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Post by fantasticstruggle788 on Nov 2, 2024 7:16:28 GMT -5
This thread will include informations about the amur tiger from various sources for the period 1930-1980.
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Post by fantasticstruggle788 on Nov 2, 2024 7:48:33 GMT -5
A Contribution to the Biology of the Amur Tiger Panthera tigris longipilis Fitzinger, 1868. Abramov V.K. (1962) [Acta Societatis Zoologicae Bohemoslovenicae, Volume 26, N° 2.] pp. 189-202Received 27. VI. 1961 The population of the Amur tiger, Panthera tigris longipilis Fitzinger, 1868, has decreased significantly throughout its range in recent decades. In 1956/57, 58 individuals were recorded in Primorye and Khabarovsk Krai, including 15 males and 15 females, while the sex of the remaining 28 individuals could not be determined (Abramov, 1960). As a result, hunting for tigers is currently prohibited everywhere. In North Korea and China, hunting for the Manchurian tiger (Panthera tigris coreensis Brass, 1904) has also been banned. The regulation of the tiger population in the Soviet Far East is currently conducted only by capturing young tigers live. From 1956 to 1961, there was no tiger capture in Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krais. Currently, captures are conducted in very limited numbers under licenses issued for specific litters. The protective measures taken for the tiger have begun to show results. According to our records (Abramov et Abramov, manuscript 1960), there were 55 tigers recorded in Primorsky Krai in 1959. Of these, 12 were males, 3 were barren females, 13 had litters, 23 were young, and the sex and age of 4 individuals could not be determined. Additionally, it is estimated that there are about 10 tigers in areas we did not survey in Primorsky Krai. In Khabarovsk Krai, according to the Khabarovsk hunting inspection, there were 35 tigers counted in 1959. Thus, the total number of tigers in the Soviet part of the Far East in 1959 was estimated to be 90-100 individuals. For the correct and rational use of tiger resources, it is necessary to understand its biology. In this work, the author uses accumulated literary data and personal observations to highlight the most important features of the biology of the Amur tiger. The most common habitat for the Amur tiger consists of Manchurian-type forests dominated by cedar and oak, located in river valleys and low mountain ranges (Figures 1 and 2). The tiger ventures high into the mountains during migrations, crossing ridges up to 1600 meters above sea level, but it still prefers to travel through gentler terrain with lower passes (Kaplanov, 1948). Depending on the time of year and dietary preferences, the tiger readily moves through both cedar-broadleaf forests and spruce forests, where it is attracted by the abundance of ungulates. In dense spruce forests, the tiger is only seen passing through and does not stay long. This is explained by the almost complete lack of prey for the tiger in these dense spruce forests. Bromley (1959) shows that where broadleaf forests were destroyed, tigers were gradually displaced into dark-coniferous taiga. However, we disagree with these statements. The tiger was pushed into spruce forests due to excessive hunting pressure from humans in the 1930s of this century. Currently, when the tiger is not being hunted, it can be found everywhere except in spruce forests, where it only passes through. The tiger consistently occupies the same hunting area for several years. The size of the hunting area is not constant and can decrease or increase depending on the time of year and food availability. Individual territories of separate individuals can not only overlap but also partially coincide with each other. The largest territories are characteristic of solitary tigers. According to Kaplanov (1948), a barren tigress in the winter of 1939-1940 occupied an area of at least 60 x 70 km. An adult male, according to the same author, occupied an area of at least 80 x 40 km in the winter of 1941. A tigress with cubs has a slightly smaller hunting area. The size of the litter's area depends on the age of the cubs: the younger the cubs, the smaller the area. According to Kaplanov (1948), a litter found by him on January 9, 1941, on the right bank of the Kema River, consisting of a tigress and 3 cubs a few months old, lived in an area no larger than 3 x 5 km from December 24, 1940, to January 15, 1941. A tigress with larger cubs roams much more widely. Thus, in 1957, a litter consisting of a tigress and 2 two-year-old cubs settled at the head of the Maihe River. Until spring 1958, the litter lived in a fairly limited area. Starting in spring 1958, the litter expanded its territory and frequently appeared in the Suputin Nature Reserve. As the cubs grew, the territory continued to expand, and by autumn 1959, it occupied an area of at least 50 x 60 km. The tiger constantly moves throughout its territory. These movements occur more or less periodically, and the tiger usually retraces its steps after a few days. In winters with heavy snowfall, the tiger's area of activity shrinks, and it creates entire trails, constantly moving along them. Sometimes, the tiger leaves its area and makes long journeys. Such a tiger usually travels through its territory without lingering anywhere for long, often covering distances of 50-100 km in a day. FA Silin, one of the old-timers of the region, pursued a large male tiger in 1924. The pursuit lasted 22 days, during which the tiger traveled from the Tetyukhe River to the Taukhe River, covering a total of about 1000 km. This tiger then crossed into the Suchan River, and from there into the Daubikhe River, where its trail was picked up by the tiger hunters, the Kozin brothers, who tracked it for 15 days until it reached the Iman River. The tiger often makes long migrations, moving great distances from its usual habitats. For instance, a tiger taken near the settlement of Ust-Maya (Ognev, 1935) traveled approximately 1000 km from its permanent habitat. Sometimes, mass migrations of tigers are observed. These movements usually coincide with a decrease in the number of wild boars or their migrations, with tigers typically moving in pursuit of the boars. From 1886, two consecutive winters saw the migration of tigers from the Sungari region to the Sikhote-Alin (Arseniev, 1949). In the late 90s of the last century,tigers crossed the ice of the Amlokhan River into Korea from Manchuria (Won Hong Gu, personal communication).
Fig. 1.
Fig. 2. Fig. 3. An adult brown bear killed by a Amur Tigress in April , 1951. Tatibe river in the Primorsk Area , 17 km above the city of Sibichi. Photo by G. F. Bromley. Fig . 4. A young male of the amur tiger (tiger cub) killed by a brown bear in " Shukhi - Pokto Reserve " in 1956 ( Khabarovsk - Region.)Fig . 5. Trail of the left fore paw of a young tigress in the Suputinsk - Re- serve in the Primorsk-Area.
In 1913, a transition of tigers was observed from Manchuria to the Sikhote-Alin (Kaplanov, 1948). Sometimes, while making these transitions, a tiger appears in completely unusual places for it, crossing vast open spaces.
The estrus, pregnancy, and birth of the Amur tiger are not tied to any specific time of year. There are known cases of newborn tiger cubs being found at various times of the year: in December 1932, a one-month-old tiger cub was captured in the Beizukhe River area. In January 1933, four dead cubs were found on the Iman River. In May 1933, a tigress was caught near Sanchikheza, in which five fully developed embryos were found in her uterus. In the winter of 1937-38, three cubs aged 3-4 months were captured in the upper tributaries of the Iman (Salmin, 1941). Sludsky (1953) cites Bromley’s data about the finding of small tiger cubs on January 9, April 13, August 22, October 19, December 7, and December 13. In March 1957, geologists took four tiger cubs aged 1.5-2 months from a tigress in the former Sudzukhinsky Reserve. The estrus of the Ussuri tigers in the Moscow Zoo lasted from 3 to 13 days (Sludsky, manuscript). The female typically mates with one male during estrus, but where tigers are abundant, several males may follow one tigress, leading to fierce fights among competitors. This has also been noted by Przhevalsky (1870) and Baikov (1925). The pregnancy of Ussuri tigresses (according to zoo data) lasts from 95 to 107 days (Salmin, 1941; Sludsky, 1953). After estrus, tigers separate, with the female usually remaining close to the future den. According to Kaplanov (1948), a tigress does not have a permanent den. After giving birth to cubs in a secluded place, the mother leaves them there until they are weaned. The den is typically established in an area abundant with ungulates so that she does not have to wander far in search of food. The den is not distinguishable from other similar places nearby; it is usually located in a natural depression among rocks, under uprooted trees, or directly on the ground, sometimes lined with dry leaves or grass. The male does not participate in the upbringing of the young. During the period of raising her young, the female avoids males. This may be explained by the fact that males, when near the litters, eat the prey brought by the female for the cubs. According to Baikov (1925), a male may sometimes even eat the young. The coloration of juvenile fur in cubs is as striped as that of adults, but the background is significantly lighter, and the stripes are light brown. At the age of 2 months, tiger cubs begin to eat meat, but continue to feed on their mother’s milk until 5-6 months. From 2 months of age, the tigress begins to lead the young out of the den. She goes hunting and, after catching prey, brings it back to the cubs, then sets out to hunt again, either bringing the cubs to new prey or delivering it to them. Until 6 months of age, she does not leave them alone for long, but as they grow older, the mother sometimes leaves them for several days; with two-year-olds, she may leave for 10-14 days. Tiger cubs grow and develop quite quickly. By the age of two, they weigh 70-80 kg. At three years, the cubs already participate in hunts with the adult female. Individual males at this age can weigh around 150 kg. They begin to lead an independent life by the age of four.
In the literature, there is mention (Sludsky, manuscript) that sometimes a female may be accompanied by two of her litters. We observed such a case in the Suputin Reserve: a litter from a tigress and two three-year-old cubs were separated in the winter of 1958. The female wandered alone for a long time, and one of the cubs left the reserve for an extended period. In the spring of 1959, the cubs returned to the female, and the tracks of the litter were repeatedly noted in the reserve until the fall of 1959, when the litter was finally separated (Fig. 5). Because the tigress leads her young for a long time, she gives birth to a new litter every three years. However, there was a case in the Moscow Zoo where a tigress had two litters in one year and became pregnant for the third time (Salmin, 1941), but this female did not nurse the cubs herself. Litters usually consist of 2-3 cubs, rarely 1 or 4, and even less often 5 cubs. Berriff (1932) provides data on an Indian tigress (Panthera tigris tigris Linné, 1758) that was killed with 6 embryos, and editors also cite a case where 7 embryos were found in a female. For the Soviet part of the Far East, only one case is known where a dead tigress with 5 embryos was found (Salmin, 1941).
However, the occurrence of litters with 5 cubs is unknown to us. A single cub in a litter is also a rather rare phenomenon. And although such litters are observed almost annually, in most cases, this is explained by entirely different reasons. Of the 4 litters with one cub known to us, 2 initially consisted of 2 cubs each. In one of them, living in the upper reaches of the Sebuchara River, one cub was wounded by a ginseng collector in 1957. After this incident, the cub was not seen again. In another litter (Suputin Reserve), one of the cubs was killed on October 23, 1959, on the left tributary of the Maihe River, B. Lutan. According to observations in captivity, tigers retain their reproductive capacity until 20 years, and they can live up to 40-50 years (Baikov, 1925; Ognev, 1951; Sludsky, 1953). However, in the wild, tigers likely live shorter lives.TABLE 1 Number of the young in Tiger families in the Primorsk-Area TABLE 2 Number of young tigers captured in the Primorsk-Area 
TABLE 3 Food components of the tiger in the Sikhote-Alin Reserve  TABLE 4 Food components of the tiger in the Primorsk - Area (1957-1959) 1) Cervus elaphus zanthopygus 2) Sus scrofa ussuricus 3) Ursus arctos mandchuricus 4) Cervus nippon hortulorum 5) Capreolus capreolus bedfordi 6) Moschus moschiferus parvipes 7) Meles meles amurensis 8) Alces alces cameloides
Tigers hunt bears in two ways. One of them, where a tiger hunts a bear from its den, is well described by Kaplanov (1948). We are also aware of several similar cases. The second method of a tiger hunting a bear involves stalking the bear by following its tracks, with the target being small to medium-sized bears. Tigers prefer not to touch large brown bears. The presence of bear remains killed by tigers during various seasons of the year suggests that tigers can successfully hunt bears at any time of year. Kaplanov (1948) shares the same opinion.
In the southern regions of the area, we have noted the tiger feeding on badgers (Meles meles amurensis Schrenck, 1859), where they are most numerous. Badgers and musk deer often become prey for young tigers that have recently started living independently. In Table No. 4, we present data on the tiger’s diet in the Primorsky Krai region from 1957 to 1959. This period is characterized by a low population and poor condition of wild boars throughout the region. Comparing our Table No. 4 with Table No. 3 by Shamaykin, we see that in years with low populations and poor condition of wild boars, the percentage of red deer in the tiger's diet increases. Literature mentions that tigers catch turtles when the animals surface for air (Baikov, 1925). The presence of the parasite Paragonimus westermanni Kerbert, 1878 in tigers, with freshwater crabs and crayfish as additional hosts, indicates that tigers consume the latter.
Sometimes, tigers eat small amounts of cedar nuts, berries, and in summer, grass. During forced periods of starvation, tiger cubs, according to Kaplanov (1948), gnaw on decayed wood. In 1936, a young frozen tiger weighing 110 kg was found by the tiger hunter Trofimov. It likely perished from starvation, as its stomach was filled with lichen. In the absence of hunters, the tiger would come to the camp and eat leftover oats. In favorable years, the tiger can store a large amount of subcutaneous fat. The thickness of the fat layer reaches 4-5 cm, and the total fat weight can reach 20% of the tiger's body weight. Due to the large amount of fat, the tiger easily endures prolonged starvation and severe cold.
An adult large tiger has no enemies. Only occasionally do young tigers become prey for large brown bears. Small and medium-sized bears are terrified of a tiger and, upon encountering it or its fresh tracks, quickly try to flee, which has been repeatedly observed by us and Kaplanov (1948). The tiger prefers not to attack very large brown bears, as it cannot bite their necks. Among the Udege hunters, there is a belief that if a bear crushes tiger cubs, the tigress will chase and crush the bear, and vice versa... Large brown bears often follow the tracks of young tigers and tiger litters, driving them away, and sometimes even crushing them. In 1959, a bear chased a small (young) tiger for 1.5 months, driving it away from its prey. This bear was killed from an ambush set on the fresh tiger tracks. In winter 1956, in the territory of the "Shukhi-Pokto" reserve, a large wandering bear attacked a three-year-old tiger cub left by its mother near a wild boar and crushed it (Fig. 4). The tigress, returning to the place where she left the cub, took the bear's trail and followed it (Krivopuskov, 1957). The brown bear can also act as a food competitor to the tiger, attacking wild boars, moose, and elk. Bears sometimes, like tigers, ambush moose and elk at salt licks. Recently, there have been increasing cases of brown bears attacking wild boars, capturing them both by chasing and by stealth.
Wolves (Canis lupus, subsp.) and tigers are antagonistic and generally do not coexist in the same territory. According to hunters, tigers actively pursue wolves. However, neither Kaplanov (1948) nor we have observed cases of tigers hunting wolves. However, wolves vacate areas settled by tigers. In 1956-1957, wolves were common in the territory of the Suputin Reserve. But in the winter of 1958-1959, when tiger litters began to regularly appear in the reserve, wolves disappeared as permanent inhabitants and only occasionally passed through in the absence of tigers. In some respects, leopards (Panthera pardus orientalis Schlegel, 1857) and lynxes (Lynx lynx isabellina Blyth, 1847?) can be considered competitors of the tiger. However, the former are even rarer than tigers, and the lynx primarily preys on musk deer, hares, and sometimes the young of ungulates, which are not the main sources of the tiger's diet. As mentioned earlier, the primary diet of the tiger consists of wild ungulates. Domestic animals are not typically hunted by tigers, and are caught only accidentally and relatively rarely. Among all domestic animals, tigers most often and willingly pursue dogs. This is likely due to the existing antagonism between wolves and tigers, which the latter also transfers onto dogs. A tiger will never pass by an unsuspecting dog. There are many documented cases where a tiger pursued dogs without paying any attention to humans, snatching them from hunting camps and villages. Similar information is provided by Allen (1938) for the Chinese tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis Hilzheimer, 1905): 'Of domestic animals, dogs are a favorite food...'
As for the tiger attacking other domestic animals... "TABLE 5 Domestic animals attacked by the tiger in the Primorsk-Area Appendix: • A tiger entered the territory of the deer farm and killed several deer. The workers of the deer farm organized a hunt, and the tiger was driven out through a specially dismantled fence. • At the Gamov deer farm, a tiger systematically attacked the deer by entering through a faulty fence. This tiger was killed in November 1959. *) Animals that the tiger attacked but failed to kill. These incidents are much rarer. Tiger attacks on domestic animals occur for the following reasons: When the number of wild hoofed animals sharply decreases, a tiger may attack livestock in the vicinity of taiga villages. These attacks only occur if the livestock is left unattended. An old or injured tiger, unable to hunt wild animals, may also attack domestic animals. Such a tiger can cause significant damage. However, in recent times, no such cases have been observed in the Primorsky Krai. These incidents were rare even in pre-revolutionary times when there were significantly more tigers in the region .TABLE 6 Death causes of tigers in the Primorsk-Area The Tiger’s Prey and Traps Set with Triggered Guns With this method of hunting, a tiger often encounters a trap and receives a non-lethal wound, which cripples it, making it unable to hunt its usual prey. In the first case, when natural food is scarce, the tiger is dangerous only to domestic animals. However, in the second case, it poses a real threat to humans. In Table No. 5, we present all known cases of tiger attacks on domestic animals from 1956 to 1959.
As for tiger attacks on humans, the following should be noted: attacks can be intentional, where the tiger, without provocation from the human, attacks first, or accidental/forced, where the tiger is provoked by the human. These two types of attacks should never be confused and need to be clearly distinguished. Intentional attacks on humans may be carried out by an old or crippled tiger. Given the current small population of tigers, the likelihood of such attacks is practically nonexistent. Cases of man-eating tigers occurred for the reasons described above. However, it should be noted that even in those times, man-eating among tigers was not as common as in India, and a tiger caught man-eating or attacking domestic animals was usually quickly killed by the local population.
Most often, a wounded tiger attacks humans during its pursuit. We know of three cases of hunters killed by wounded tigers and several cases where people were injured. It is very rare for a tigress to attack a hunter while defending her cubs. Among the tiger hunters in Primorsky Krai, who have captured dozens of tiger cubs, there is only one known case where a tigress, previously scared off by gunshots, returned to defend her litter, and the hunters were forced to kill her.
