Outrage as endangered tiger shot dead by hunter who claimed it 'attacked his dog'

A RARE tiger has been shot dead by a hunter who claimed the endangered wild cat had mauled him before killing his dog.

By TOM BATCHELOR

PUBLISHED: 06:00, Fri, Nov 6, 2015 | UPDATED: 07:50, Fri, Nov 6, 2015

REN-TV

There are around 500 Siberian tigers left in the wild

The unnamed man, who told officers he was hunting wild boar at the time, said he was forced to kill the Siberian - or Amur - tiger in self-defence after it bit his legs.

He was rushed to hospital after alerting authorities to the attack using his mobile phone.

Investigators in the far eastern Kharbarovsk region of Russia, close to the border with China, are looking at whether the man is in fact a tiger poacher.

Sergei Aramilev, director of the local branch of the tiger campaign group, told the Siberian Times: "Siberian tigers very seldom attack people without a reason.

"There have been cases when people killed tigers to sell them and made up stories about self-defence.

"The true picture of events will be found out when we match a map of the scene, the hunter's testimony, autopsy results and a follow-up examination."

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Closing roads to save tigers

Date: July 27, 2015

Source: Wildlife Conservation Society

A logging company, working with local authorities and WCS, has agreed to begin dismantling abandoned logging roads currently being used by poachers to access prime Amur (Siberian) tiger habitat in the Russian Far East.

The agreement was made by the Terney County Forest Service, WCS, and the largest logging company in the region, TerneyLes. The roads will be made impassable through a combination of bridge removals, trenches, and bulldozing bottlenecks such as where a road runs between a river and cliff.

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Photos offer first-ever evidence of male tigers as family men - further information

March 10, 2015

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – @ParkstBrett

Male Amur tigers are generally thought to live a solitary existence; however, a new series of photographs released by the Wildlife Conservation Society has revealed a family of wild Amur tigers with an adult male with family.

The photos are from a camera trap slideshow and they reveal the “tiger dad” passing through a Russian forest along with an adult female and three cubs. Researchers note this is the first observation this kind of social behavior. The WCS also released a photo composite of a sequence of images showing the whole family as they wandered past the camera trap over the course of two minutes.

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Tiger dad: Rare family portrait of amur tigers the first-ever to include an adult male

Date:

March 6, 2015

Source:

Wildlife Conservation Society

Summary:

Credit: Image courtesy of Wildlife Conservation Society

Biologists have released a camera trap slideshow of a family of Amur tigers in the wild showing an adult male with family. Shown following the “tiger dad” along the Russian forest is an adult female and three cubs. Scientists note this is a first in terms of photographing this behavior, as adult male tigers are usually solitary. Also included was a photo composite of a series of images showing the entire family as they walked past the a camera trap over a period of two minutes.

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Emergency funding keeps Russia’s rare Amur tigers fed this winter

The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) has made an emergency grant to ensure that rare Amur tigers are kept fed and away from conflict with humans in the Russian Far East this winter. But the money won’t be used to dish out food directly to the tigers but to buy forage for the wild boar that make up fifty per cent of the big cats’ diet.

The worst floods in 50 years and a shortage of acorns and cedar nuts in the Anyuisky National Park, which is home to about 20 rare Amur tigers, has meant that the predators’ favourite food is struggling to survive. 

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Bizarre Behavior in Endangered Tigers Traced to Dog Virus

A rare breed of tigers in Russia has been spotted behaving bizarrely for more than a decade, and now researchers say they may know why.

The majestic, endangered felines have stumbled into villages and roads, emaciated and unafraid of people. Eventually, most of the tigers died, or had to be killed.

Now a new study shows these Amur tigers (also called Siberian tigers) suffered from a fatal neurological infection called canine distemper virus.

The virus, which normally infects domestic dogs, may be responsible for the deaths of at least 1 percent of Amur tigers since 2009, the researchers said. 

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