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Siberian Tiger Introduction Project

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Caspian tiger (up), Bengal tiger (left), Sumatran tiger (right), Siberian tiger (down)

The Siberian Tiger Introduction Project involves reestablishing populations of the Siberian tiger, also known as the Amur tiger, in their former range and also expanding their range by introducing them as replacements of their genetically similar relative, the extinct Caspian tiger, which inhabited Central and Western Asia.[1] Currently, the Siberian tiger inhabits the cold mountains of the Russian Far East and northern China.

History

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Genetic studies have revealed that Siberian and Caspian tigers are descended from the tiger population that colonized Central Asia about 10,000 years ago.[1] After the end of the last ice age, the common ancestor of Siberian and Caspian Tiger migrated through the path which later became the silk route path, to colonise the steppes and Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forest.

Siberian tigers used to be common on either side of the Amur River in Russia and China, as well as in northeastern Mongolia and South Korea. Caspian tigers lived around the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan, and also further away in Armenia, Georgia and Turkey and Kazakhstan all the way to the Altai Mountains in the East. Caspian tigers reportedly became extinct in the 1970s after many years of hunting, poaching and habitat loss. Siberian tigers lost most of their ranges in Siberia and China and became extinct in the wild of Korea and Mongolia.[2]

Siberian Tiger Project

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Two Siberian tigers at Harbin Siberian Tiger Park, Northeast China
A Siberian tiger at Minnesota Zoo

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) began working in the Russian Far East in 1992 to help conserve rare umbrella species like Siberian tigers, Amur leopards and Blakiston's fish owls, whose survival ultimately requires the conservation of the forest ecosystem as a whole. The WCS founded the Siberian Tiger Project in cooperation with the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve at the same time.

The goal of the Siberian Tiger Project is to collect the best possible scientific information on tiger behavior and ecology for use in conservation plans. The project has studied Siberian tigers by radio-tracking more than 60 individuals since 1992.

The Siberian Tiger Project combines traditional Russian and international approaches to conduct field research and is the world's longest running radio-telemetry based tiger research and conservation effort.[3]

Introduction efforts

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A Siberian tiger at the Rehabilitation Center in the village of Alekseevka, Primorsky Krai, Russia

Introduction projects for Siberian tigers have been proposed for the Middle East, Central Asia and North Asia.[4]

Kazakhstan

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Siberian tigers are set to be introduced to areas in Kazakhstan where Caspian tigers once lived.[5][6] A national park tentatively known as Caspian Tiger National Park for introduced tigers might be opened in the near future.[7]

The Amu Darya river delta was suggested as a potential site. A feasibility study was initiated to investigate if the area was suitable and if such an initiative would receive support from relevant decision makers. A viable tiger population of about 100 animals would require at least 5,000 km2 (1,930 sq mi) of large tracts of contiguous habitat with rich prey populations. Such a habitat is not available at this stage and also cannot be provided in the short term. The proposed region is therefore unsuitable for introduction at this stage.[8]

The southeastern shore of Lake Balkhash where the Ili River discharges and forms a large delta was also chosen as a suitable habitat.[6][9] Igor Chestin, director of the Russian branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), hopes to reintroduce tigers into the region within the next few years, though there is a need to enlarge the potential prey base by increasing the existing populations of the already established Russian saiga antelope, the Siberian roe deer subspecies capreolus pygargus tianchanicus, the middle Asian wild boar, and the Turkmen Goitered gazelle already living in that area.[10][11]

On 8 September 2017, the government of Kazakhstan announced the outline of its tiger reintroduction program and signed a memorandum with the WWF for assistance. Tigers will be introduced in the extensive riparian forest along the southeastern shore of Lake Balkhash. On 1 January 2018, the government will designate a new nature reserve in the area to restore the degraded habitat and protect it thereafter. The restoration will include the reintroduction of the locally extinct Bactrian deer into the Ile Balkhash nature reserve, the Przewalski's Horse into the nearby Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative, and the Transcaspian wild ass into both Ile Balkhash and altyn dala. Hopefully also in the future, we'll also be able to reintroduce Wild Bactrian camels, and Mongolian gazelles to Kazakhstan as potential tiger food and for ecosystem restoration. Which will then, hopefully because of the tigers, will increase the number of scavengers such as the Cinereous vulture, Himalayan vulture, Brown-necked raven, Eastern Transcaucasian Red fox and the Corsac fox subspecies Vulpes corsac turkmenicus. It will also help protect Lake Balkhash, and create habitats and spaces for smaller animals to live such as the foxes and the Asian houbara. Conservationist hope to engage local communities in the program to help tackle poaching and other illegal activities. Then the big day in September 2024 when two Siberian tigers "one male and one female" were brought over from a big cat shelter in Netherlands and placed into a semi wild enclosure. So that when they hopefully breed there offspring will be released into the wild once they mature. There goal is to get a healthy population of 50 tigers in the wilds of the Ile Balkhash nature reserve by 2035.[12][13]

Iran

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Siberian tigers might be introduced to areas in northern Iran where Caspian tigers once lived. In 2010, a pair of Siberian tigers sent by Russia to Iran's Tehran Zoological Garden (Eram Zoo) in exchange for a pair of Persian leopards were set to be introduced to the Miankaleh peninsula along the southeasternmost shore of the Caspian Sea within the next five years.[14][15]

In December 2010, one of the Siberian tigers at the Eram Zoo died due to a feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infection.[16] In 2011, Iran requested four more Siberian tigers and invited conservation experts from Russia to support the introduction project for the Caspian Sea coast.[17] Iran received two pairs of Siberian tigers in 2012.[18][19]