There is an opinion that a tiger may attack a person when approached near its prey. However, this has not been confirmed by practical experience of tiger hunters or our personal observations. The well-known tiger hunters, the Trofimov brothers, say that when a person approaches, a tiger always leaves its "meat." Sometimes, when pursuing dogs, a tiger may accidentally attack a person if the person panics and does not behave cautiously. These are all the cases where a tiger might attack a human. Analysis of these incidents shows that the tiger is unfairly regarded as a ferocious and bloodthirsty predator.
The diseases of tigers in the wild are almost unstudied. In zoos, cases of tigers contracting glanders, pasteurellosis, paratyphoid, and canine distemper have been recorded (Sludsky, manuscript). The Amur tiger, studied by P.G. Oshmarin, was found to have four types of helminths: Paragonimus westermanni Kerbert, 1878, Physaloptera praeputiale Linstow, 1889, Dirofilaria ursi Yamaguti, 1941, and Uiteinarta sp.
In years with heavy snowfall, tigers suffer greatly from lack of food, leading to severe emaciation and even death of some individuals. In unfavorable years, the weakest animals, the old and the young who have just begun independent life, die first. Table No. 6 lists all known cases of found dead tigers.SUMMARY At present , the Amur Tiger , Panthera tigris longipilis Fitzinger , 1868 , occurs in the Soviet Far East very rarely . According to Abramov ( 1960 ) in the Primorsk - Area and in the Khaba- rovsk - Region there were living in 1956/57 about 58 specimens . Owing to a strict protection , in 1959 in the Primorsk - Area the number of tigers increased to 55 specimens , in the Khabarovsk- Region to 35 specimens . Consequently , in 1959 in all the Soviet Far East were living 90 speci- mens of various age and sex ( cf. Abramov, manuscript , 1960 ) . Amur Tigress is at heat and gives birth to cubs at different times of year . The cub - bearing takes from 95 to 107 days . There are 1-5 cubs in a litter , usually 2-3 . The Amur Tiger becomes sexually mature at the age of 4 years . The tiger's diet consists mainly of wild boars ( Sus scrofa ussuricus Heude , 1888 ) and elks ( Cervus elaphus xanthopygus Milne - Edwards , 1867 ) , occasionally of mooses ( Alces alces came- loides Milne - Edwards , 1867 ), roe deers ( Capreolus capreolus bedfordi Thomas , 1908 ) , musk deers ( Moschus moschiferus parvipes Hollister , 1911 ) , brown bears ( Ursus arctos mandchuricus Heude , 1898 ) and Manchurian black bears ( Selenarctos thibetanus ussuricus Heude , 1901 ) . The Amur Tiger inhabits Manchurian type forests , and though rarely , he has been reported in a belt of coniferous Okhotsk flora by the time of his wanderings . During many years he always keeps to his hunting grounds . The size of hunting grounds is not always the same . It varies with the time of year , abundance or scarcity of food , and the age and sex of tiger himself . A male tiger occupies the largest grounds, a tigress with small cubs- the smallest . We observed a hunting territory of a tigress and two young tigers about 2 years old , which covered cca 50 × 60 km .
Every year a few tigers wander from one place to another inside their area . In some years quite a number of tigers take to wandering about . Solitary tigers sometimes cross boundaries of the area and wander far away . A grown - up tiger has no enemies . The young ones die sometimes of the fangs of wild boars , and in some cases encounters with brown bear end tragically for them , too . However , every brown bear runs away from an adult Amur Tiger , as well as when he runs across the tiger's trail . The tiger's food rivals are the brown bear ( Ursus arctos mandchuricus Heude , 1898 ) , the leopard ( Panthera pardus orientalis Schlegel, 1857 ) , the lynx ( Lynx lynx isabellina Blyth , 1847 ? / ) and the wolf ( Canis lupus subsp . ) .
Tigers ' helminthological fauna and diseases in their natural environment have hardly been studied . The tiger attacks domestic animals only in years when wild hoofed animals are scarce , and then only , if the former have been left in taiga with nobody to look after them . The Amur Tiger does not attack men . During all the years since the Revolution not a single case of a man - eater has been reported.
ORIGINAL TEXT FROM GOOGLE BOOKS :
Дальневосточный филиал Сибирского отделения АН СССР
К биологии амурского тигра Panthera tigris longipilis Fitzinger, 1868
A Contribution to the Biology of the Amur Tiger Panthera tigris longipilis Fitzinger , 1868
В. К. АБРАМОВ *
Дошло 27. VI . 1961 Численность амурского тигра , Panthera tigris longipilis Fitzinger, 1868 па всем его ареале за последние десятилетия значительно уменьшилась. В 1956/57 гг. было во всем Приморье и в Хабаровском крае учтено 58 зверей__ в том числе 15 ♂️♂️ и 15 ♀️♀️ , пол остальных 28 зверей выяснить не удалось ( Абрамов , 1960 ) . В связи с этим повсеместно охота на тигра в настоящее время запрещена . В Северной Корее и в Китае охота на маньчжурского тигра ( Panthera tigris coreensis Brass , 1904 ) тоже была запре- щена . Регуляция численности тигра на Советском Дальнем Востоке производится только отловом живыми молодых тигров .
С 1956 г. по 1961 г. в Хабаровском и Приморском краях отлов тигров не произво- дился . В настоящее время отлов ведется в весьма ограниченном количестве по ли- цензиям , выдаваемым на определенные выводки . Принятые меры по охране тигра не замедлили сказаться . По данным нашего учета ( Абрамов et Абрамов , руко- пись 1960 ) в Приморском крае на 1959 г. было учтено 55 тигров . Самцов из них 12 , самок холостых 3, самок с выводками 13 , молодых 23 , особей пол и возраст которых не установлен 4. Кроме того на необследованной нами территории При- морского края ориентировочно предполагается наличие 10 особей тигра . В Хабаров- ском крае , по данным Хабаровской охотинспекции , на 1959 г. насчитывалось 35 тигров . Таким образом , по Советской части Дальнего Востока общее количество тигров на 1959 г. составляло 90-100 зверей . Для правильного и рационального использования запасов тигра необходимо знание его биологии . В настоящей работе автор, используя накопившиеся литературные данные и личные наблюдения , попытался осветить наиболее важные черты биологии амурского тигра . * Наиболее обычным местом обитания амурского тигра являют- ся леса Маньчжурского типа с преобладанием кедра и дуба , расположен- ные по долинам рек и небольшим горным кряжам ( рис . 1 и 2 ). Высоко в горы тигр заходит во время переходов , переваливая хребты высотой до 1600 м над уровнем моря , но предпочитает все же проходить по более пологим местам с низкими перевалами ( Капланов , 1948 ) . В зависимости от времени года и специфики питания тигр охотно ходит как по кедрово - широколиственным насаждениям , так и по ельникам и молодым гарям, куда его привлекает обилие копытных . В сплошных еловых массивах тигр появляется только проходом и надолго там не за- держивается . Это объясняется почти полным отсутствием кормов для тигра в сплошных еловых насаждениях . Бромлей ( 1959 ) показывает , что там , где были уничтожены широколиственные леса , был тигр посте- пенно вытеснен в темнохвойную тайгу . Но мы с этими утверждениями не согласны . Тигр в еловые массивы был вытеснен чрезмерным преследова- нием со стороны человека в 30 гг . текущего столетия . В настоящее время , когда тигр не преследуется , он держится всюду за исключением ельников , где бывает только проходом . Тигр постоянно , в течение нескольких лет , занимает один и тот же охотничий участок . Величина охотничьего участка не постоянна и может уменьшаться или увеличиваться в зависимости от времени года и состояния кормов . Индивидуальные участки отдельных особей могут не только со- прикаться , но и в какой - то мере налегать друг на друга . Найбольшими размерами отличаются участки одиночных тигров . По данным Капланова ( 1948 ) холостая тигрица в зиму 1939-1940 гг . жила на участке размером не менее 60 х 70 км . Взрослый самец , по дан- ным того же автора , зимой 1941 г. занимал участок не менее 80 × 40км . Тигрица с тигрятами имеет несколько меньший охотничий участок . Величина участка выводка зависит от возраста тигрят : чем моложе тигрята , тем меньше участок . По данным Капланова ( 1948 ) выводок , най- денный им 9 января 1941 г. на правом берегу Кемы и состоящий из тигрицы и 3 тигрят в возрасте нескольких месяцев , с 24 декабря 1940 г. и по 15 ян- варя 1941 г. жил на площади , не превышающей 3 х 5 км . Тигрица с более крупными тигрятами ходит гораздо шире . Так в 1957 г. в вершине реки Майхэ обосновался выводок , состоящий из тигрицы и 2 ти- грят по второму году . До весны 1958 г. выводок жил на довольно ограни- ченной территории . Начиная с весны 1958 г. , выводок расширил свой участок и стал нередко появляться на территории Супутинского заповед- ника . В дальнейшем , по мере роста тигрят , участок продолжал расширять- ся и к осени 1959 г. занимал площадь не менее 50 × 60 км . Тигр все время кочует по своему участку . Переходы эти совершаются более или менее периодически , и тигр обычно через несколько дней снова проходит своим прежним путем . В многоснежные зимы участок деятель- ности тигра сокращается , и он натаптывает целые тропы , постоянно пере- двигаясь по ним . Иногда тигр покидает свой район и совершает большие переходы . Такой тигр обычно идет проходом , нигде не оставливаясь на- долго, нередко за день покрывая пространства в 50-100 км . Ф. А. Си- лин , один из старожилов края , в 1924 г. преследовал крупного тигра- самца . Преследование продолжалось 22 дня , и за это время тигр прошел от реки Тетюхе до реки Таухе в общей сложности около 1000 км . Затем этот тигр перевалил в р . Сучан , а оттуда в р . Даубихэ , где его след взяли тигроловы братья Козины и , пройдя за зверем 15 дней , проводили его до р . Иман. Тигр часто совершает далекие переходы , уходя на большие расстояния от обычных мест своего обитания . Так тигр , добытый у пос . Усть - Мая ( Огнев , 1935 ) , ушел примерно на 1000 км от постоянных мест обитания . Иногда наблюдаются массовые перекочевки тигра .
Такие перемещения обычно совпадают с уменьшением численности кабанов или с их перехо- дами , причем тигр обычно движется вслед за кабанами . С 1886 г. две зимы подряд наблюдалось переселение тигров из Сунгарийского края в Сихотэ- Алинь ( Арсеньев , 1949 ) . В конце 90 - х годов прошлого столетия тигры по льду р . Амлокань перешли в Корею из Маньчжурии (Вон Хон Гу , личное сообщение.)
Рис . 3. Медведь бурный зарезанный тигрицей в апреле 1951 г. на берегу р . Татибе 17 км выше г. Сибичи. Фото Г. Ф. Еромлей.
Fig. 3. An adult brown bear killed by a Amur Tigress in April , 1951. Tatibe river near Sibichi town in the Primorsk Area .
Рис . 4. Остатки тигренка задавленного медведем в заказнике » Шухи - Покто » . Фото , Кривопуск .
Fig . 4. A young male of amur tiger the killed by a brown bear in " Shukhi - Pokto Reserve " in 1956 ( Khabarovsk - Region.)
Fig . 5. Trail of the left fore paw of a young tigress in the Suputinsk - Re- serve in the Primorsk Area
В 1913 г. из Маньчжурии в Сихотэ-Алинь наблюдался переход тигров (Капланов, 1948). Иногда тигр , совершая свои переходы , появляется в совершенно нео- бычных для него местах , пересекая обширные открытые пространства .
* * *
Течка , беременность и роды у амурского тигра не при- урочены к какому - либо определенному времени года . Известны случаи нахождения новорожденных тигрят в различное время года : в декабре 1932 г. в районе р. Бейцухе был пойман месячный тигренок . В январе 1933 г. на Имане нашли 4 мертвых тигрят . В мае 1933 г. в окрестностях Санчихезы была добыта тигрица у которой в матке обнару жены 5 вполне развитых эмбрионов . Зимой 1937-38 гг. в верхних притоках Имана пой- мани 3 тигренка в возрасте 3-4 месяцев ( Салмин , 1941 ) . Слуд- ский ( 1953 ) приводит данные Бромлея о нахождении маленьких тигрят 9 января , 13 апреля , 22 августа , 19 октября , 7 и 13 декабря . В марте 1957 г. в бывшем Судзухинском заповеднике геологи забрали у тигрицы 4 тигрят в возрасте 1,5-2 месяцев . У Уссурийских тигриц в Московском зоопарке течка длилась от 3 до 13 дней ( Слудский , рукопись ) . Самка во время течки ходит с одним самцом , но там , где тигров много , за одной тигрицей ходит несколько самцов и тогда между соперниками возникают ожесточенные драки . Об этом тоже уже пишут Пржеваль- ский ( 1870 ) и Байков ( 1925 ). Беременность у Уссурийских тигриц ( по данным зоопарков ) длится от 95 до 107 дней ( Салмин , 1941 ; Слудский , 1953 ) . После течки тигры расходятся , причем самка обычно держится вблизи будущего логова . По мнению Капланова ( 1948 ) , тигрица постоян- ного логова не имеет . Произведя на свет тигрят в каком - нибудь укромном месте , мать оставляет их здесь до тех пор , пока они питаются молоком . Логово обычно устраивается в месте изобилующем копытными , чтобы в поисках пищи не приходилось слишком удаляться от него. Гнездо ничем не отличается от других таких же мест по соседству ; обыкновенно оно устраивается в естественном углублении в камнях , под выворотнями деревьвев или прямо на земле, иногда выстилается сухими листьями или травой . Самец никакого участия в воспитании молодняка не принимает . Самка в период выращивания молодых всячески избегает самцов . Это может быть объяснено тем , что самцы , находясь вблизи выводкам поедают добычу , принесенную самкой для тигрят . А по мнению Байкова ( 1925 ) , самец может иногда даже съесть молодых . Окраска ювенального меха у тигрят такая же полосатая , как и у взрос- лых , но основной фон значительно светлее , а полосы светло - бурые . В воз- расте 2 месяцев тигрята начинают есть мясо , но молоком матери продол- жают питаться до 5-6 месяцев . С 2 месячного возраста тигрица начинает уже выводить молодых из логова . Она отправляется за добычей и , поймав ее , приводит туда тигрят , а сама снова отправляется на охоту и или при- водит тигрят к новой добыче , или подносит ее им . Тигрят до 6 месячного возраста она одних надолго не оставляет , но когда они подрастут , мать случается покидает их на несколько дней ; от двухгодовалых она уходит на 10-14 дней . Тигрята растут и развиваются довольно быстро . К двум годам они достигают веса в 70-80 кг . В возрасте 3 лет тигрята уже участвуют в охоте со взрослой самкой . Отдельные самцы в этом возрасте уже весят по 150 кг . Самостоятельную жизнь тигрята начинают вести на 4 году жизни .
В литературе есть указание ( Слуд- ский , рукопись ), что иногда с самкой ходит два ее выводка . Нами в Супутине - ком заповеднике наблюдался такой слу- чай : выводок из тигрцы и 2 трехгодова- лых тигрят зимой 1958 г. распался . Сам- ка долгое время ходила одна , а один из тигрят на продолжительное время ушел из заповедника. Весной 1959 г. тигрята опять стали ходить с самкой , и следы выводка неоднократно отмечались на тер- ритории заповедника вплоть до осени 1959 г., когда выводок распался уже окончательно ( рис . 5 ) . Благодаря тому , что тигрица долгое время водит молодих , помет она прино- сит через 3 года на 4. Правда , в Москов- ском зоопарке был случай , когда тигрица за год дала 2 помета и забеременела в 3 - й раз (Салмин , 1941 ) , но самка эта тигрят сама не кормила . В помете обычно бывает 2-3, редко 1 или 4 и еще реже 5 тигрят . Berriff ( 1932 ) приводит данные , когда была убита индийская тигрица ( Panthera tigris tigris Linné , 1758 ) с 6 зародышами , в при- ложении эдиторы приводят случай , когда было найдено у самки 7 зародышей . Для советской части Дальнеко Востока извес- тен только один случай , когда была най- дена мертвая тигрица с 5 эмбрионами ( Салмин , 1941 ).
Нахождение же выводков с 5 тигрятами нам не известно . Один тигренок в помете также довольно редкое явление . И хотя такие выводки наблюдаются почти ежегодно , но в большинстве случаев объясняется это совсем другими причинами . Из 4 выводков с одним ти- гренком , известных нам , 2 первоначально состояли из 2 тигрят в каждом . В одном из них , обитающей в верховье р . Себучара , один тигренок был в 1957 г. ранен сборщиком жень - шеня . После этого случая тигренок боль- ше не встречался . В другом выводке ( Супутинский заповедник ) один из тигрят был убит 23 октября 1959 г. на левом притоке р . Майхэ Б. Лутанге . По наблюдениям в неволе способность к размножению у тигров сохра- няется до 20 лет , а живут они до 40-50 лет ( Байков , 1925 , Ог- нев , 1951 , Слудский , 1953 ) . Но в природе тигр , возможно , живет меньше.
Terms:
3-й год : third year
1) Tayxe = ?
2) Санхобэ=Sankhobe
3)Катэн Хорский и Бикинский = Katen Khorsky and Bikinsky
4)Б. Синанча = B. Sinancha
5) Хунтун , Лючихеза , Колумбэ = Huntun , Lyuchikhesa , ?
6)Ханихеза и Кабарга= Khanikheza and kabarga.
