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

[peter]

KOREAN TIGERS

Barclay thought Korean tigers and those living in Manchuria and south-east Russia were one and the same. Korean tigers, however, were somewhat smaller and more reddish in ground colour. 

Man-eating tigers were uncommon in Russia, but it's also true tigers hunted humans when the railroad to Chabarowsk and later Vladivostok was constructed. The problem was of such that work had to be discontinued more than once. Hunters were encouraged to visit the region. One American happened to be close. I'll post his story about a tiger family (male, female and large cubs) with a bad reputation.

In Manchuria, tigers always were considered dangerous. One of the reasons was the locals tied criminals to trees. Alive, if possible. The Jankowski's shot quite a number of man-eaters before World War Two, but some (one of these a big male white tiger) eluded them.

In Korea, tigers had a very bad reputation a century ago. The reason could have been habitat destruction and depletion of prey animals, driving the animals to farms, cattle and, later, humans. Barclay noted people in Manchuria, Russia and Korea feared tigers as much as in India, if not more.

In this post, a few impressions of a century ago.


1 - A painting of Kishi Ganku, probably made during the Japanese occupation (1900-1945).

*This image is copyright of its original author

2 - A painting I saw in an article of R. Neff (2007)

*This image is copyright of its original author

3 - Close to Yablonia Station (Baikov, November 1912):

*This image is copyright of its original author

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