In the late summer of 1996, a researcher named Dale Miquelle, who is part of the Siberian Tiger Project of the Hornocker Wildlife Institute, came across a slashed radio collar on the side of a road in the Maritime Province of Eastern Siberia. It was an unmistakable sign that the tiger who had worn that collar, a tigress named Lena who had recently given birth to 4 cubs, had been killed by poachers. The cubs were found close-by, crying for their mother. They were rescued by the Tiger Project, but only two survived due to malnutrition. Lena and her cubs are not the first to befall such a fate. Tigers are being attacked on all sides; when poaching is combined with habitat loss, diminishing food supply, polluted land and water, and the fact that there are only 400 Siberian tigers still living in the wild, the survival of these tigers is extremely precarious.
The Siberian tiger, Panthera tigris altaica, is the largest of the surviving subspecies of tigers. Siberian tigers live in the forests and taiga of northern Russia and Siberia. Each tiger eats around 25 pounds of food a day, and large tigers can weigh up to 800 pounds. Scarcity of game over the taiga due to poor soil and harsh climates forces tigers to cover huge amounts of land in search of prey. As the forests are diminished by harvesting and fires, the game become even more scarce for the tigers. Their ranges can be between 175 and 600 square miles, sometimes taking a cat a month to patrol its territory. Siberian tigers once roamed over Russia and parts of China and Korea, but their movements are now severely restricted by loss of habitat and human encroachment.
Even during the 17th century the Russian people began noticing an increasing lack of game. Although Peter the Great issued forest protection decrees, they were not followed strictly and following government leaders ignored the issue. It wasn’t until the mid-19th century that the government enacted a Forest Code and new hunting regulations were adopted. Despite the appearance of promoting conservation, these laws had defects and did not prevent the steady decline of natural resources.
Under Communist rule, forests gained protection by being defined as property of the state. Almost immediately after Lenin’s government took power, all forests, minerals, and waters were decreed state property, and could only be used as the state saw fit. This restricted forest use to government use only. However, many grants were issued to civilians who asked for permits to fell trees. In 1918 the Russian journal Lesa respibliki (Forests of the Republic) protested: “The forests are being reduced...by order of the...authorities. Whosoever desired and is able can take his share from the commons.” Even if forests were still being diminished, Communist rule was actually a benefit to tigers.
Under Soviet rule, guns, travel, and commerce were severely restricted, making it difficult for poachers to smuggle tigers across the border and acquire the weapons needed to hunt them. In a sense, the forests were a sort of national park, if only in the sense that it was owned and operated by the government and not private land owners.
The fall of the Soviet Union and the end of Communism in Russia introduced some new problems for the Siberian tiger and its environment. Government control over the forests was severely weakened, and trade lines between countries became easier to slip through. Trees were also easier to steal: as many as 9 million hectares of trees were illegally felled in Russia each year. The Russian government had more pressing problems than the environment after the fall of the Soviet Union, such as the economy and keeping the nation from falling apart without the support of the Soviet Union, which held their attention and allowed forests to be left relatively unguarded.
A great part of Asia’s environment, including parts of the Siberian tiger’s territory, is polluted. The fallout from Chernobyl, radiation from military plutonium production plants, polluting nuclear power plants, and old nuclear sites pollute many large land areas with radiation and radioactive wastes. As much as 75% of the rivers and lakes in Russia are unfit to drink, and almost 16% of all Russian territory has been designated as ecological disaster areas. A polluted environment poses just one more threat against the tiger.
In the past few years, Russian public opinion has been becoming more concerned with environmental issues, especially concerning environmental health hazards. The public’s interest fuels new legislation on environmental issues. But Professor Alexey Yablokov, President Yeltsin’s special advisor on environmental matters, says better environmental legislation will not necessarily help since the laws are not observed. Although new laws and restrictions may be passed, Yablov says that Russia’s environmentalists and public health officials have an “endless battle” with the President and government, who one month enact measures promoting a greener, healthier Russia, and the next yield to the pressures of the industrial lobby to reverse or ignore them. Other industrialized countries, including the U.S., are further impeding environmental health improvements by exporting their nuclear and chemical wastes to Russia to be dumped. Dumping toxins in Russia is cheaper than paying to have them properly recycled and taken care of, and Russia also appreciates the income.
The economic situation in Asia has also made poaching very enticing. Tiger pelts, as well as organs and bones, are worth thousands of dollars. Some tiger parts are in great demand for traditional medicines in the Chinas and Koreas, with some willing to pay as much as $10,000 for the body of a single tiger. Products containing tiger parts are found in almost half of all Japanese medicinal shops, many being marketed as aphrodesiacs, even though these products have not been medically proven to work. A successfully smuggled tiger can bring a profit equal to 100 years’ salary for a forest ranger, implying that the tigers’ own protectors may in fact be their enemies.