7)Верховья р . Себучар= Verhovye r . Sebuchar
8)Сучан , Маладзе = Suchan , Maladze
9)Шитухе , Сяобейца = Shituhe , Xiaobeica
10)Супутинский заповедник = Suputinsky reserve
11)Тудагоу = Tudagou
12)Кема , Белембэ , Такунжа = Kema , Belembe , Takunja
13)Ванчин=vanchin
 Количество тигрят в помете= Number of tiger cubs in the litter Количество отловлен-ных тигрят= Number of captured tiger cubs Год отлова = Year of capture Место отлова= Place of capture Кто сообщил = who reported Трофимов= trofimov Черепанов= tcherepanov Иващенко= Ivashchenko Госохотинспек-ция= State Hunting Inspection Судзухинский заповедник= Sudzukhinsky Reserve Нотто= The noto river Ко= Ко (river or mountain) Б. Синанча= bolshaya sinancha Ханихеза=khanikheza Тудо - Ваку = Tudo-vaku Иман= Iman Нейцухэ= Naitsukhe Татибэ= Tatibe Катэн= katen 1 . 3 3 1936 Иман Трофимов 2 . 3 3 1947 Нейцухэ Трофимов 3 . 3 3 1949 Татибэ Трофимов  Таблица No 3 Степень поедаемости отдельных видов животных в Сихотэ - Алиньском заповеднике 
Sus scrofa ussuricus Heude , 1888 Cervus elaphus xanthopygus Milne - Edwards , 1867 Alces alces cameloides Milne - Edwards , 1867 Ursus arctos mandchuricus Heude , 1898 Moschus moschiferus parvipes Hollister , 1911 Capreolus capreolus bedfordi Thomas , 1908 Lynx lynx ( isabellina Blyth , 1847 ? ) Tetrastes bonasia amurensis Riley , 1916 иногда молодой тигр не может сразу перекусить толстую шею у большого секача и исход схватки тогда не всегда бывает в пользу тигра . Тигр следует за стадом кабанов и держится от них неподалеку. Поймав одного кабана , тигр относит его в сторону и , наевшись , лежит несколько дней , совершенно не давая следа в сторону . Мелких зверей тигр съедает целиком вместе с копытами . У крупных зверей тигр никогда не ест копыт , рогов , челюстей с зубами ( Байков , 1925 ). Съев добычу полностью или оставив часть , тигр отправляется по своему охотничьему участку . На изюбрей и лосей тигр часто охотится, подкарауливая их во время многоснежных зим на тропах , а так же скрадывая по следам . Летом тигр предпочитает охотиться за изюбрем и лосем . Ярким приме- ром сезонной смены кормов , а как следствие этого и перемены места обитания в зависимости от времени года являются сезонные перекочевки тигра , живущего в вершине р . Бикина , ниже с . Улунга . Летом следы этого тигра ( Урбановский , личное сообщение ) отмечали по р . Валенку ( правый приток Иманской Арму ) , куда его привлекали изюбри и лоси , в изобилии водившиеся на многочисленных здесь солонцах . Поздней осенью , по первому снегу , в течение нескольких лет , отмечали переходы этого зверя в бассейне р . Байчелазы ( правый приток Бикина ) , где держа- лось много кабана .TABLE 4
Таблица No 4 Степень поедаемости отдельных видов животных на территории Приморского края ( 1957-1959 гг . ) Table 4 Food components of the tiger in the Primorsk - Area (1957-1959) Cervus elaphus zanthopygus Sus scrofa ussuricus Ursus arctos mandchuricus Cervus nippon hortulorum Capreolus capreolus bedfordi Moschus moschi- ferus parvipes Meles meles amurensis Alces alces cameloides 
В южных районах края нами отмечен в поедях тигра барсук , Meles meles amurensis Schrenck , 1859 , где он наиболее многочислен . Барсук и кабарга чаще всего становятся добычей молодых тигров, недавно начав- ших самостоятельную жизнь . В таблице No 4 мы приводим данные о питании тигра на территории Приморского края в сезоне с 1957 г. по 1959 год включительно . Этот период характеризуется малой численностью и плохой упитанностью кабанов на территории всего края . Сравнивая нашу таблицу No 4 с табли- цей Шамыкина No 3 , мы видим , что в годы с малой численностью и плохой упитанностью кабанов , процент изюбря в питании тигра увели- чивается . В литературе мы находим указание , что тигр занимается ловлей черепах, когда животные всплывают на поверхность для дыхания ( Байков , 1925 ) . Нахождение у тигра гельминтов Paragonimus westermanni Kerbert , 1878 дополнительным хозяином которых являются пресноводные крабы и раки указывает на то , что тигр поедает последних .
Иногда тигр в небольшом количестве ест кедровые орехи , ягоды , а летом траву . В период вынужденных голодовок тигрята по данным Капла- нова ( 1948 ) грызут гнилушки. В 1936 г. тигроловом Трофимовым был найден молодой замерзший тигр весом в 110 кг . Пропал он , вероятно , от голода . Желудок его был заполнен лишайником . В отсуствие охотников тигр приходил на табор и ел оставленный овес . В благоприятные годы тигр способен откладывать большое количество подкожного жира . Толщина жирового слоя доходит до 4-5 см , а общий вес жира достигает 20 % от веса тигра . Благодаря большому количеству жира , тигр легко переносит довольно длительные голодовки и сильные морозы .
Взрослый крупный тигр врагов не имеет . Лишь только иногда мо- лодые тигры становятся добычей крупных бурых медведей. Медведь мелких и средных размеров панически боится тигра и при встрече с ним или его свежими следами старается поскорее убраться восвояси , что неодно- кратно наблюдалось нами и Каплано Каплановым ( 1948 ) . На очень круп- ных бурых медведей тигр предпочитает не нападать , так как не может за- кусить у него шею . Среди удехейских охотников распространено мнение , что если медведь задавит тигрят , то тигрица догоняет и давит медведя и наоборот ... Крупные бурые медведи шатуны часто ходят следами молодых тигров и тигриных выводков , отгоняя молодых , а иногда и давят их . В 1959 г. медведь в течение 1,5 месяцев преследовал небольшого тигра , отгоняя его от добычи . Этот медведь был убит из засады, сделанной на свежем тигро- вом следу . Зимой в 1956 г. на территории заказника » Шухи - Покто » круп- ный медведь шатун напал на трехгодовалого тигренка, оставленного матерью возле кабана , и задавил его ( рис . 4 ) . Тигрица , вернувшись к месту , где оставляла тигренка , взяла след медведя и ушла за ним ( Криво- пуск , 1957 ) . Бурый медведь может также выступать и как кормовой конкурент тигра , нападая на кабана , изюбря и лося . Изюбря и лося мед- ведь иногда , подобно тигру подкарауливает на солонцах , устраивая там засаду . За последнее время участились случаи нападения бурого медведя на кабанов . Причем берет он их как гоном , так и скрадыванием .
Волк ( Canis lupus , subsp . ) и тигр антагонисты и на одной территории , как правило , не уживаются . По словам охотников , тигр усиленно пресле- дует волков . Но ни Капланову ( 1948 ) , ни нам случаев охоты тигра за волками наблюдать не приходилось . Однако волки уходят из тех мест , где поселяется тигр . В 1956-1957 гг . волки были обычны на территории Супутинского заповедника . Но в зиму 1958/1959 гг . , когда тигриный выводок стал регулярно появляться на территории заповедника, волки исчезли из заповедника , как постоянные обитатели , и лишь изредка в отсутствие тигров появлялись там проходом . Кормовым конкурентом тигра в какой то мере можно считать леопарда ( Panthera pardus orientalis Schlegel , 1857 ) и рысь ( Lynx lynx isabellina Blyth , 1847 ? / ) . Но первый еще более малочисленен чем тигр , а рысь пи- тается в основном кабаргой , зайцем и иногда детенышами копытных , т . е . теми видами , которые не являются главными в питании тигра . Основу питания тигра , как уже говорилось выше , состовляют дикие копытные животные . Домашние животные не являются объектом охоты тигра , добываются им случайно и справнительно редко . Из всех домашних животных тигр наиболее часто и охотно преследует собак . Это , вероятно , объясняется существующим антагонизмом между волком и тигром , который и переносится последним на собак . Тигр ни- когда не пройдет мимо зазевавшейся собаки . Известен целый ряд случаев , когда тигр преследовал собак , не обращая никакого внимания на человека , похищал собак с охотничьих таборов и из деревень . Подобные сведения Allen ( 1938 ) приводит для китайского тигра ( Panthera tigris amoyensis Hilzheimer , 1905 ) : <<Of domestic animals , dogs are are a favorite food...>>
Что же касается нападения тигра на других домашних животных , Terms: Грищенко=Hryshchenko Кавеза=Kaveza Самаркин=Samarkin Соколов=Sokolov Куклин=Kuklin Охотсоюз=Hunting Union Охрана заповед-ника=Protection of the Nature Reserve Беляков=Belyakov Иващенко=Ivashchenko Госохотинспекция=State Hunting Inspection Terms: пос . Молчановка=Molchanovka settlement Бухта Валентин=Valentin Bay р . Туньша=Tunsha River пос . Лазо=Lazo settlement кл . Березовый Тернейского р - на=Berezovy Forest Area in the Terney District  Приложение : 1. Тигр проник на территорию оленесовхоза и задавил несколько оле- ней . Работниками оленесовхоза была устроена облава и тигр был выгнан через специально разобранную загородку . 2. В оленесовхозе « Гамов » тигр систематически нападал на оленей , проникая туда через неисправную изгородь . Тигр этот был убит в ноябре 1959 г.* ) Животные на которых тигром были сделаны нападения , но убить которых ему не удалось . они происходят гораздо реже . Нападения тигра на домашних животных случаются по следующим причинам : Когда резко сокращается численность диких копытных зверей, тигр может нападать на скот в окрестностях таежных деревень . Причем , напа- дения эти совершаются только в том случае , если скот находится без присмотра . На домашних животных может также нападать старый или покалечен- ный тигр , не способный добывать диких животных . Такой тигр может при- ностить значительный вред . Правда , за последнее время такие случаи в Приморском крае не на- блюдались . Они имели место , да и то весьма редко в дореволюционное время , когда тигра было несравненно больше и в крае
1)Тигрица погибла при схватке с каба- Аянка ном . 2 - е оставшихся тигрят пали от голода. 2)Ккупный бурый медведь задавил тигра 3)Найдено на следу 2 мертвых тигренка 4)2 тигренка весом по 6 кг найдены за- мерзшими . Мать была убита 5)Найдено 4 мертвых тигренка весом от 4 до 6,2 кг . 6) Тигр весом в 120 кг был убит кабаном 7) Найден молодой замерзший тигр ве-сом в 110 кг. Погиб от голода 8) Найден взрослый мертвый самец 9) Найден взрослый замерзший тигр. 10) 1960 Сихотэ- Алиньский заповедник Найден . 11) Молодой тигр погиб в схватке с мед- ведем 12) 1956 Тигренок весом в 100 кг . был задавлен медведем Also : Location верх. Иман = Upper Reach of the Iman р . Б. Синанча= Bolshaya Sinancha river р . Татибэ= Tatibe River р . Ямаган= Yamagan River р . Бикин= Bikin River Средний Иман = Sredniy Iman Северные склоны Станового хребта = northern slopes of the Stanovoy Range Заказник « Шухи - Покто » = Shukhi-Pokto Nature Reserve Сихотэ- Алиньский заповедник Найден= Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve Reported by Аянка= Ayanka Кялендзига= Kyalendziga Капланов ( 1948 )= Kaplanov Салмин ( 1941 )= Salmins Улянов= ulyanov Трофимов= Trofimov Чугунков= chugunkov Кривопуск (1957)= Krivopusk Самаркин= Samarkin соб добычи тигра на настороженные ружья самострелы . При таком спо- собе охоты тигр часто , нарвавшись на самострел , получал несмертельную рану и становился калекой , не способным добывать обычную пищу . И если в первом случае , при недостатке естественных кормов , тигр опасен только для домашних животных , TO BO втором случае OH представляет реальную опасность и для человека . В таблице No 5 мы приводим все из- вестные нам случаи нападения тигра на домашних животных за период с 1956 по 1959 г. включительно . В отношении нападения тигра на людей надо сказать сле- дующее : нападениа тигра на людей могут быть преднамеренные , когда тигр без всякого повода со стороны человека , первым нападает на него, и случайные или вынужденные , когда тигр вызван на нападение самим человеком . Это нельзя ни в коем случае смешивать , здесь нужно четкое разграничение . Преднамеренные нападения на человека может совершать старый или покалеченный тигр . При современной небольшой численности тигра веро- ятность таких нападений практически отсутствует. Случаи людоедства со стороны тигра становились по причине описанной выше . Следует однако заметить , что и в те времена людоедство среди тигров не было таким частым , как в Индии , а тигр , замеченный в людоедстве или в нападениях на домашних животных , обычно быстро уничтожался населением . Чаше всего нападение на людей совершает раненый тигр , при его пре- следовании . Нам известно три случая гибели охотников от раненых тигров и несколько случаев , когда люди были покалечены . Бывает очень редко , когда тигрица , защищая своих детей , нападает на охотника . Среди При- морских тигроловов , отловивших не один десяток тигрят , известен всего один случай , когда тигрица , ранее отогнанная выстрелами , вернулась на защиту своего выводка , и тигроловы были вынуждены ее убить . Сущест- вует мнение , что тигр может напасть на человека при приближении к его добыче . Однако , практикой тигроловов и нашими личными наблюдениями этот факт не потвердился . Известные тигроловы братья Трофимовы говорят , что тигр при подходе человека всегда уходит от « мяса » . Иногда тигр , преследуя собак , может совершенно случайно , сам не желая этого , напасть на человека , если человек растеряется и будет вести себя не достаточно предусмотрительно . Вот и все те случаи , когда тигр может напасть на человека . Анализ их говорит о том , что тигр незаслуженно пользуется славой свирепого и кровожадного хищника . В естественных условиях болезни тигра почти не изучены . В 300- парках известны случаи заболевания тигров сапом , пастерелезом , парати- фом , чумой плотоядных ( Слудский , рукопись ) . У амурского тигра , исследованного П. Г. . Ошмариным , было найдено 4 вида гельминтов : Paragonismus westermanni Kerbert , 1878 , Physaloptera praeputiale Linstow , 1889 , Dirofilaria ursi Yamaguti , 1941 и Uiteinarta sp .
В многоснежные годы тигр сильно страдает от бескормицы , в резуль- тате наблюдается сильное истощение зверей и даже бывают случаи гибели отдельных особей . В неблагоприятные годы в первую очередь гибнут , как наиболее слабые , старые и молодые , недавно начавшие самостоятель- ную жизнь , особи . В таблице No 6 сведены все известные нам случаи нахо- док павших тигров . РЕЗЮМЕ Течка и роды у амурского тигра , Panthera tigris longipilis Fitzinger , 1868 не приурочены к какому - либо определенному времени . Продолжительность беременности от 95 до 107 дней . Количество детенышей в помете от 1 до 5 , чаще бывает 2-3 . Половозрелости достигает на 4 году жизни . Основу питания тигра составляет кабан и изюбрь .
Амурской тигр житель лесов маньчжурского типа . В поясе темно- хвойной охотской флоры появляется только проходом . Тигр постоянно , в течение нескольких лет , занимает один и тот же охотничий участок . Величина участка не постоянна и зависит от сезона года , состояния кормов , а также от возраста и пола самого зверя . Най- больший участок занимает тигр самец , наименьший тигрица с малень- кими тигрятами . Ежегодно наблюдаются переходы одиночных тигров внутри ареала , в отдельные годы такие переходы принимают массо массовый характер . Отдельные тигры иногда выходят далеко за пределы своего ареала . Взрослый тигр врагов не имеет . Молодые иногда гибнут от клыков кабанов и от бурых медведей . К кормовым конкурентам тигра относятся : бурый медведь , леопард , рысь и волк .
Гельминтофауна и болезни тогра в естественных условиях почти не изучены . Нападения на домашних животных тигр совершает в годы бедные ди- кими копытными , при условии , если домашние животные находятся в тайге без присмотра . Для человека в настоящее время тигр не опасен . За годы Советской власти не зарегистрировано ни одного случая людо- едства со стороны тигра .
SUMMARY At present , the Amur Tiger , Panthera tigris longipilis Fitzinger , 1868 , occurs in the Soviet Far East very rarely . According to Abramov ( 1960 ) in the Primorsk - Area and in the Khaba- rovsk - Region there were living in 1956/57 about 58 specimens . Owing to a strict protection , in 1959 in the Primorsk - Area the number of tigers increased to 55 specimens , in the Khabarovsk- Region to 35 specimens . Consequently , in 1959 in all the Soviet Far East were living 90 speci- mens of various age and sex ( cf. Abramov, manuscript , 1960 ) . Amur Tigress is at heat and gives birth to cubs at different times of year . The cub - bearing takes from 95 to 107 days . There are 1-5 cubs in a litter , usually 2-3 . The Amur Tiger becomes sexually mature at the age of 4 years . The tiger's diet consists mainly of wild boars ( Sus scrofa ussuricus Heude , 1888 ) and elks ( Cervus elaphus xanthopygus Milne - Edwards , 1867 ) , occasionally of mooses ( Alces alces came- loides Milne - Edwards , 1867 ), roe deers ( Capreolus capreolus bedfordi Thomas , 1908 ) , musk deers ( Moschus moschiferus parvipes Hollister , 1911 ) , brown bears ( Ursus arctos mandchuricus Heude , 1898 ) and Manchurian black bears ( Selenarctos thibetanus ussuricus Heude , 1901 ) . The Amur Tiger inhabits Manchurian type forests , and though rarely , he has been reported in a belt of coniferous Okhotsk flora by the time of his wanderings . During many years he always keeps to his hunting grounds . The size of hunting grounds is not always the same . It varies with the time of year , abundance or scarcity of food , and the age and sex of tiger himself . A male tiger occupies the largest grounds, a tigress with small cubs- the smallest . We observed a hunting territory of a tigress and two young tigers about 2 years old , which covered cca 50 × 60 km . Every year a few tigers wander from one place to another inside their area . In some years quite a number of tigers take to wandering about . Solitary tigers sometimes cross boundaries of the area and wander far away . A grown - up tiger has no enemies . The young ones die sometimes of the fangs of wild boars , and in some cases encounters with brown bear end tragically for them , too . However , every brown bear runs away from an adult Amur Tiger , as well as when he runs across the tiger's trail . The tiger's food rivals are the brown bear ( Ursus arctos mandchuricus Heude , 1898 ) , the leopard ( Panthera pardus orientalis Schlegel, 1857 ) , the lynx ( Lynx lynx isabellina Blyth , 1847 ? / ) and the wolf ( Canis lupus subsp . ) . Tigers' helminthological fauna and diseases in their natural environment have hardly been studied. The tiger attacks domestic animals only in years when wild hoofed animals are scarce, and then only, if the former have been left in taiga with nobody to look after them. The Amur Tiger does not attack men . During all the years since the Revolution not a single case of a man - eater has been reported.
