had just seen a bear except for the fact that I distinctly remember thinking that bears swim as well as tigers do.
I am pretty sure that bears have as good of an eyesight as humans do, though less than cats, so it wouldn't make sense that the bear approached Park because of it. Bears are; however, pretty curious about their surroundings at all times.
I agree polar; their eyesight is pretty much on a level with human eyesight; except that their night vision is better. Perhaps in some way the fog affected the bear's vision.
Great Soul of Siberia by Sooyong Park.
The population of wild tigers in Lazovsky has remained between eight and twelve since the late 1990s. Even though the population growth in this area has stagnated, annual reports say that the total population of Siberian tigers has grown each year. In 2010, the American research team at the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve reported the total population as approximately five hundred. The number of Siberian tigers surviving in the wild in China and North Korea is under fifty. Between thirty and forty live in Manchuria, ten in the Korean Peninsula, and the rest of the five hundred in Ussuri - but some researchers think that number is inflated.
Great Soul of Siberia by Sooyong Park.
There is one thing more threatening to a male cub than humans and other beasts - a male tiger that is not his father. Male tigers have an instinctive drive to spread their seed as far and wide as possible. They try to secure a vast territory and prevent other males from mating with the females in their domain. A tiger who has such a firm hold over his territory is the Great King.
The larger the Great King's territory, the more the young tigers born in the area are pushed to the edges of the nature reserve. Leaving the mountains spells trouble for tigers, as they run into poachers' snares and farmer's traps near the villages. It also doesn't help that they are young, inexperienced, and unable to quickly adapt to new surroundings. For young male tigers, this is the second-most dangerous phase in life after their cub years.
Great Soul of Siberia.
The male leaves the moment he impregnates the female, and she raises the cubs alone. Even though they come from the same womb, male and female cubs have different relationships with their father. A male cub is a relative, but also a potential competitor. Unlike females, males are reluctant to share their territories with sons and brothers. Male cubs, therefore, frequently get into conflicts with their fathers as they grow bigger. Competition exerts a greater influence on their relationship than blood ties do. Because of this, there is a theory that if tiger fathers run into their sons before they are fully grown, they kill them. This story had spread among poachers and hunters in Ussuri, Manchuria, and North Korea.
But Khajain's attitude as he walked along Diplyak Beach stood in stark contrast to the rumors. There were no hints of animosity in the footsteps he had left, only a firm acknowledgment that the cub was his son. The young male tiger was nearly fully grown. The family members were about six months away from going their separate ways. The male cub was so big that its paw was eleven centimeters wide, large enough for the Great King to start feeling threatened. If the rumors were true, Khajain should have killed his son by now, or his son should have fled. But father and son had strolled down the beach together and shared a deer.
Great Soul of Siberia.
Dr. Yudin at the Far East Branch of the Institute of Biology and Soil Science in Vladivostok raises tigers in a confined oak forest measuring 150 square meters. He has a male tiger named Kuchir and a female named Nyurka. They've given birth to many litters together, and they're famous for being the consolation tigers that TV stations film after failing to get footage of tigers in the wild. Dr. Yudin studies tiger family relations with these animals. According to his findings, male tigers are able to stay with their families, like female tigers do. As he explained, "Male tigers also play a very important role in the cubs' education. They hunt for the cubs and watch them eat. If they're eating wrong, the male tiger demonstrates for them. No matter how hungry the male tiger is, it gives up its food for its cubs. The males, in essence, help raise the cub. Researchers were surprised by this finding.
Great Soul of Siberia.
Tigers leave traces of their activities in the forest that teach us a great deal about them. But that is not the same as seeing a tiger. Unless you're very lucky, the tiger always senses your presence and leaves before you have the chance to catch up with it. To see a tiger, you must stay in one spot. Instead of chasing after it, you must wait for it to come to you. The tiger sees you when you're traveling around on expedition research, but you see the tiger when you're hidden in one spot on stakeout research. During expeditions, I become an agent, but during steakouts, I am one with the subject. As an agent, I cannot cover a great area, but I see the details up close.
Steaking out in nature requires endurance and self-restraint. You must take the time to acclimate to the nature around you or you'll feel restless and claustrophobic. Staking out involves being confined to a two-square-meter underground cell in -30 degrees centigrade weather for six months, unable to take a shower, shout, or turn the light on. Willingly taking on the challenge is the first step to becoming one with nature.
Great Soul of Siberia.
Siberian tigers today are extremely cautious. They loathe interaction with humans and avoid all man-made structures and objects. Past records show that they haven't always been this vigilant and circumspect. I wonder how much suffering the mighty tiger has been put through to become this way. Fortunately, despite years of hardship, some tigers survived. The ones that lived had ample experience with human threats and were in turn highly cautious. These tigers passed down their knowledge to their offspring along with the genes that allowed them to survive human attacks.
( in my own words )... as a species, the nature of the grizzly has been changed similarly by similar experiences.