Siberia

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A 3-year-old male tiger, which was captured in a prey-depleted area, is released back into the wild

The future introduction of Siberian tigers is planned as part of the ambitious rewilding project at Pleistocene Park in the Kolyma river basin in northern Yakutia, Russia, provided the population of herbivores such as muskox, Yakutian horse, and Reindeer, reach a size capable of supporting large predators.[20][21]

A Siberian tiger cub orphaned by poachers was rescued at Primorsky Krai in February 2012. The cub which turned out to be a female was rehabilitated and eventually released back into the wild in May 2013. In 2015, she gave birth to two cubs at Bastak Nature Reserve, becoming the first rehabilitated Siberian tiger to give birth in the wild.[22]

Korea

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North Korea was urged to join Russia and China in saving the Siberian tiger after the latest census revealed that only 562 individuals live in the wild. According to the director of the Amur branch of the WWF, analysis of satellite imagery of North Korea has shown that the northern part of the country has suitable conditions for releasing Siberian tigers. This is supported by the fact that a tigress with two cubs had once crossed the border between Russia and North Korea.[23]

References

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  1. ^ a b Driscoll, Carlos A.; Yamaguchi, Nobuyuki; Bar-Gal, Gila Kahila; Roca, Alfred L.; Luo, Shujin; MacDonald, David W.; O'Brien, Stephen J. (2009). "Mitochondrial Phylogeography Illuminates the Origin of the Extinct Caspian Tiger and its Relationship to the Amur Tiger". PLOS ONE. 4 (1): e4125. Bibcode:2009PLoSO...4.4125D. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004125. PMC 2624500. PMID 19142238.
  2. ^ Geptner, V. G. (Vladimir Georgievich); Nasimovich, A. A.; Bannikov, Andrei Grigorevich; Hoffmann, Robert S. (1992). Mammals of the Soviet Union. Volume II, Part 2. Smithsonian Libraries. Washington D.C: Smithsonian Institution Libraries and National Science Foundation. pp. 95–202.
  3. ^ "Siberian Tiger Project". russia.wcs.org. Retrieved 2017-09-10.
  4. ^ Driscoll, C. A.; Chestin, I.; Jungius, H.; Pereladova, O.; Darman, Y.; Dinerstein, E.; Seidensticker, J.; Sanderson, J.; Christie, S. (2012-06-26). "A postulate for tiger recovery: the case of the Caspian Tiger". Journal of Threatened Taxa. 4 (6): 2637–2643. doi:10.11609/JoTT.o2993.2637-43. ISSN 0974-7907.
  5. ^ Crabtree, Jim (27 April 2011). "Wild Tigers Welcomed Back to Kazakhstan". Environment News Service (Press release). Retrieved 24 July 2023.
  6. ^ a b "Endangered Tigers Find a Wild New Home". Live Science. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  7. ^ "Revival of extinct Caspian tigers in Kazakhstan". tengrinews.kz. 11 July 2014. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  8. ^ "Pre-Feasibility Study on the Possible Restoration of the Caspian Tiger in the Amu Darya Delta by (PDF Download Available)". ResearchGate. Retrieved 2017-09-10.
  9. ^ "The reintroduction of the Turan tiger can help to develop ecotourism in Kazakhstan". Kazakhstan National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  10. ^ "Inserting Captive-Bred Tigers Into the Wild: Will it Work?". National Geographic. 19 September 2014. Archived from the original on 10 October 2015. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  11. ^ Jungius, Hartmut (2010). "Feasibility Study on the Possible Restoration of the Caspian Tiger in Central Asia". World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  12. ^ "Bringing tigers back home to Kazakhstan 70 years later". World Wildlife Fund. 8 September 2017. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
  13. ^ "Wild tigers to return to Kazakhstan 70 years after going extinct". wwf.panda.org. 8 September 2017. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  14. ^ "Big Cat Swap Raises Questions". Institute for War and Peace Reporting. 19 May 2010. Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  15. ^ Khosravifard, S. (22 May 2010). "Russia, Iran exchange tigers for leopards but some experts express doubts". Payvand News. Archived from the original on 28 June 2011. Retrieved 6 August 2011.
  16. ^ Ltd, Allied Newspapers. "Iran's Siberian tiger dies – reports". Times of Malta. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
  17. ^ "Iran seeks to import four more Siberian tigers from Russia". The Amur Tiger Programme. 18 March 2011. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
  18. ^ "THE AMUR TIGER PROGRAMME". programmes.putin.kremlin.ru. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
  19. ^ Palmer, Ewan (1 March 2012). "Russia Sends Siberian Tigers to Iran to Save Species". International Business Times. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
  20. ^ "Pleistocene Park: Restoration of the Mammoth Steppe Ecosystem". www.pleistocenepark.ru. Retrieved 2017-09-10.
  21. ^ Zimov, Sergey A. (2005-05-06). "Pleistocene Park: Return of the Mammoth's Ecosystem". Science. 308 (5723): 796–798. doi:10.1126/science.1113442. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 15879196.
  22. ^ McLendon, Russell. "'Cinderella' tiger orphan gives birth to wild cubs". MNN - Mother Nature Network. Archived from the original on 9 June 2017. Retrieved 2017-09-10.
  23. ^ "Sex imbalance as endangered Siberian tigers show signs of recovery". The Siberian Times. 16 December 2015. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
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