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Post by fantasticstruggle788 on Nov 2, 2024 9:43:57 GMT -5
On the Methodology of Tiger Counting .Abramov K.G. (1961) [Questions of Organization and Methods for Accounting Fauna Resources of Terrestrial Vertebrates: Theses of Reports. Moscow: Moscow Society of Naturalists.] pp. 53-54 (Ussuriysk, Far Eastern Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences) 1. Currently, throughout the Far Eastern range of the tiger — in the USSR, DPRK, and PRC — hunting it is prohibited. The capture of young tigers alive is regulated by special rules, and shooting is only allowed in exceptionally rare cases when they harm livestock. Since the capture of young tigers needs to be planned, regular population counts of this animal must be carried out, and the quality of the population and its distribution across the territory should be monitored.
2. The mating season and birth of tiger cubs do not occur on specific calendar dates. Females go into estrus when the previous litter matures and starts to disperse. However, the ecological conditions characteristic of a given area, mainly the availability of food, lead to the mating times of a significant portion of females in the population roughly coinciding. As our observations in Primorsky Krai in 1958–1959 show, most litters are approximately the same age. Since tigresses care for their young for three years, we consider it advisable to conduct tiger counts not annually, but every two years. In the meantime, regular monitoring of the tigers' lives is necessary.
3. Tiger counts can be conducted:
a) visually, by observing its activity at ungulate salt licks, where tigers stay in the summer;
b) by tracking and measuring footprints on routes, determining the gender and age of the animal;
c) by using questionnaires, which should cover a permanent correspondent network.
4. Counters must learn in advance to determine the gender of a tiger by its footprints. A male’s footprint is broader and rounder compared to that of a tigress. The tigress's footprint is narrower, more oval, and her toes are thinner. A male's stride is significantly larger, reaching 80 and even 100 cm. To determine the age of the tiger, it is necessary to focus on the width of the heel pad, as it is the most stable, and the size of the print does not depend on the substrate's density.
5. By the width of the heel pad and other signs in the footprint, four age and gender groups of tigers can be distinguished:
a) Adult males, which cannot be captured alive. Their heel pad width is 10-15 cm, with a body weight of 200-350 kg.
b) Adult tigresses, also uncapturable. Heel pad width is 9–12 cm, with a body weight of 150-250 kg.
c) Young tigers up to three years old, capturable. Heel pad width is 6–8 and sometimes 9 cm, with a body weight of 70-120 kg, in rare cases up to 150 kg.
d) Cubs, easiest to capture. Heel pad width is 3–5 cm, with a body weight of 30-60 kg.
6. The depth of the footprint can also indicate the tiger's condition. A well-fed animal leaves a clear, deep print, while a thin animal’s footprint is shallow and flat, with wrinkled skin noticeable on the heel pad.
7. A permanent network of observers is needed to conduct regular monitoring of tigers and their prey base. This network could consist of:
a) gamekeepers and reserve rangers;
b) specialist tiger catchers;
c) some members of the forest protection service;
d) the most active and experienced hunters. At the same time, correspondents should also monitor the population status of wild ungulates, the animals' health and fatness, and the condition of the herd (such as the presence of epizootics, especially in wild boars), the timing and direction of boar and bear migrations. It is important to note the depth and duration of snow cover, and the occurrence of spring snowfalls.
8. When planning the next count, the time should be specified in advance, and instructions and questionnaires with the following content should be sent to correspondents:
a) Address and name of the counter.
b) In which area, along which river or stream, were the works conducted.
c) On which stream and on what date was the presence of a tiger noted, along with its gender and age (heel pad width).ORIGINAL TEXT FROM GOOGLE BOOKS : К методике учета тигра К. Г. Абрамов ( Уссурийск . Дальневосточный филиал АН СССР ) 1. В настоящее время по всему дальневосточному ареалу тигра - в СССР , КНДР и КНР — добыча его запрещена . Отлов молодых тигров живьем регулируется особыми прави- лами , а отстрел разрешается лишь в тех исключительно ред ких случаях , когда они наносят вред домашним животным . В связи с тем , что отлов молодых тигров должен планиро- ваться , необходимо систематически проводить количественные учеты этого зверя , проверять качественное состояние его по- пуляции распределение по территории .
2. Время гона и рождение молодняка у тигра не приходят- ся на какие - либо определенные календарные сроки . Течка у самок наступает тогда , когда предыдущий выводок взматерел и начинает распадаться . Однако характерные для данного участка ареала экологические условия , B основном наличие корма , приводят к тому , что время размножения у значитель- ного количества самок в популяции примерно совпадает . Как показывают наши наблюдения в Приморском крае в 1958— 1959 гг . , большинство выводков бывает приблизительно одно- возрастным. Ввиду того что тигрицы водят молодых три года , мы считаем целесообразным производить количественные уче- ты тигра не ежегодно , а через два года на третий . В проме- жутке же между ними необходимо вести регулярные наблю Дения за жизнью тигров .
3. Количественный учет тигра может производиться :
а ) ви- зуально путем наблюдения над его деятельностью на со- лонцах копытных , где тигр постоянно держится в летний пе- риод
б ) методом учета следов на маршрутах с их обмерива- нием , определением пола и возраста зверя ;
в ) анкетным опро- сом, который должен охватывать постоянную корреспондент- скую сеть .
4. Учетчики должны заблаговременно научиться определе- нию пола тигра по отпечаткам лап . Отпечаток следа самца отличается от следа тигрицы большей шириной и округло- стью. След тигрицы ўже , овальнее , а пальцы тоньше . Шаг сам- ца значительно крупнее и достигает 80 и даже 100 см . Для определения возраста зверя нужно руководствоваться шири- ной отпечатка пятки , так как она наиболее стабильна и вели- чина отпечатка не зависит от плотности субстрата .
5. По ширине отпечатка пятки и другим признакам следа можно выделить четыре возрастных и половых группы тигров :
1 ) Взрослые самцы , не поддающиеся отлову живьем . Ширина их пятки 10-15см , живой вес 200-350 кг .
2 ) Взрослые тигри- цы , не поддающиеся отлову . Ширина пятки 9—12 см , живой вес 150-250 кг .
3 ) Молодые тигры в возрасте до трех лет, поддающиеся отлову . Ширина пятки 6—8 и даже 9 см , живой вес 70-120 кг , в редких случаях до 150 кг .
4 ) Тигрята , легче всего поддающиеся отлову . Ширина пятки 3—5 см , живой вес 30-60 кг .
6. По рельефности отпечатка следа можно судить и о сте- пени упитанности тигра . У хорошо откормившегося зверя след печатается четко и рельефно , у тощего зверя отпечаток следа плоский , не глубокий , на пятке заметна морщинистость кожи .
7. Необходимо создание постоянной сети наблюдателей , в задачи которой входит ведение регулярных наблюдений за тиграми и состоянием их кормовой базы . Она может быть со- ставлена из :
а ) егерей и наблюдателей охраны заповедников ,
б ) специалистов - тигроловов ,
в ) некоторых лиц из числа лес- ной охраны ,
г ) наиболее активных и опытных охотников .
Одновременно с наблюдениями за жизнью тигров коррес- понденты должны отмечать состояние численности диких ко- пытных , упитанность зверей и санитарное состояние стада ( на- личие эпизоотий , особенно у кабанов ) , время и направления миграций кабана, медведя . Важно отмечать глубину снеж- ного покрова и его продолжительность , наличие ( обильных ) весенних снегопадов .
8. При проведении очередного учета следует заранее ука- зать его срок , разослать корреспондентам инструкции и анке- ты следующего содержания :
а ) Адрес и фамилия учетчика .
б ) В каком районе , по какой реке , ключу производились ра- боты.
в ) На каком ключе и какого числа отмечено присут- ствие тигра , его пол и возраст ( ширина пятки ) .
Source: www.google.dz/books/edition/%D0%A1%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%89%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5_%D0%BF%D0%BE_%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BC/RzsbAAAAIAAJ?hl=fr
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Post by fantasticstruggle788 on Nov 2, 2024 10:03:23 GMT -5
The Manchurian Tiger .Loukashin A.S. (1938) [The China Journal. 28 (3).] pp.127–133"THE FACT that the present year is the Year of the Tiger according to the Twelve Year Animal Cycle of Chinese chronology makes the following paper , read before the Natural History and Geography Club of the Young Men's Christian Association in Harbin on December 15 , 1936 , of unusual interest . The tiger in the minds of most Occidentals is associated with the jungles of tropical countries , and it may come as a surprise to some of our readers to learn that this great feline is an inhabitant of Manchuria and neighbouring Siberia , where in winter arctic conditions prevail . Not only is this the case , but the fossil remains of tigers have been found on islands off Northern Siberia well within the Arctic Circle , from which it may be inferred that the tiger was originally a northern animal , which , in the course of time , spread southward in Asia into tropical countries . The range of the species Panthera tigris ( Linnaeus ) extends from the mouth of the Amur River in the east to the Caucasus Mountains in the west , and from Siberia in the north to Java and Bali in the Malayan Archipelago in the south , a number of subspecies having been distinguished throughout this wide area . The tiger is now extinct over extensive areas in its former range on the mainland of Asia ."
A. de C. Sowerby Geographical Distribution : At the present time the habitat of the Manchurian tiger is comparatively small . It includes the wooded mountainous country of Northern Korea , Eastern Manchuria ( which lies in Kirin Province ) and Southern Ussuriland , whence it ranges over the Sikhota Aling ridge . In Kirin Province the unpopulated regions at the sources of the Sungari River , the La - lin Ho , the Mu - tan Kiang , the Mureng River ( or Mu - lin Ho ) and the Sui - fen Ho appear to be the area in North Manchuria where -the tiger is always to be found today . Settled steppes in the southern and western parts of Kirin Province prevent the tiger from penetrating south as far as Kirin City .
The distribution of the tiger in Manchuria , however , is not confined to these areas , for it may be met with far from the borders of the territory indicated above . It has been secured in the Greater Hingan Mountains in Heilungkiang Province in North - west Manchuria , as well as in the Ilhuri Aling near Sahaliang . In the Amur Province it does not wander far from the left ( north ) bank of the Amur River .
The whole Ussuriland and the greater part of Primorsk Province of Eastern Siberia are inhabited by this formidable master for the Manchurian wilds , but from the plains round Lake Hanka the tiger disappeared more than twenty years ago as a result of intensive hunting and the introduction of agriculture . It now visits this region only in the course of its winter wanderings .
Outside the above mentioned territory the tiger has also been recorded as occurring in Eastern Transbaikalia . As far as I know , the most recent recorded case of a tiger being shot in this region was in 1931 in the Argon River district . The village of Ust - Maja on the lower course of the Aldan River in Yakutsk Province ( 60 ° 25 ′ North Latitude and 134 ° 32 ′ East Longitude from Greenwich ) is the most northerly point of the tiger's distribution in North - eastern Asia in recent times . This occurrence took place on November 18 , 1905 , during the Russian - Japanese War , when , as a result of the fighting , tigers were driven from their usual habitat further south .
As an exception to the rule that the tiger does not frequent the steppe country of Western and North - western Manchuria , it may here be mentioned that in the spring of 1929 one of these animals visited a Chinese village situated on the soda - steppe in the valley of the Nonni River some 40 kilometres south of Tsitsihar Station on the Chinese Eastern Railway .
Regarding the range of the tiger in Korea , it is known that its southern boundary does not quite reach Seoul , while all along the coast of the Japan Sea it is now absolutely extinct , for this region , like the southern part of that country , is more or less thickly populated . Systematic Notes : From the above description of distribution of the Manchurian tiger it may be seen that the area now occupied by this animal is completely isolated . There is no point of connection with the known ranges of other races of tigers , namely , China , Mongolian , Turkestan , Indian and Malaya .
Such an isolated geographical distribution served Mr. N. A. Baikov1 as a reason for classifying all three of the Far - eastern subspecies of woolly tigers as belonging to one race. Previous to this authors separated and described three distinct subspecies , namely , the Amur , the Ussuri and the korean tigers1) The Manchurian Tiger (Panthera tigris amurensis, Dode).
IN. A. Baikov "The Manchurian Tiger," 1925, Harbin, M. R. S.I) A Tiger shot by a professional Russian Hunter in the North Kirin Forest to the East of Harbin along the Chinese Eastern Railway.
Il) A magnificent Tiger shot many Years ago by Mr. N. A. Baikov in North Manchuria . It measured 11 Feet , 7 Inches in Length and weighed 560 lbs . Considering that all three represented only individual colour variations , Baikov discarded all these names as no more than synonyms , selecting the name far - eastern or Manchurian woolly tiger ( Felis tigris manschurica ) as the correct one . He also gives this animal the name " cave tiger " as inhabiting caves and rocks like the the sabre - toothed tiger ( Machairodus latidens ) of Europe of the Tertiary Epoch .
The same author acknowledges Machairodus as the direct ancestor of the present - day Manchurian tiger on the basis of the latter's anatomical peculiarities , its craniological resemblances and its enormous size and weight . In the last named characteristic the Manchurian tiger exceeds all its southern relatives .
Whether or not this statement is correct can not here be discussed , since the question of systematic classification of the Manchurian tiger is outside the scope of the present paper , but it may be noted that in the course of excavations of mammalian bones in Post - Tertiary Strata near Harbin ( Khu - hsiang - tung ) in 1931 , bones and teeth of a fossil tiger were unearthed , proving that already in that period this great feline was an inhabitant of the region now known as Manchuria . Professor S. I. Ognev ( 1935 ) 2 admitted two subspecies of Far - eastern tigers, namely , the brightly coloured form of Korea , Tigris tigris coriensis : Brass , and the lighter coloured woolly tiger , Tigris tigris longipilis Fitzinger , of Manchuria and Eastern Siberia.
Tiger Hunting and Some Tiger Habits : In describing the life and habits of the Manchurian tiger , it may be stated here that the conditions under which they were observed were mainly presented in the course of hunting this animal , for which reason it would , perhaps , be best to give an account of the methods employed by professional Russian tiger hunters in Ussuriland . Shooting for sport is almost unknown in this region , and the notes here given apply only to the hunting of the tiger by professionals .
These professional hunters usually form groups of four men . They supply themselves with various necessaries , and , in the beginning of winter , just after the first fall of snow , set out for some district where the tiger is to be met with . Having arrived they pitch camp , and then proceed into the forest in search of fresh tiger tracks . In former times in the taiga , abounding with different kinds of big - game , numerous tiger tracks might be found , but today these are very much more scarce . When tracks have been discovered, the hunters try to find out whether the tiger has recently killed some quarry in the area, or is still only looking for it.
If the tiger has not made a kill and is still wandering about, two of the hunters begin to follow up its trail , while the other two strike camp and follow the first two at a distance of from two to three kilometres . 2)Professor S.I. Ognev "Mammals of Russia and Adjacent Countries , " Moskow , 1935 ( in Russian ) .
3)The well known English mammalogist , Mr. R. I. Pocock , in a learned paper which appeared in The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society , Volume XXXIII, No. 3 , pp . 505-541 , May , 1929 , has pointed out that Panthera and not Felis or Tigris is the correct generic name for the tiger , and also that the correct name of the tiger inhabiting Man- churia, Korea , the Amur Province , Transbaikalia, Primorskaya or the Maritime Province of Eastern Siberia and the Ussuri is Panthera tigris amurensis Dode, while the name Panthera tigris longipilis ( Fitzinger ) rightly applies to the tiger of Central Asia (See A. de C. Sowerby, "The Tiger in China" in The China Journal, Vol. XVIII, No. 2, February, 1933, pp. 94-101). We are inclined to agree with Baikov that differences noted by various writers in the tigers found in various parts of what may be called the Manchurian Region are merely individual colour variations, not racial differences. A. de C. S. It is their duty to transport all camping equipment, and in the evening to put up the tent and prepare a hot meal for themselves and their two companions . When on the move they avoid all fatigue or haste . After dark the two trackers return to camp for the night . The following day the second pair of hunters takes up the trail of the tiger , while the first pair takes a rest and carries the camping outfit to the next halting place . In such manner the hunters pursue the tiger for weeks on end , allowing it no possibility of staying in any one part of the taiga in order to secure food . Such an energetic chase puts the tiger out of patience . Its daily marches become shorter and shorter , and at last it takes shelter under some wind - fall , and awaits the attack of its pursuers . At first , however , the tiger , sensing the pursuit , tries to retire into the wildest parts of the forest . It climbs up mountains into rocky places , where it tries to elude its pursuers by doubling on its tracks and other ruses . Its favourite trick is to return on its own trail to the nearest fallen tree , then , passing along the latter , to turn aside and set off in a new direction .
Being pursued such a way and having no chance to stop for food , the tiger gradually becomes infuriated . If it meets with any beast on its way , and fails to capture it at once , it does not pursue it , but continues its attempt to out - distance and shake off the hunters .
On one occasion a tiger, having thus been followed up by hunters, came upon a bear's lair. The bear, hesitating to fight with the tiger, set off for the nearest tree, but, just as it reached it, it was overtaken by the tiger. Judging from the tracks on the ground, a furious fight must have taken place between the two great carnivores, for the snow under the tree was ploughed up, besprinkled with blood and covered with bear's hair. But the fight was fruitless for the tiger, for the bear finally freed istelf from the latter's claws and made its escape. The tiger continued its way without the much needed meal.