A current threat to tigers and their habitat is forest fire. Fires burning in their northern territory are destroying habitat and prey. Tigers prey mainly on elk, deer, and wild boar. Elk and deer can flee from the fires and move to safer territory, but the boars are being devastated. As their prey moves out of their territory, the tigers are forced to follow them. Unfortunately, the area these animals move to are nearer to people. Tigers are unafraid of humans, and so do not try to hide or run from people. The human response to seeing a 600 pound tiger strolling along a road is not normally very beneficial to the tiger, however, and tigers and humans do not seem to get along well in close proximity.
There are many people, however, who have not lost hope for the Siberian tiger. Since the beginning of the environmental movement in the United States in the late 1960’s, the public has become much more involved in environmental issues, including saving the Siberian tiger. Several organizations, including the World Wildlife Fund and the National Fish and Wildlife Federation, have started programs aimed at helping save the tiger from extinction. The Hornocker Wildlife Institute, working in conjunction with Russian scientists, is currently active tagging and tracking tigers, as they did with Lena, mentioned in the opening paragraph. Private donations fund many of the projects, showing that there are a great number of ordinary people who care about the survival of the tiger.
The US government has also responded to increased public interest in endangered tigers and other species. On October 30 of this year the Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act of 1998 was signed by President Clinton. Its provisions include making the sale, importation, and exportation of any product meant for human consumption containing rhino or tiger parts illegal, thus making it easier to stop products containing illegally poached animal parts from entering the country and hopefully making poaching as a whole less profitable. This new legislation supports other legislation already enacted by the U.S. government, including the Endangered Species Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, to help protect endangered species.
The new Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act also provides that the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service can continue awarding grants to conservation projects in countries which house tigers and rhinos. These grants are matched by partners in those countries to help provide the financial support needed to build the capacity to conserve species and their habitats.
Science is also taking action to help save Siberian tigers. There are currently about 800 tigers living in captivity. There is a captive breeding program involving several zoos around the world to try to increase those numbers while maintaining a genetic diversity among newborn tigers. Introduction back into the wild is the ultimate goal, although increasing public awareness and learning more about the tiger itself are also important to the success of this project. Cubs which are abandoned in the wild, either by natural causes or by the poaching of their mothers, are often brought to zoos or other sites and used to increase genetic diversity in born-in-captivity tigers.
In 1990, a breakthrough in tiger breeding was made in Omaha’s Henry Doorly zoo - the world’s first test-tube tigers. Using in vitro fertilization might be the key to saving the Siberian tiger - by taking lab-produced embryos and implanting them in the wild. This could increase numbers enough to give the tigers some space to recover on their own, provided human and environmental factors don’t cause those numbers to drop again.
There is hope for the Siberian Tiger. Although there are only around 400 left in the wild, this is double their numbers of a few decades ago. Public interest is increasing surrounding these powerful, graceful animals, and governments are listening to the people, creating new legislation to protect tigers and their environment. Technology is always increasing and science is finding new ways to increase tiger numbers and keep them healthy. Several organizations are acting in Russia and around the world to protect tigers, and public education about products made from tigers is increasing awareness and helping ro reduce the profitability of poaching.
The conflict between humans and tigers, and in fact all animals, has always been present. Human interests compete with environmental interests on every front, and in most cases human interests win out. But this is only natural, since our most primal instinct is that of survival. Tigers, too, have this instinct, but since we control most of the factors affecting tigers, we also control the means to their survival. In the past, humans have failed to see or have ignored the consequences of letting a species die out, but present thinking leans towards seeing all life as interconnected and important to the survival of the planet as a whole. Not only are species receiving more attention, but also the health of the environment in its entirety is being seen as an important factor to our, and as a result, other organisms’, survival. The more we learn about life and the environment, the more we find that what’s good for the earth is good for us, and therefore the more we help the Siberian tiger, the more we will help ourselves.
Sources:Peter Mattheissen, “Tiger in the Snow”, the New Yorker, 59 (Jan. 6, 1997)
Will Englund, “Siberian Tigers Nearing Extinction as Russia Cuts Preservation Efforts”, The Dallas Morning News November 15, 1998 p.33
“Tiger Team” National Geographic July 1993
Douglas R. Weiner, Models of Nature: Ecology, Conservation, and Cultural Revolution in Soviet Russia (Indiana University Press, 1988)
Vera Rich, “What Hope for a Healthy Environment in Russia?” The Lancet April 29, 1995
Alexey V. Yablokov, “Russia’s Environmental Legacy” Environmental Science and Technology April 1993 p. 6
Maurice Hornocker, “Siberian Tigers”, National Geographic February 1997
Patricia Fisher, “United States Taeks Innovative Action to Save Imperiled Rhinos and Tigers” US FWS November 10, 1998
“Tiger, tiger, burning bright...” People Weekly May 28, 1990
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