Tiger hunting in Manchuria calls for untiring effort , courage and an infallible knowledge of the taiga on the part of those who would engage in it . The hunter must not fear any difficulties , and he must pursue his quarry day after day , till he attains his end . Only a violent snowstorm can save the tiger from his pursuers , for then the latter must stay in camp , while the tiger's trail becomes covered with snow , so that further tracking is impossible .
A second method of hunting the tiger in Manchuria is by following it with dogs . For this purpose it is necessary to have a pack of dogs of very considerable strength , well trained in the chase of every kind of big- game animal found in the taiga . The main inconvenience of this method of hunting is the difficulty of compelling dogs to trail only the tiger . Frequently when they come across the fresh tracks of other game they will turn aside to follow them. The professional hunters do not as a rule possess many good dogs, and, when they go hunting, they usually collect together most of the dogs of their village to form a nondescript pack . After a couple of weeks of hunting, however , even the worst of dogs understands what its master requires from it . Such a dog will attack a wild boar with great ferocity , but from a tiger it shrinks away , turning aside and looking back for the hunter.
The method of training dogs to go after big - game animals is very primitive in Manchuria . It consists of not giving any food to the dogs till they succeed in bringing to bay a wild boar or a bear , which the hunter kills with his rifle . Immediately the game is brought down the dogs are given the animal's entrails , the hunter pitches camp , and hunting is ended for the day . The satiated dogs , having lost their keenness for the time being , will continue the chase very unwillingly . Not all dogs are equal in hunting , as they differ greatly in quality and character . In every pack there are one or two leaders which the rest follow . If the leader is lost , the pack soon gets out of hand . It cannot follow the quarry , and only after some time does the pack become normal again .
Entering the forest with hunters , the well trained dogs scatter in different directions in search of the trail of their quarry . They do not go far from their master , so that the hunter may keep them in sight . The taking of a straight direction by the pack indicates that the dogs have come upon a fresh trail , whereupon the hunter must follow them immediately ; otherwise the dogs , having run a little distance and not seeing the hunter behind them , will leave the trail and begin to look for their master.
If the trail is fresh and the game is not far ahead , the dogs quickly come up with the latter , when they begin to bark furiously , at the same time catching hold of its legs and biting it in the hind quarters . In such a manner they cause it to stop and turn at bay . When the quarry is thus stopped , half of the pack continues to surround it barking , while the other dogs take a rest , keeping to one side . If, however , the quarry tries to break away , the whole pack charges it , some of the dogs actually jumping on the animal's back and forcing it to halt once more . Working only from sound and keeping behind trees out of sight of the quarry , the hunter gets within easy range of the latter and shoots it .
It is very interesting to note that the tiger , although of such great strength that it could easily kill the dogs pursuing it , yet tries to escape from them . There is a possible explanation for this strange behaviour . The native hunters , Orochons and Goldis ( Fish - skin Tartars ) , say that they know of many cases in which packs of " mountain wolves " or wild dogs ( Cuon alpinus Pallas ) have attacked tigers , and every time the tiger was overcome . Evidently , the hunter's dogs are mistaken by the tiger for wild dogs , and instinct causes it to seek safety in flight .
When a tiger is killed by a hunter the dogs attack the dead body with the utmost ferocity , so that it is difficult to drive them away , even with the use of clubs . In order to deflect them it is necessary to light a fire . As soon as they smell the smoke they become quiet and lie down round their quarry , allowing nobody to approach it .
When dogs are well trained , the hunter has no necessity to look at the tracks in order to determine what animal his pack is following . This is revealed by variations in the tones of the dogs ' barking. They bark at a boar with angry and resonant voices , rather higher in pitch than ordinary barking . At a bear they bark in a rather lazy way , much as they would if a strange cow entered their yard . At the tiger the dogs also bark with high pitched voices, but their barks are heard only at rather long intervals , while some of the dogs remain silent . If the snow is deep the hunters must not take their pack with them , because the dogs sink in the snow and the tiger catches and kills them one by one .
At the start of a tiger hunt the dogs go forward somewhat unwillingly, looking back every now and then , but , after a while , they begin to show more enthusiasm , and finally they follow the trail boldly .
A third method of hunting the tiger consists of watching for a tiger over the carcase of some animal , domestic or wild , which it has killed . But this method of hunting is not as popular as the two foregoing , for there ' are very few men brave enough to sit in a tree throughout a long winter's night in the severe frost waiting for a tiger . The latter usually comes to its kill in the evening , making the vicinity resound with its loud roars . While there is no danger to the hunter as long as he sits up in the tree , it is dangerous for him to attempt to return home during the night . He thus has to remain in the tree till morning , which is very tiresome . On one occasion a hunter killed a tiger just after dark . He did not dare leave his perch to investigate , however , and so was forced to spend the whole night in the tree in a temperature of some 30 ° below freezing . To keep himself warm he climbed up and down in the tree , as he was thinly clad .
In deep snow the tiger loses the hair on the soles of its feet and also to a certain extent from its abdomen , so that it tries to follow its own tracks as much as possible . In places where it has killed some quarry, there will be found a well beaten out path , which can easily bear the weight of a man . The chief trouble in using a path made by a tiger is that the tiger's stride is so much longer than that of a man that it is very tiring to keep placing one's feet in its tracks .
When a tiger has killed off or driven away all the game in a given territory , and deep snow prevents its making long marches in search of wild boars or wapiti , it will repair to the nearest village in the hope of satisfying its hunger with domestic cattle , pigs , horses or dogs . Sometimes it even kills human victims , after which its boldness knows no limit . When darkness comes on , the tiger walks freely along the streets of villages , entering the yards and climbing on to the roofs of sheds and cow - houses , which it robs . The people of the village , frightened by the tiger's visits , sit in their houses and dare not go out of doors until the morning . There have even been cases in which the men , although armed with rifles and able to see the tiger through the window walking in the yard , have hesitated to fire because they feared that the tiger might spring into the room through the window .
Many hunters think that the tiger , when pursued by them , in its turn begins following its pursuer . But Mr. Dsul , the best authority on tiger hunting in Manchuria , says that there is no truth in this statement . Usually the tiger , finding itself pursued , retires further and further into the wilds and never returns the way it has gone. Only in cases when the tiger knows that it is not being hunted does it attack human victims , knocking them down with a stroke of its powerful paw .
In attacking a large animal , such as a horse , the tiger jumps upon its back and rides there till its victim falls down . Tree trunks besprinkled with blood to a height of two meters testify to this fact . Not infrequently tigers , driven by long hunger , attack human beings , especially Chinese trappers . The tiger is capable of jumping over a very high obstacle , provided it can get a purchase on its edge with its fore paws .
The strength of the tiger's neck muscles is unusually great . It can easily carry in its mouth a pig of from 120 to 170 kilogrammes in weight , and only in places where there are many trees does it put its quarry on the ground and drag it between the tree trunks, tearing and breaking the surrounding undergrowth .
Tigers cannot climb up vertical trees , but , when pursued by dogs , can easily run along trees which grow at angles of , say , not more than 45 degrees . An infuriated tiger stands on its hind legs , tearing the bark with its claws and biting off the twigs of trees . Small trees , as thick as a man's arm , are sometimes broken by tigers at a height of about a metre and a half , seemingly without any difficulty .
In hunting the wapiti during the autumn , the tiger imitates the stag's call . However , it continues to roar long after the wapiti's rutting season is over , by which fact it betrays itself . During the day a hungry tiger chooses a high place from which it can observe a wide stretch of taiga , but a satiated tiger prefers to hide itself , especially on cold days , in the thickest undergrowth , changing its lair from day to day .
It may be noted that a tiger becomes very bold when hungry , losing much of its normal cunning and caution . It does not bother to tangle its trail when being hunted , and , if wounded, it seeks revenge against its enemy even at the price of its own life .
Source: www.google.dz/books/edition/The_China_Journal/cbsqeY3Q_pEC?hl=fr
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Post by fantasticstruggle788 on Nov 3, 2024 10:57:22 GMT -5
Amur Tiger .Sysoev V.P. (1960) [Hunting in the Far Eastern Taiga. Khabarovsk: Khabarovsk Book Publishing House.] pp. 67-81
The Amur, or long-haired, tiger is a powerful, beautiful, and agile predator. As a representative of tropical nature and a relic of the Quaternary period, the tiger has managed to adapt to the harsh conditions of the modern climate of the Amur region. Since 1947, the tiger has been protected by law: hunting it is prohibited, and the capture of young tigers alive is only permitted by special licenses from the Main Directorate of Hunting Management.
The Amur tiger is the largest representative of the tiger genus; there was a case of a male weighing 384 kilograms being taken. This animal has long, silky fur. Its primary color is pale ochre with clear black stripes.
The long-haired tiger, hardened by frosts, is in great demand. An adult animal is worth several tens of thousands of rubles. It can be exchanged for an elephant, rhinoceros, or hippopotamus. For any menagerie or zoo, our tiger is a desirable acquisition.
A reduction in the tiger’s range is observed. Currently, there are two areas of permanent tiger habitation in the region: the Sikhote-Alin—ranging from the sources of the Ussuri River to the middle reaches of the Khore River, where about a hundred tigers live; and the Biro-Bidzhan area, around the sources of the Bira and Bidzhan rivers, where only a few tigers are found. Tigers inhabit mountainous mixed cedar-broadleaf forests, particularly along the rivers Katen, Matai, Vanchin, Armu, Kulumbe, and Sitsa.
The tiger primarily feeds on large hoofed animals, killing two or three wild boars or red deer per month. It also pursues roe deer, musk deer, and occasionally attacks Himalayan bears, even dragging them from their dens, onto wolves. But the 'lord of the jungle' is not satisfied with only large prey. He catches hares, grouse, and mouse-like rodents, and consumes post-spawning salmon, finding it in the drying channels of mountain rivers. A tiger family that settled in the Matai and Right Podkhoryonok areas sharply reduced the population of red deer over two years. Tigers mate in December-January, and in April-May, the female gives birth to two or three cubs. During the first year, while the cubs are still small, the mother brings them food to the den, but as soon as they are able to travel, she leads them to her prey—wild boar or red deer. In the second year of life, the cubs begin to kill piglets on their own. They drag them into one pile and then eat them over several days. In the fourth year, the family disperses, and the tigress mates again.
Thus, the tigress gives birth to cubs once every four years, reaching sexual maturity by the fifth or sixth year of life. But if the cubs die at an early age, the mating period can be shortened. Tigers shed twice a year, with claws changing each autumn. Milk teeth fall out in the third year of life.
Cub weights: 9-month-olds weigh up to 18 kilograms, 1 year 9 months up to 70 kilograms, 2 years 9 months up to 110 kilograms, and 3 years 9 months up to 180 kilograms.
Five-year-old tigers weigh 200 kilograms or more.
A tiger can live up to 50 years. Some older animals lose fur on their backs and sides. Such an old tiger was accidentally killed in 1952 on the Khor River by the Udege man Byanka. The animal’s hide was almost hairless. The Udege people greatly fear 'bald' tigers, which, they say, can attack hunters.
The tiger has no natural enemies except for large brown bears. In 1956, in the Shukhi-Pokto reserve, at Kamenny Key, M. Bogachev observed an attack by a wandering brown bear on a young tiger that had killed a wild boar and refused to yield it to the marauder. The tiger was killed and eaten by the bear. The bear did not escape unscathed either. The tiger’s head survived, with yellowish, five-centimeter-long canines clenching tufts of bear fur. In winter, one can often observe brown bears trailing tiger tracks to scavenge on the remains of their meals. The tiger's hunting range is extensive: it can cover up to 80 kilometers in a day, but where it is undisturbed and finds plenty of wild boars and red deer, it roams less. In 1958, the author had the chance to observe three tigers at the source of the Right Podkhorenok River, inhabiting an area of 300 square kilometers. In deep snow, the tiger follows trails made by wild boars and hunters, as well as tracks of bears and humans. If a hunter's cabin appears along its path, the tiger usually detours by several dozen meters. However, once at Svetly Key, a tigress with her cub approached our cabin at night, and despite the burning stove, she wasn’t frightened. After lying peacefully on the snow and then on a discarded dirty mitten, she continued her way.
The tiger, a typical predator, has a keen sense of smell, sharp vision, and excellent hearing, which allows it to detect a person from afar, whom it always avoids. There have been no recorded incidents of tiger attacks on hunters over the past 30 years. However, if a person approaches a tiger cornered by dogs, the animal usually charges at its pursuer, regardless of the dogs. Living primarily far from populated areas, the tiger does not disturb livestock, likely because it rarely encounters them, although I have often noted tiger tracks within three to four kilometers of logging sites.
At the end of the last century, Russian hunter-settlers—the Kozin, Reutov, and Bogachev families—began capturing tigers for zoos. This was a profitable venture. There are three methods for catching tiger cubs, but all are feasible only in winter when tigers can be tracked, and if there are good tiger-tracking dogs capable of delaying the animal. These methods are as follows.
Upon finding a tiger family—a tigress with cubs (the male does not travel with the family)—the tiger-capturing team of four or five people tries to approach the animals as closely as possible. When the tigers sense the hunters, they flee. Then the hunters begin firing shots, shouting, they try to scare the tigress as much as possible to drive her far away from her cubs. The tiger cubs cannot keep up with their mother and hide in a forest hollow. One of the hunters follows the tigress’s trail, occasionally firing shots as he goes. The other members of the brigade follow the trail of one of the cubs and release their dogs, which catch up to the animal.
If the cub is small, the aggressive dogs are muzzled to prevent them from biting it. The dogs surround the cub and knock it down. Lying on its back, the cub fiercely defends itself with all four paws and its teeth. To capture such an animal with bare hands, they allow it to bite onto a blanket, jacket, or the stock of a rifle.
If the cub is large or very aggressive, they cut forked branches on the spot, similar to wooden hay forks, and use them to pin the animal to the ground, then tie it up.
There are many adventures in such hunts: the tiger escapes from the hunters’ grasp, throws them off, and often, the hunters and dogs, holding on to the animal, roll down steep slopes in a tangle, breaking bushes and young trees.
But no matter how the hunt goes, people always come out victorious. Since 1937, 42 tigers have been captured in the region. Of these, 35 by I.T. Trofimov's brigade, 5 by P.P. Bogachev's brigade, and 2 by E.N. Avdeev's brigade.
In terms of age, the captured tigers were: 15 two-year-olds, 23 three-year-olds, 3 four-year-olds, and 1 five-year-old. Additionally, about a dozen adult tigers were accidentally killed. Mature tigers are not taken alive. There is a known case when I.T. Trofimov's brigade attempted to capture an old tiger using forks. But they couldn’t hold it. The tiger bit Trofimov’s shoulder and was shot by his comrades; the wounded tiger hunter had to be hospitalized.
The captured cubs are kept in the forest in special log enclosures, covered from above with logs. Then they are transported in cages with wooden bars so the animals don’t break their teeth.
The best food for the captives is considered to be elk meat, which they eat eagerly even when bound. Binding tiger cubs requires great experience: if the paws are tied too tightly, they become numb; if tied loosely, the animal frees itself, and it has to be caught all over again.
 Распространение тигра на Дальнем Востоке/Distribution of the Tiger in the Far East Ареал тигра/Range of the tiger. Among the hunters in Khabarovsk, the old tiger hunter Ivan Pavlovich Bogachev was famous for having caught 36 tigers during his fifty years of practice. One day, I came across his winter cabin in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains. Ivan Pavlovich had just returned from a hunt. His heavily frosted beard and the wide skis polished by the snow spoke volumes about the many kilometers he had covered in the forest, pursuing a herd of wild boars.
'So, how’s the hunt? Are you far from here?' he asked me. 'You’ll stay the night with us, I suppose?'
I had long wanted to get to know the famous beast hunter better, so I gladly accepted his invitation. After chopping firewood for the night and feeding the dogs, we went into the hunting lodge. The low ceiling did not allow me to stand up straight. The warmth from the iron stove and the weak light of the oil lamp made the hunter's primitive dwelling cozy and conducive to rest. Bogachev hunted alongside his son.
Caught up in the pursuit of wild boars, Matvey had spent the night in the forest, and we did not expect him for dinner. Over a good piece of fatty meat and strong 'brick' tea, Ivan Pavlovich asked me in detail about where I hunted, what my profession was, and where I had come from. I shared all the hunting news and mentioned that hunting tigers was likely to be banned.
Bogachev pondered this, drawing with a large hunting knife on the table, and said:
'Why shoot it? The skin isn’t worth much, but you can get more than ten thousand for a live one.'
We lay down on the bunks covered with sika hides. I wasn't sleepy, so I asked him to tell me something about his hunts. After adding more wood to the stove, Bogachev recounted this case.
'At that time, there was no winter cabin at this creek, but we would come here to hunt. One day, we came across the tracks of a tigress with three cubs. There were four of us, each with a good dog. The hunt started off well: we caught and tied up two cubs in one day, but the mother led the third into a hollow. We had to unleash all the dogs. Soon they caught up with the third cub.
We ran toward the barking with all our might, firing as we went to scare off the tigress. But we were too late. She beat us there and rushed to save her last cub. We burst into the clearing to find three crushed dogs lying there, including my favorite, Ryabchik, while the tigress was about to pounce on the fourth.
I raised my rifle, but my brother whispered, 'Don't shoot; we’ll take her alive!' He barely finished speaking when the tigress saw us, bared her yellow fangs—like wax candles—and leapt at my brother. He shoved the stock of his rifle into her teeth, but she swatted it aside with her paw. I shoved my rifle into her mouth, but she knocked mine into the snow as well. Things would have ended badly if my nephew hadn’t shown up. The boy didn’t flinch; he shoved a thick stick into the tiger’s jaws, and she bit down so hard that it cracked. That’s when the four of us piled on her. Somehow, we managed to tie her up and put a muzzle on her. In the scuffle, I didn’t even notice when she clawed my arm open—cursed beast, she even tore out a tendon.
It was getting late, so we decided to set up camp right there and haul the tigress back to the village by sled in the morning.
By evening, the temperature started to drop. The tigress lay tied up on the snow, and the snow beneath her was melting. We thought, ‘She’ll catch a cold,’ so we cut some spruce branches to make a bed and lifted her up to move her. As soon as we grabbed her legs, she suddenly jerked with all her might, almost snapping the straps... Once, twice. We looked, and she was stretching out in spasms. ‘She’s dying!’ my brother cried. The tigress stretched out and fell into a sleep she’d never wake from. All that work for nothing.
We brought her to Khabarovsk, where we learned she had died from a heart attack. A wild beast, but she couldn’t bear the ‘shame’...
Prokopy Bogachev does not fall short of Ivan Pavlovich in courage. Many times, his brigade ventured into the mountains of the Sikhote-Alin to catch tigers.
...November had turned out warm. The icy banks would thaw during the day, breaking off, and the darkened river would carry thin shards of ice, as clear as glass. Bogachev trusted his comrades, even though this was Luka and Miron's first time hunting tigers; it was the hounds that worried him. The dogs were young and untrained for tigers, except for Verny, who bravely went after bears.
They’d traveled about forty kilometers up the mountain river, the hunters stopped. Tall cedar-broadleaf forests came right up to the riverbank. In some places, the trees were entwined with vines. The southern slopes of the gentle hills were overgrown with oak, but the acorn crop was poor, and the boars had moved to feed on horsetail.
For seven days, the hunters searched for tiger tracks. Finally, they found them, but tracking the animals became extremely difficult. The unusually warm sun had melted the shallow snow, preventing the frost from freezing the mountain streams. But how could they abandon the fresh tracks of a tigress accompanied by large cubs? So the hunters, summoning all their strength, crossed rivers and streams, continuing their search for the tiger family.
The trappers ventured far. Dark clouds floated across the sky, and snow began to fall, but it didn’t make the search easier: the faint impressions of the animals’ paws disappeared beneath it, and no fresh tracks appeared. Crossing rivers over the slippery, icy logs became harder and more dangerous. Supplies ran out—what could they do?
They had to return to the tent empty-handed. It was decided to spend a few days hunting boars and red deer. Their meat was essential not only for the hunters but also for the tigers, should they manage to catch them.
One late evening, an Udege named Chenguma came to the trappers' tent. He had crossed paths in the taiga with Bogachev many times before and had now walked ten kilometers to inform his old friend about fresh tiger tracks.
'You see, Prokopy, the tigress lives on the rocky hill. Yesterday she came down straight to Katen, with two cubs. They were playing on the ice, then went back up to the hill.
The next day, the trappers set off to the place indicated by Chenguma, weighed down by their packs. At the foot of the rocky hill, they set up camp—a small shelter made of branches—and spent the night. Until late into the night, they discussed their plan of action for the following day; they considered every detail that might lead to failure, weighing all the odds. They didn’t get much sleep. At dawn, they had breakfast, then split into two groups to circle the hill and locate the exact position of the tiger family.
The rocky hill was densely covered with fir, spruce, and cedar. Occasionally, they came across old, wide-branched yews with reddish bark, which tigers love to 'sharpen their claws' on."
Rocky outcrops and sheer dark cliffs were covered with lichens of strange shapes and moss.
The snowy, gloomy forest met the newcomers unfriendly. The snow was deep in places. Rocky outcrops and an abundance of fallen timber made skiing difficult, and snow often fell from the branches, covering the people. They struggled for a long time through the thickets. But ahead, between the trees, black crows fluttered up from the ground. The leader, Cherepanov, stopped, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his mitten, and peered into the darkening thicket.
"What prey have these watchful birds found in the forest?" They descended on their skis into a hollow. A wild boar carcass lay black on the snow, nearby was a crushed piglet with a torn and eaten shoulder, and fresh tiger tracks were visible leading away from the boar's body in different directions. It was clear that the hunters' arrival had interrupted the meal of the "rulers" of the Ussuri forests.
Now every minute was precious, and the hunters opened fire with their rifles, holding back the eager dogs.
"Luka!" Bogachev shouted loudly, "scare off the tigress!"
The young hunter dashed after the largest track, breaking through the underbrush and shooting on the go. The others followed the trail of the cub, which veered to the left.
"Let the dogs loose!" Bogachev commanded while running.
Not even ten minutes had passed when a deep bark informed the hunters that the beast had stopped. Nothing energizes a hunter like the voices of the hounds that have "treed" the tiger. With all their might, the tiger hunters rushed on their skis, enveloped in clouds of snow dust.
"Just don’t let it get away!" each one thought. Here was the place of the struggle: surrounded by three dogs, the cub was fending them off with its paws, hissing angrily and baring its formidable fangs.
Hiding behind the cedars and fallen timber, the hunters began to approach it. Matvey crept up close and deftly threw a blanket over the beast. It caught in the tiger’s claws, and pieces flew off. Seeing their master, the emboldened dogs pressed against the enemy, trying to sink their teeth into the beast's side.
The dogs' yelps and barks drowned out the beast's growls. The hunters' shouts and the cracking of broken bushes filled the forest, and a fierce hand-to-hand struggle broke out, in which only the beast had weapons — fangs and claws — while the men fought with bare, bloodied hands. Surrounded by hunters and dogs, the animal lunged wildly. The attackers' circle tightened closer and closer. Seizing a moment when the beast had pinned down a dog and bit into it, Reutov grabbed its ears, while Cherepanov and Bogachev seized its legs. Miron threw himself across the beast’s body. It was not easy to hold the enraged animal. The tiger twisted and nearly freed its head from Reutov’s firm grip. For an instant, one of his hands released the beast’s scruff, and at that very moment, pieces of his sleeve flew, and blood dripped from his torn hand onto the snow.
Miron pressed even harder onto the beast. Quickly and confidently, in just a few minutes, the men tied its legs and secured its jaws. Now they needed to help Reutov. Fortunately, the wound wasn’t serious. The excited hunter insisted on immediately pursuing the second tiger cub. They left Matvey by the captive and set off following the tracks. After about a kilometer, they released the dogs, but they soon returned, meaning the animal had gone far.
They had to split up: it was decided that Prokopy and Matvey would drag the catch back to camp, while the others would track where the cub had gone so they could catch up the next day. But when Prokopy returned to the place where they had left Matvey, he found neither him nor the animal.
It turned out that the cub had freed its front legs and, despite its bound hind legs, managed to escape. Matvey had tried in vain to hold it back: the hobbled animal proved quicker than the man. After running about two kilometers, Prokopy caught up with Matvey, and only together did they manage to subdue the fugitive once more. During the scuffle, the cub had managed to claw Prokopy’s eyelid and land a blow on Matvey’s face that left it swollen.
The cub barely fit into the large sack. As Matvey carried the “captive,” the beast’s head was near his ear. Sometimes, the hunter would turn his face toward the tiger, and when their eyes met, the animal hissed, while the man smiled.
One needs tremendous strength to carry a five-pood (about 80 kg) animal through the mountain forest. While Matvey and Prokopy trudged back to the camp, Cherepanov, Reutov, and Miron tracked the second tiger cub for a long time. The tracks, after making a wide semicircle, began to return toward the place where the pursuit had started. The hunters stopped and began to discuss their options. Miron suggested abandoning the trail and returning to Prokopy, planning to resume the chase tomorrow with fresh energy. Reutov insisted that they should release the dogs immediately.
"The cub isn’t far, and we need to catch it today. By night, it will find its mother and leave with her," he argued. Cherepanov closely observed the dogs, who were pulling on the track, wagging their tails and softly whining.
"They sense the beast," he said. "We’re a bit short on bindings. We’ll have to tear up the individual packs."
Soon, strong bindings were made from wide gauze bandages cut into strips and tucked into their belts. The hunters descended to a spring thickly overgrown with young spruce, crossed it, and released the dogs from their leashes. It wasn’t even five minutes before they heard barking. They ran. From a distance, Reutov could see how boldly and persistently Verny (Faithful) lunged at the animal, but the strong swipes of its paws knocked him back into the snow. Verny was a fierce, fearlessly bold dog. He had a wolf’s grip and spared no effort, which is why they let him at the tiger with his jaws bound by leather straps.
There was no easy approach to the animal. Sneaking up behind a spruce, Cherepanov was just about to throw his jacket over it when suddenly the animal lunged at Reutov.
Quickly pulling off his fur mitten, the hunter barely managed to toss it into the animal’s open jaws. At that very moment, six strong hands seized the cub by the scruff of the neck and paws.
"The hardest part is grabbing hold first," Bogachev used to say. "Once you do, the tiger is yours!" His students remembered this well as they confidently tied up the animal’s broad paws. The bandages proved their worth: they were strong, soft, and, most importantly, did not shrink when wet.
The hunters didn’t rest for long. Their sweat-drenched light clothing quickly began to freeze. It was decided to drag the catch to the camp, which was not far away. The sun was setting. Evening twilight was slowly deepening. Through gaps in the branches to the west, the glowing edge of the sky could be seen. The tranquility of the evening forest was disturbed by the creak of skis and the crackling of deadwood.
"Looks like the tigress passed through here," Cherepanov said, stopping. Large tracks had crossed the hunters’ path.
"See how she’s stepping frequently, like she’s sneaking up? She’s probably looking for her cubs," Reutov mused aloud.
Soon, the hunters came across Bogachev’s tracks, and now they were no more than six kilometers from the camp. Twice, they crossed tiger tracks. The tigress was following the men who had taken her cub. The thickening twilight and the presence of the enraged animal made Miron uneasy. "What if the tigress suddenly leaps from behind some uprooted tree?" But the calmness of his companions reassured him.
Late in the evening, they brought their heavy load to camp. Prokopy congratulated them on their success. It had indeed been a lucky day: they had captured two large tiger cubs and brought them to the camp.
By the big campfire, the hunters teased each other, sharing the day's impressions. Not far from the fire, on a large green bed of spruce boughs, lay the tied-up cubs. The tired dogs rested nearby, with some licking their wounds.
After hearing Cherepanov’s detailed account of how they had captured the second cub, Prokopy remarked:
"You acted correctly, but leaving the rifles behind was a mistake. One of you should always keep a rifle nearby. Anything can happen. There was a case with my father. They had separated a cub from its mother, caught up with it, and began to tie it up. Just as they were nearly finished, my father saw the tigress charging at full speed to rescue her cub. He grabbed his rifle and shot her in the forehead. Even though she was dead, her momentum nearly knocked him off his feet. And if the rifle hadn’t been close by?… No matter what, she’s a mother, and the smaller the cubs, the more fiercely she’ll defend them."
The excited hunters didn’t close their eyes for most of the night. Neither did the tiger cubs. Only Verny, with the tip of his nose tucked into his fluffy tail, whimpered in his sleep.
The next day, the tiger catchers returned to the tent. While a simple cage was being made from dry cedar, the tigers slept nearby in bags at night. Their paws were untied, and their heads poked out of the bags. The cubs lay side by side, purring peacefully; together, they endured captivity more calmly.
Prokopy fed them fresh sika deer meat without untying their jaws. He cut the meat into thin strips and, placing it on a stick, brought it to the animal's muzzle. The tiger cub would pull the food into its mouth with its tongue and swallow it whole. On the very first day, they ate about five kilograms of meat each.
For two days, the tiger catchers dragged the sled with the large cage. Dogs were harnessed to the sled. A lot of sweat was shed before the village garden fences finally appeared. In the village, a truck was waiting, which delivered them to Khabarovsk.
Bogachev’s student, Pyotr Reutov, was eager to surpass his teacher in bravery and skill.
In the winter of 1955, he, along with Cherepanov and two other hunters, found fresh tracks of a tigress with three large cubs.
After two days of tracking, they got so close to the tigers that the dogs, sensing the animals, bristled. They fired shots into the air and released the dogs. Soon, they stopped one of the cubs. They quickly tied up the three-year-old tiger and, leaving one hunter by the captive, moved on in pursuit of the second.
By the end of the day, the dogs surrounded the animal. Capturing it with three people was more difficult, but within an hour, the tiger was bound and lying on a green bed of spruce branches.
Buoyed by success, Reutov insisted on pursuing the third tiger, despite the late hour. After a brief hesitation, Cherepanov agreed, and they followed the tracks, leaving another hunter by the second catch.
The sun was slowly setting behind the distant hill. Its orange rays shone through the cedar branches. It seemed that if one approached these trees, they would find themselves on the edge of a large clearing, making it easier to continue on.
But Reutov knew that there was no clearing in this dense forest: behind the illuminated trees standing on the crest of the mountain slope, a countless army of dark green cedars with shaggy, almost trimmed-looking tops gathered closely.
After covering about five kilometers, they unleashed the dogs.
The full moon kept the twilight from thickening, making the pursuit easier. The closer it got to midnight, the brighter the forest became. The sharp eyes of the tiger catchers easily followed the tiger tracks on the snow, occasionally trampled by the dogs.
Fatigue took its toll, and when the barking of the dogs was heard, it didn’t invigorate the weary men. The dogs were also tired, unable to keep the animal at bay, and they returned to the hunters. A fire was lit on the tracks. Tea and warmth restored the men, and they dozed off by the fire. Not far away, in the dense fir thickets, the tiger lay. Under its heated body, the snow was beginning to melt.
At dawn, the tiger catchers were already up. The pursuit resumed. They startled the tiger from its resting place, released the dogs, but the tired laikas attacked sluggishly; the tiger fought back and kept moving. The hunters, gasping from exhaustion, ran after it. They saw the striped predator flashing through the trees, surrounded by the dogs, and strained their last reserves of strength.
“Get it! Get it!” the men shouted. Whether the shouts encouraged the dogs or the tiger began to weaken, the distance between the animal and the hunters shrank to thirty paces.
Cherepanov suggested cutting some forks, but Reutov didn’t listen; he pushed aside the bushes and advanced toward the tiger. Besides, there was nothing to make a fork from: only fir trees and small spindle bushes grew around.
Cherepanov was older and more experienced than Reutov. Time had silvered his hair, but hadn’t dimmed his hunting spirit. Still, deep down, he thought that capturing a three-year-old tiger with their bare hands was unthinkable.
The tiger, seeing the men close by, lunged towards them. The dogs clung to it, digging in their paws, slowing its movements. In a practiced motion, Reutov shoved the rifle stock into the tiger’s snarling mouth. In the same instant, the gun flew aside and sank into the snow. The tiger catcher threw off his large fur mittens and tossed them into the animal's open mouth, but the tiger paid them no heed.
 The cedar grove on the bank of the Marañón River. The larch forest in the valley of the Nemiti River. On the Neman River, a tributary of the Burets. A place for bear hunting. The Badzhalskaya Channel. A habitat of the manchurian deer.
Deer laying on the Podkhorenok River. Spawning channel for the salmon (keta) on the (Amud ?) River. Larch taiga on the banks of the Ayakit River. The sources of the Amguki. Under the old linden tree. On the reverse: In the hunting estate of Matai. The valley of the Soali River, one of the sources of the Chora, is rich in hoofed animals and fur-bearing creatures. In the Tatar Strait. Bureya sable. Six-year-old boar.
 At the den of the Himalayan bear. Three-day-old Himalayan bear cub. Two-year-old Himalayan bear. Brown bear. A young tigress caught on the Podkhovenok River in 1959.
A tamed moose in the Verkhne-Bureinsky sable nursery.
For a moment, the bared fangs closed, piercing through the thick mittens, and the threatening snarl glimmered with cold whiteness again.
Reutov yanked off his jacket, but realized it would be too late. Without thinking, he thrust his leg, shod in soft elk hide, into the beast’s face. The tiger latched onto Reutov’s leg with a deadly grip. The brave hunter ignored the pain and grabbed the tiger by its ears. "As long as I don’t break a bone," flashed through his mind, and trying to free his leg, Reutov fell onto the tiger, clutching the agile skin with its silky long fur in his strong hands.
“Cherepanov, tie it up!” he shouted, sinking into the snowdrift. But Cherepanov didn’t need to be asked. With the agility of a sailor securing gear in a storm, he tied the soft rope around the tiger’s wide, clawed paws with a sailor’s knot. The tiger tried to shake off the people and dogs, but it never succeeded. Soon it lay with its legs and jaws bound. Two exhausted but happy trappers stood over it. That day they had outdone their teacher, Bogachev...
Source: www.fessl.ru/sysoev/book/ohota-v-dalnevostochnoj-tajge.html
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Post by fantasticstruggle788 on Nov 5, 2024 16:39:07 GMT -5
On the Ecology of the Amur Tiger. Kucherenko S.P. (1972) [Hunting and Game Management. No. 1.] pp. 18–20.
During the time elapsed since the publication of materials on the distribution and population of the Amur tiger (Kucherenko, 1970) in our journal, additional material has been collected regarding the ecology of this cat, which is of certain interest. The distribution of the tiger from 1969 to 1971 has changed little. The main habitat of this animal remains the mountainous coniferous-broadleaf and oak forests of the Sikhote-Alin, south of the Anyuy River on its western macro slopes and south of the Samarga River on the eastern slopes. The population of the tiger over the specified three years has increased by 10-12 individuals and now totals 134-158 individuals. Of the total population of the Amur tiger, 35-40% are young individuals under three years of age, 36-38% are adult females, and 20-25% are adult males. The sex and age ratio in the tiger population varies within these limits due to many reasons, but the decisive factor in recent years has been the direct impact of humans. In 35 litters trapped in Sikhote-Alin from 1948 to 1969, there were 83 tiger cubs. Four tigresses had one cube each, seventeen had two, eleven had three, and three had four. The average litter size is 2.37 cubes. A female with cubs up to one year old usually stays in very limited areas of the most remote, boar and red deer-rich forests. For example, in December 1968, hunter MS Prokhorov unexpectedly encountered a family of tigers on his small grounds hunting and killed a five-month-old cub. The mother took the remaining cub just 8 km away and lived in an area of 30 km until spring, not leaving the watershed of a single stream. Throughout the 1968/69 season, a team led by tiger hunter AV Cherepanov roamed the lower and middle reaches of the Alchi River for 30 km. Only at the end of winter did the hunters accidentally discover that a tiger litter had long been living in the upper reaches of this river. The entire forest area where the tigers lived was trampled by them, but in the neighboring territory, where hunters roamed, these animals did not appear. As the tiger cubs grew, the female increasingly left them alone, gradually expanding her hunting territory. In the first year of the cubs' life, the tigress usually brings prey to the day; in the second year, she leads the cubs from one animal she has killed to another, and by the following year, the older cubs already participate in joint hunts with their mother. Three-year-old tigers, abandoned by their mother, despite their large size and strength, often go hungry in the first months of independent life. It was possible to "read" from the tracks how young tigers would often play with piglets or second-year red deers, unable to quickly "calm" the captured animal. In November 1966, hunters in the Ussuri region finished off a young tiger that had previously been severely wounded by a boar. In March 1967, a three-year-old tigress roamed around the village of Khady on the Khor River, hunting dogs until she was killed. Shortly thereafter, a similarly recently abandoned tiger emerged in a severely emaciated state at a camp of geologists, where it perished. Four-year-old tigers are full of strength and energy, but they are still quite lacking in "wisdom." It is these animals that often kill prey much larger than they need for sustenance. They can quickly crush a herd of boars struggling through deep snow, partially eat an izubr, and then leave to search for other prey. The tiger prefers to walk along trails, forest roads, along rivers on the ice, and on the ridges of mountains with well-visible slopes. In search of prey, it primarily relies on its very keen sight and acute hearing. The tiger's sense of smell is somewhat weaker; however, under favorable conditions, it can detect a boar or red deer resting 200 meters away, and it can pick up the scent of tracks 2-4 hours after the animal has passed in warm weather. A tiger usually patiently and skillfully stalks its prey, aiming to catch and kill it with one or several leaps. If it surprises a wild boar in snowless conditions or when snow depth does not exceed 15-20 cm, the tiger chases it no more than 150 m. However, in deep snow (40-60 cm), the chase continues for 300-500 m, and in such conditions, the predator often overtakes the boar. A red deer usually escapes easily if it detects the tiger before the 'attack' begins. After a few hundred meters, the deer slows to a walk and starts grazing again within 5-10 minutes. In stalking its prey, the tiger is extremely patient. It can stand in one place for long periods, then slowly take a small step and stop again, sometimes even lying down. In winter, the traces of a stalking tiger's lying positions are often covered in ice due to the animal's prolonged immobility. This predator always tries to sneak as close to its prey as possible. Sometimes it manages to close the distance to 5-6 m, though more often it begins the attack from 10-15 to 35 m. In open, low-snow conditions, the tiger catches its prey with small but very frequent leaps — this is its fastest running method. It is forced into larger leaps in certain situations, like navigating cluttered terrain, deep snow, or dense thickets. When making frequent leaps on open ground, the tiger seems to glide along the earth; with larger jumps, it literally flies over the tops of bushes, breaking branches with loud crashes upon landing. The tiger often catches its prey during pursuit. While chasing a fleeing animal, it frequently lunges to cut it off. Sometimes, on sharp turns, it loses balance and tumbles over, only to spring up and continue the chase. If the pursuit fails, the tiger lies down to the rest, watching the direction the animal disappeared in, then gets up and leaves, often in an entirely different direction, perhaps understanding that the fleeing animal scared away everything in its path. If the tiger catches up to its prey, it kills it with astonishing speed. Sometimes it can kill not just one but several boars resting together or two grazing red deer within moments. In such cases, the predator kills the first victim either mid-air or with a crushing blow upon landing. An old hunter once recounted how, one winter, a tigress attacked his three dogs and killed them one after another as they ran towards him, without even pausing to dispatch the unfortunate animals. This entire tragedy took only a few seconds. Hungry tigers eat a lot. It's confirmed that a tigress with two grown cubs can consume a two-year-old red deer in a night, and a tigress with three large cubs can 'handle' a large deer within a day. A hungry adult male can eat a piglet in one day, leaving only the head, legs, and stomach. The same tiger, over three days, can fully consume a two-year-old heifer, and can devour a 30 kg piglet or a roe deer in a single meal. Not all tigers are moderate in their hunting of animals. Some do not manage their prey populations very conservatively. In 1954, in the Iman basin near the Ubegou Stream, a tigress killed a herd of 14 boars over three days, while along the Shevelaza River, 12 piglets were found killed by a tiger in a small area. In 1963, near the Columbus River, three large boars were found killed close to one another by a predator. In the summer of 1964, near the village of Sokolchi, a tiger killed four horses at once and dragged them all to one spot. In February 1971, a tiger entered a barn in the village of Permskoye and slaughtered 28 cows. Around the same time, another tiger was systematically entering a livestock shed in Furmanovo village, each time killing 2-4 cows. In all these cases, none of the killed animals were completely eaten; only a few were even half-consumed.Consumption of The Prey by Tigers Note: Prey abandoned by the tiger out of necessity was not taken into account. In 1966-1971, on the Sikhote-Alin, a sufficient number of tiger meal remnants were discovered, allowing researchers to form a certain idea about the degree to which tigers consume their prey and the variety of animal species in the predator's diet (see table ). The data in the table provide grounds for some conclusions. Among the main prey species in the tiger's diet, 56% are wild boar, 27% are red deer, 6% each are bear and roe deer, and 5% are musk deer. Tigers fully consumed their prey in only 51% of cases. Most often, wild boar were left partially eaten. The predator tends to abandon wild boar carcasses more frequently in "lean" years, when wild boars are thin. It has been noted that the tiger prefers red deer meat over wild boar meat, and it particularly enjoys the meat of bears and roe deer, which it generally consumes entirely. Earlier, we noted that to satisfy its annual food requirements, a tiger kills 36 large ungulates per year (Kucherenko, 1970). Given that both adult animals and young ones fall prey and that the tiger does not always consume all its kills entirely, the annual number of its victims increases to 45-50 wild boars and red deer, 3-4 bears, and 6-8 roe deer and musk deer. attacks on domestic animals are carried out by old or sick tigers, and often among them are those injured by humans. For example, in the Noto River area in 1965, hunters wounded a tiger. Since then, cases of the tiger stealing domestic animals in the villages along this river sharply increased. It was evident that one predator was engaging in this "poaching." In June 1970, a tiger was killed in the village of Zhuravlevka after it had broken into a pigsty. This was an old, thin animal with an injured leg. After that, the conflicts of domestic animals in the Noto area ceased. We often saw in the forest, in areas frequented by tigers, herds of cows without any herdsmen. And it is remarkable that, despite this, cases of tiger attacks on domestic animals are relatively rare. The reason, apparently, is that the tiger distinguishes well between wild and domestic animals and approaches the latter with caution Two years ago, in the Chuguyevsky district, in a forest where tigers are quite common, thirty collective farm calves wandered for a whole month, and not one of them was touched. In the same district, nine calves roamed unsupervised in a dense forest for three months, and all of them remained unharmed. The Amur tiger has developed a very unique relationship with humans. This animal does not fear humans but rarely comes into view. Being very curious, the tiger observes people at every opportunity and often accompanies a solitary traveler. Sometimes, it closely watches an approaching person from its resting place, and if a meeting is inevitable, it calmly and with dignity walks away. Once, along a path by the banks of the Sadagi River, a tiger came within two meters of a man fishing. Upon seeing the fisherman, the tiger, as if nothing had happened, went down into the river and waded to the other bank. The fishing rod dropped by the frightened fisherman splashed water onto the tiger's face, but it didn't even turn toward the man or quicken his pace. Sometimes, amusing incidents occur. In December 1965, employees of the Chuguyevsky forestry, while returning from a logging site by tractor, began to approach a dry tree lying by the road, previously selected for firewood. Suddenly, ten meters away, a large tiger rose from behind the fallen branches. The people were terrified and stopped the tractor. Then, they regained their composure and tried to scare the animal with the noise of the engine and clanging metal. The tiger calmly observed all this, then began to circle the tractor, slowly coming closer. The foresters had no choice but to leave the place at maximum speed. In Pozharsky District, a forester, returning to the village, saw a tiger sitting directly on the road. Lacking a gun and the ability to turn back, the forester began throwing stones at the animal. The tiger would move off the road but would then run forward and come back onto it. In this way, playing with the man, the tiger accompanied him all the way to the village. The tiger often follows nighttime travelers for a very long time. In 1965, along the bank of the Kolumbe River, a tiger followed a man for 7 kilometers, staying 10-15 meters from the path. When the traveler's nerves failed, and he threw a stone at the tiger, it pounced on the stone with a roar. Then, with a quiet and dissatisfied growl, it escorted the unfortunate man all the way to his winter hut. The tiger becomes more aggressive if a dog is running with the hunter. In its attempt to catch the dog, the tiger often becomes bold. Many cases are known when the predator seized the dog right next to a person or snatched it from the chain near the winter hut. The tiger prefers a dog over any other prey. There are cases when the tiger, upon smelling a dog, would abandon a freshly killed boar and follow the dog to the hunters' cabin. Moreover, when charging at a pack of dogs that had stopped a boar, it would fiercely crush the dogs, ignoring the boar. It is probably the age-old enmity between cats and dogs that is at play here. Until the beginning of this century, tiger attacks on humans in the Amur-Ussuri region were a common occurrence. Over the last 50 years, however, these animals have fundamentally changed their attitude towards people and mainly attack only when pursued, especially after being wounded. In November 1966, a tiger started habitually stealing sika deer from the Tumansky state farm. They lay in wait for the animal and wounded it. Fleeing from pursuit, it attacked a gamekeeper and seriously injured him. In the village of Petropavlovka in November 1966, hunters set a trap gun by a horse that had been killed and partially eaten by a tiger. The predator was wounded at night. The next day, three hunters went after it in pursuit. The tiger, lying in wait, allowed them to approach within 15 meters before charging at one of them, injuring him, and disappearing. The attack was so swift that none of the three had time to shoot. In February 1967, in the Chuguevsky district, a logging truck driver wounded a tiger in the front paw on a forest road. The animal retreated. A few days later, a group of hunters from the village of Samarka went to track down the injured tiger. Sensing their pursuit, the tiger lay in ambush in a fallen timber area. The hunters, noticing something was wrong in time, stopped to discuss the situation. The attack came from 20 meters away, but the men, who were on guard, managed to shoot only after one of them had been struck down by the tiger. It is difficult to describe the speed of a tiger's attack – it must be seen to be believed. Once, I witnessed a tiger covering the ground in massive leaps, quickly closing on a dog that was running towards me. After I fired a shot over the animal, I only managed to catch a glimpse of what seemed like a yellow gust of wind rushing past. And then everything went quiet. Only the dog was trembling at my feet. To be honest, it wasn't just the dog that was shaking... In the Amur-Ussuri forests, there has been only one recorded case of a person killed by a tiger attack over the past 50 years. This occurred near the Iman River in 1963. A hunter, carelessly approaching barking dogs, was attacked by the tiger, which the dogs had cornered. The tiger, upon seeing the man, charged and crushed his head in a leap. Instances of aggressive behavior by tigers towards people have been recorded, though rarely, on an annual basis over the past 5–10 years. Occasionally, the animals show an unusual boldness that provokes mixed reactions among people: some admire the tiger's bravery, while others are outraged by the audacity of the powerful cat. In July 1970, near Tavaiza Bay, a very large, old tiger killed six head of livestock in a short period. On one occasion, after killing a cow, it dragged the carcass a hundred meters away and began to eat, ignoring gunshots and the sounds of iron being struck to scare it off. In January 1969, another tiger entered the village of Dmitrievka. For several days, it terrorized the villagers, making a lair under a haystack in the cattle yard and hunting dogs in broad daylight. Initially, the villagers tried to drive the tiger away with gunshots, then with a tracked tractor, but the fearless animal charged at the multi-ton pile of roaring iron, forcing the driver to retreat. When attempts were made to trap the tiger in nets, it severely injured a worker and was finally killed directly on top of him. It was an old, emaciated animal, heavily infected with parasites. The tiger displays a remarkable inconsistency in its attitude towards humans. At times, it is so cautious that it lives in a hunting area for a long time, yet hunters never see it. Then, suddenly, with a kind of proud arrogance, it stands in the hunter's path and refuses to move, exposing itself to gunfire. Or it might come to a beehive or a hunter's cabin in broad daylight to openly kill a dog and scare people away. However, the tiger's aggression toward humans is an exception to the rule, which can be summed up as: the Amur tiger does not fear humans, but it does not harm them either. Almost all hunters know this rule, yet the tiger still has a strong, almost magical psychological impact on many people. Even experienced hunters are excited by a fresh tiger track, and some abandon their hunt and return home. The increase in the Amur tiger population is accompanied by regular shootings, most of which are unauthorized. From 1965 to 1970, seventy tigers were killed in the Amur-Ussuri region, with only eight of them being legally permitted. In Primorye, an average of ten tigers are killed each year. The natural permanent reserve for the Amur tiger should be the Sikhote-Alin State Reserve. However, its current area (310,000 hectares) is too small for this purpose and needs to be increased by at least twice. The most feasible expansion would be to annex the upper reaches of the Iman River above the Kolumbe River's mouth. This area is currently only lightly exploited for hunting, has no settlements, and the natural environment, fortunately, remains largely unaffected by human activity. There are still plenty of red deer, wild boar, bears, as well as moose, roe deer, musk deer, and other animals. Tigers are also abundant here.
The only serious obstacle to adding the upper Iman to the reserve would be resistance from logging agencies, which have certain plans for the cedar forests in this area. However, this resistance can and should be overcome, as the temporary interests of the present are less important than preserving unique natural complexes in their original state for future generations.
Source : www.booksite.ru/hant/index.htm
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Post by fantasticstruggle788 on Nov 6, 2024 12:33:31 GMT -5
Amur Tiger – Relic of the Fauna of the Far East .Abramov K.G. (1965) [Notes of the Primorsky Branch of the Geographical Society of the USSR 1 (24).] pp. 106-112
Despite the absence of records of Machaerodus in the geological chronicle of the Far East, we are confident that the saber-toothed tiger was a Tertiary inhabitant of the Far East and that the modern form of the tiger, based on cranial features, is closely related to Machaerodus. To verify this, it is enough to compare their skulls. The only difference is that the skull of the saber-toothed tiger — Machaerodus — is larger and more massive than that of the Amur tiger. We believe that the range of Felis tigris longipilis originated locally, is autochthonous, and is also a relic: the tiger found refuge during major glaciations, survived here, and has persisted to the present day.
Currently, the Amur tiger inhabits the southern part of the Soviet Far East and the neighboring provinces of China (Heilongjiang) and North Korea (Hamgyong-bukto, Musan, etc.), located close to the border with Manchuria. In the Korean Peninsula, the tiger no longer ranges south of the 38th parallel, although it used to be found as far south as Seoul. The outlined range of the Amur tiger can be considered continuous since tigers from North Korea and China still enter the USSR, and vice versa, tigers from our territory move into China and North Korea. Tigers from Heilongjiang province are also known to occasionally enter Transbaikalia. Although we tend to consider the Amur tiger's range as continuous and not divided into micro-ranges of isolated groups or populations, we must note that gaps have already appeared in some areas where the tiger no longer lives permanently and only passes through occasionally. Such areas in the Soviet Far East include the Ussuri River valley and the valleys of its large tributaries: Khor, Bikin, Iman, and others.
In China and North Korea, the tiger has also been pushed by humans into more remote and secluded areas, where wild ungulates, the tiger's main prey, still exist in significant numbers. In Primorsky Krai, we can point to three regions where tigers live more or less permanently: the area of the Sikhote-Alin State Reserve (Terneysky and Krasnoarmeysky districts), the Sebucharo-Shitukhin region (formerly Kalininsky, northern Chuguevsky, and Kirovsky districts), and the Vanzinsky region (formerly Lazovsky and Chuguevsky districts). In the border areas, in the upper reaches of the Shufan, Sanduga, and Elduga rivers, along the Sintukhe River (Pogranichny district), and along the Zarubino Ridge (in the area of Burlit Station, in the lower reaches of the Bikin River), we often observe tiger movements to and from Primorye.
In recent years, with the prohibition of tiger hunting not only in the USSR but also in China and North Korea, the number of tigers has begun to increase, and it is natural that the previously isolated areas of the tiger's permanent habitat are starting to merge again. In Khabarovsk Krai, the most stable tiger habitat is in the spurs of the Lesser Khingan Range, the Shukhi-Pokto Ridge, along the tributaries of the Bidzhan River, and in the upper reaches of the Great and Little Taimen rivers, especially in the upper reaches of the Bidzhan River (Tsar-Sopka). In the basin of the Pompeevka River, there is a fairly regular movement of tigers from the left to the right bank of the Amur and back. In the eastern part of Khabarovsk Krai, along the Khungari and Anyuy rivers, the tiger is now very rare. More frequently, it is found along the Khor, Podkhorenka, and Motay rivers, but even here, only solitary tigers are encountered.
In the People's Republic of China, the exact range of the tiger is not well established. A zoologist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Biological Sciences Shou, provided us with only fragmentary data, stating that the highest concentration of tigers is known to be in the upper reaches of the Mudanjiang River and in the lower reaches of the Songhua River. More detailed information about the tiger's distribution areas (Musan and Hamgyong-bukdo) was provided by the Korean Academy of Sciences—Doctor Won Hong Gu (whom we mentioned earlier).
In the delineated range, there are two forms of tiger, systematically close to each other and classified as one subspecies, Felis tigris longipilis Fitz., 1864. The form inhabiting the southern part of the range is called the Korean tiger and differs from the northern, or Amur, form by its relatively smaller size, brighter coat coloration, and shorter fur length. The body size (length) of F. t. longipilis longipilis reaches 4 meters (including the tail) and weighs up to 320 kg, with a shoulder height of about 110 cm.
Based on rules established by zoologists Bergmann (regarding body size differences between northern and southern forms), Gloger (concerning brighter coloration in southern forms), and Rensch (on the longer fur in northern forms), these differences in size, coat thickness, and brightness in our tigers are quite regular. The fact that both forms inhabit the same range, do not have biological or ecological barriers, and even interbreed in natural conditions provides all the grounds to classify them as one subspecies, F. t. longipilis, with the southern form named F. t. longipilis coreensis and the northern form F. t. longipilis longipilis.
The opinion of S.I. Ognev and other authors who studied the tiger in the past—that these two forms should be classified as different subspecies—can be explained by the insufficient study of the tiger at that time. We cannot classify the tiger as a wild species that is dying out due to proximity to humans. If the number of tigers has decreased throughout their current range, it is solely the result of excessive hunting and the intense capture of cubs. This can be demonstrated by the following examples: by the early 1930s, the number of tigers in the Sikhote-Alin had declined so much that a ban on hunting and capturing tigers became necessary. However, the establishment of the Sikhote-Alin State Nature Reserve in 1935, with an extensive area of 1.8 million hectares, helped restore the tiger population in this part of the Russian Far East. By the early 1940s, L.G. Kaplanov and V.D. Shamykin had already counted 25-30 tigers in the reserve. Tigers had been driven out of the Ternei coast back in 1914, but after breeding in the reserve, they reappeared on the eastern slopes of Sikhote-Alin and have remained there ever since.
By the mid-1950s, there were again signs of a decline in the tiger population. This was due to the fact that in 1951, the territory of the Sikhote-Alin Reserve was reduced 18-fold (to 110,000 hectares), the Sudzukhinsky Reserve was completely liquidated, tiger hunting was not prohibited, and the capture of young tigers was carried out very intensively. For example, in 1954–1955 alone, eleven tiger cubs were captured. At that time, the zoo would pay a reward of 500 rubles for each tiger track identified. Such extermination and persecution of tigers generally threatened their existence in the Far East. However, measures taken in the mid-1950s helped restore the tiger population, and by the late 1950s and early 1960s, their numbers had noticeably increased.
In 1958-59, in cooperation with the Main Hunting Department and the Primorsky State Hunting Inspection, we conducted a tiger census in Primorsky Krai and obtained the following results: 12 adult males, 3 adult females without cubs, 13 females with cubs, 23 young tigers in cub groups, and 4 individuals whose gender and age were not determined. Unfortunately, in 1958, the Khabarovsk State Hunting Inspection categorically refused to cooperate with us in counting tigers. Therefore, we have no detailed data on the Khabarovsk Krai. We only have an oral statement from the chief hunting inspector N.V. Mikhailov that he counts 35 tigers in the Khabarovsk Krai without classifying them by gender, etc.
Naturally, the question arises: what is the limit to which the growth of this large predator's population can be allowed? Before answering this question, we will briefly discuss the biology and ecology of the tiger. The tiger belongs to slowly reproducing species. A tigress becomes sexually mature at three years of age. After giving birth to cubs—usually two or three, rarely one or five—she raises them until they are three years old. Thus, she is capable of producing offspring once every three to four years. Her pregnancy lasts an average of about 105 days. The timing of tiger births is not tied to any particular season. During the rearing of young, as soon as they are strong enough to follow the tigress, she leads them with her, hunts wild boars, red deer, and other ungulates for them, leaves them "with meat," and then goes off in search of new prey.
In terms of diet, the tiger is a predator (monophage), preferring fresh meat of wild ungulates, which it primarily feeds on.
A starving tiger may eat anything it finds. In the stomachs of tigers that died from hunger, grass, moss, and lichen have been discovered. There is even a known case where a hungry tiger ate oats at the bivouac of the Trofimov tiger hunters. In the winter, a tiger prefers wild boar, as its meat is especially fatty during this season; in the summer, it hunts elk or deer, which are better fed than wild boars during this time of year. It has also been noted that bears, especially the smaller Himalayan variety, play a significant role in the tiger's diet.
According to L.G. Kaplanov's calculations, a tiger's annual meat consumption is quite large, as it eats up to 30 large animals, each weighing 100 kg (a total of 3000 kg of live weight). From this estimate, when considering the impact on hunting grounds, we can classify the tiger as a predator that significantly reduces the population of hoofed animals. However, it has long been observed that where tigers live, the number of hoofed animals is always large. Hunters often say, "Tiger places are always rich in game."
This paradox is explained simply: due to the way a tiger catches its prey, it does not scare off other animals. It does so "so neatly" that other hoofed animals hardly notice their comrades' disappearance. The tiger stalks its prey cautiously, attacks silently, quickly breaks the animal's neck, and drags it into the thicket to eat. Unlike wolves or even bears, a tiger does not chase or frighten the hoofed animals. We have often observed tiger families living near salt licks, which elk and deer visit frequently. Sometimes a tiger will follow a herd of wild boars, picking off its prey as needed. That is why people refer to the tiger as a "boar herder."
It should be noted that where tigers live, wolves—much more damaging to hunting grounds—do not. Wild boars, if they reproduce excessively, become a threat to cornfields, especially during the milk-ripening stage of the crop. In areas near forests, boars will trample through cornfields in herds until the last stalks are harvested. Therefore, the tiger can be seen as a factor regulating boar populations, which has a positive impact. It is no coincidence that in Korea and China, people living in the taiga considered the tiger to be a benevolent spirit that saved their fields from being ravaged by boars.
This same assessment of the tiger’s role can be made from a livestock breeder's perspective. In the past, when the region was sparsely populated, early Russian settlers often had to defend their horses and cows from tigers. The well-known Primorye prospector Fedor Andreyevich Silin once recalled how his grandfather, living in the village of Arzomasovka, killed a large tiger with a hayfork when it approached their earth hut where oxen were kept. These times are long gone. Now, the question is whether the tiger can still harm our modern livestock farming.
In recent years, reports have appeared about tigers killing horses or cows in various regions. However, during our research, we found that such damage is neither regular nor a mandatory behavior of tigers. In all cases we investigated, the attacks were random. Either a young tiger was responsible (as in the 1959 incident with a foal in the Suputinsky reserve) or an older tiger in an area with few wild hoofed animals, where livestock wandered into the taiga without supervision (as with the horse incident at Maihe in 1960, or with the cases in the Tudy-Vaku region in 1958, etc.). In 1961, the newspaper Krasnoye Znamya reported a nighttime tiger attack on a herd near Kondratenovka, where four calves were allegedly killed. However, it's hard to believe that a tiger would kill four calves and leave them behind. This was more likely the work of wolves. Unfortunately, no specialist was on-site to determine the truth based on the wounds.
In any case, we observed the following: since 1958, tigers have lived permanently in the Suputinsky reserve. The livestock belonging to reserve staff graze freely without any losses from tigers, except for the previously mentioned foal. When determining which predator was responsible for an attack, one should note that tigers always grab their prey by the neck, quickly crushing the vertebrae. If the tiger is too weak to do this (as in the case of young tigers), it still grabs its prey in a characteristic spot. If the victim's throat is torn or its side is ripped open, this is undoubtedly the work of another predator—most likely a wolf. A bear, when attacking, grabs the prey by the shoulders with one paw and by the face with the other, knocking it to the ground before finishing it off. These methods help to identify the culprit behind livestock losses.
And what about the tiger’s relationship with humans? Is the tiger dangerous to human life? Almost all cases of tiger attacks on humans in the last 40 years have been thoroughly investigated. All were triggered either by the human attacking the tiger first, by injuring the tiger (causing it to retaliate), or by the presence of a cowardly dog near the hunter, which, fleeing the tiger, would run toward its owner, endangering them both. It should be noted that a tiger will never pass up a chance to grab a dog, even from a well-armed hunter.
One notable incident, recounted by a former ranger of the Sikhote-Alin Reserve named Kuklin, occurred when he was returning from Sidatun along the Xiao-Nanzi River. A puppy had followed him, running ahead along the trail or disappearing into the forest for long periods. It was already evening, and there was only about a kilometer left to his planned campsite. Suddenly, the puppy darted onto the trail and hid behind Kuklin’s legs. Looking back, Kuklin saw a tiger standing on the path. To scare it off, he fired a shot into the air, and the tiger retreated. However, after walking another hundred meters, the tiger reappeared ahead of him on the trail. Kuklin fired into the air again, and the tiger disappeared once more, only to circle around and return from behind. Kuklin decided to spend the night on the trail, set up a tent, gathered firewood, and lit a fire. The puppy remained restless all night, barking or trying to hide under Kuklin. By morning, a light snow had fallen, and Kuklin saw that the tiger had circled his campsite all night, likely trying to get to the dog. The tiger only left at dawn.
In another case in the Shandui Key (Terney) area, a tiger snatched one of three dogs with a lost hunter, Belonosov. The tiger took the dog but did not pursue the hunter, who was later found frozen on the Tunsha River. The two remaining dogs were found near his body.
There are two known cases where dog owners lost their hands during a tiger attack, as their hands accidentally ended up in the tiger's mouth amidst the chaos. However, this only underscores the fact that, in general, tigers avoid attacking humans and only do so when forced by circumstances.
Indeed, N.A. Baikov, the author of the monograph The Manchurian Tiger, provides data on cases of man-eating tigers. But how can we explain that the Udege people, with whom I have had many conversations about tigers, knew nothing about such cases? All their stories were about the theft of dogs. It is possible that during Baikov's time, the practice of hunting tigers with self-triggering guns, which often maimed the animals, was common in Manchuria. Many tigers, after being injured, became crippled and, unable to hunt wild animals, resorted to attacking humans as easier prey. Such man-eating tigers in India are described in Jim Corbett's book The Man-Eaters of Kumaon.
In any case, there is no reliable record of tiger man-eating in the Soviet Far East. The behavior of a large tiger at a salt lick in the B. Shandun Key (June 25, 1958), when three of my companions, completely unarmed, took from the tiger a fawn it had just killed, is very characteristic of this massive cat. The tiger, resting in the tall grass, allowed the people, who hadn’t noticed him, to come within 10 meters, then slowly stood up, glanced sideways at the astonished intruders, and leisurely retreated into the thicket. Many hunters have reported that tigers calmly abandon their prey when a human approaches.
However, the tiger does not fear humans. It will often watch them from the thicket or behind a log, circle around a person’s trail, and so on. I believe that by doing this, the tiger is seeking an opportunity to catch a person's usual companion in the taiga—a dog—or it might even be curious about the person themselves, since they have wandered into the tiger’s hunting grounds.
In any case, it is time to conclude that tigers pose no direct danger to human life. We do not view the tiger as an object of absolute protection. Our attitude towards this magnificent, unique symbol of the Far Eastern wilderness is the same as that of Udege hunters, who believe that tigers violating the “established code of coexistence”—those that interfere with people's lives, attack, or steal dogs—should be eliminated. Despite the tiger's totemic significance for these hunters, they would raise a weapon against it. So what would stop us from doing the same if, in some areas, tigers became too numerous and began causing significant, systematic harm to the local economy, such as stealing farmed deer or regularly preying on livestock ex. Regulating the tiger population remains in our hands, through the shooting of adults and the live capture of young ones. However, both should not be left to chance but must be regulated according to carefully developed instructions and rules.
A monument of our nature should be not only the living tiger but also museum specimens. Unfortunately, we have very few such specimens, even in the zoological museums of Moscow and Leningrad. The reason for this is the poor organization of museum collections. For example, in the museum of Moscow State University, the tiger specimens are either undocumented, or there is an incomplete skull without a hide or a hide without a skull. As a rule, there are no measurements or weight data of the animal.
It is necessary that a zoologist be present at future shootings. Only in this case will the required materials be fully provided.
In conclusion, let us consider an interesting question: will the tiger be able to survive in the wild in a cultural landscape, or will it become extinct?
We answer this question as follows: in the winter of 1958-59, we observed tiger tracks in close proximity to the forest section 'Sibuchar.' The animal repeatedly passed here at night along the forest road, where timber was transported and machines were working. At the same time, tiger tracks were observed in the fields near the village of Samarka; passing through these fields six kilometers from the village, the tiger crossed the Sibuchar River on ice and went up its tributary, Xiao-Beitse, toward the Shituhe Pass.
Of course, in addition to areas of the so-called cultural landscape, the tiger also needs areas of protected taiga. We hope that such areas will be provided for the tiger through the expansion of the network of state nature reserves.
Source: disk.yandex.ru/d/-HSId0ZBJEEkr
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Post by fantasticstruggle788 on Nov 8, 2024 5:50:24 GMT -5
Ok, so i posted a text about the Amur tiger by N.A. Baikov, which was originally published in 1927 in the magazine "Hunter" (No. 8, pp. 23–24). Unfortunately, I don't have access to the original source, but I did find the same text in another publication, "Hunting and Game Management (No. 5, 2000, pp.24-25)." So don’t be confused if i break the rules here  .Baikov, N. A. Tigers in the Far East (1927).
The range of the Manchurian tiger is quite extensive. Being predominantly a mountainous animal, it inhabits almost exclusively mountainous forests. In the Amur region, the northern boundary of its distribution should be considered around the 50° latitude, although individual specimens sometimes reach as far as 54° latitude. Tigers rarely enter the eastern part of Transbaikalia, descending from the western spurs of the Greater Khingan. In the Ussuri region, tigers are very common south of the Khora River basin. In Manchuria, tigers are common in its southeastern part, i.e., in the Jilin Province. They are frequently found in the Lesser Khingan Mountains, and very rarely in the Greater Khingan. There are particularly many tigers in the mountain forests of the Changbai Mountains, along the border with Korea, and in the mountains of North Korea. There are no tigers on plains and in treeless steppe areas. One of the significant distinguishing features of the Amur and Manchurian tigers from other species is the structure of the predatory tooth, Dens sectorius, of the upper jaw, which lacks a fifth accessory cusp (vertex ?). The size of this tiger is as follows: total length 390 cm, of which the tail accounts for 100 cm, shoulder height 115 cm, and the weight of an old male sometimes reaches 400 kg. The female is significantly smaller. In the Far East, commercial hunters and Chinese trappers distinguish two types of tigers: one with a lighter color and a fluffier, longer coat, and another darker one, with smooth and short fur. Among the Chinese, the tiger holds a special charm and is called 'Wang,' which means 'chief.' On the forehead of such a tiger, they see the image of the character "Wang". Chinese-Tibetan medicine greatly values almost all parts of the tiger's body, which are used to prepare a variety of medicines and remedies in the form of pills, powders, and tinctures. As a result, the price of a tiger is relatively high. For example, 16 kg of tiger carcass costs from 20 to 50 rubles in gold. The skin is valued from 200 to 300 rubles. Due to this high price, tigers are hunted eagerly, but relatively few are caught, specifically: up to 50 per year within the USSR, up to 80 in Manchuria, and up to 30 in Korea. Chinese industrialists do not dare to shoot a tiger with a rifle and instead catch it by setting up loaded barrels along trails. Soviet industrialists catch it by hunting with dogs or using strychnine. In India, 'enlightened seafarers' hunt this predator by organizing grand drives involving hunting elephants and hundreds of 'shikaris.' However, in our Far East, Russian industrialists often pursue it alone, sometimes with quite imperfect and unreliable weapons. Tracking a tiger, such a hunter follows its fresh tracks, sometimes for several days, and stalks it just like any other beast in the taiga. Hunting a tiger alone here is not even considered heroism but the most ordinary thing, on par with any other hunt. Among Russian trappers, there are even such daredevils who catch tigers alive, not with traps or snares, but simply with their hands, using a simple net that is thrown over the animal’s head during the struggle. The price of a live adult tiger is incomparably higher than a dead one, sometimes reaching up to 5,000 gold rubles. This, in fact, is what motivates some hunters to risk their lives. Hunting a tiger itself is very difficult, exhausting, and requires enormous physical and moral strength. People weak in spirit and body should abandon this hunt once and for all. I knew more than one hunter, an experienced game-hunter, who went after bears with a knife but avoided encounters with tigers. These, admittedly brave hunters, told me that a tiger, at its sights, deprives one of will and paralyzes energy, instilling terror and panic. One of these hunters, who had killed around a hundred bears in his lifetime, told me that his 'heart sinks' when he encounters a tiger. Throughout my twenty-five years of hunting experience, I have repeatedly encountered this 'ruler' of the mountains and forests, and based on my personal impressions and experience, I can say that this animal justly enjoys such awe. I first came face-to-face with a tiger about twenty years ago in the upper reaches of the Suifun River, and I recall that its appearance, especially the look in its deep yellow-green eyes, full of consciousness of strength and power, paralyzed my limbs to such an extent that I could not move from my place or lift my rifle to my shoulder. Fortunately for me, the tiger looked at me intently, let out a low roar, baring its terrifying fangs, and disappeared into the wild grape thickets. I came to my senses and was ready to shoot only when the predator was already long gone. This first encounter taught me a lesson, and on subsequent hunts, I took control of myself in advance and did not allow the tiger to hypnotize me. Still, when shooting at a tiger, you are aware of the mortal danger and experience special feelings that cannot compare with any excitement during other hunts for large or even dangerous animals. In 1908, I managed to photograph a tiger just before the shot. In November, I was hunting boars in the upper reaches of the Hailinhe River together with the renowned Ussuri hunter Pletnev, who had brought with him from Primorye ten hunting dogs. It was 4 o’clock in the afternoon. The sun was already setting behind the jagged ridge of Laoling. The shadows of the taiga grew denser. Our dogs had gone on the trail of the boars, and their barking was heard, sometimes approaching, sometimes moving away. We approached the chase and entered the sparse forest. After a brief stop, the dogs chased the animal again, but now straight toward us. We stood under the cover of thickets and bushes on the edge of a forest clearing, waiting for the boars to emerge. The chase drew closer, but from the barking, it was clear that the dogs were pursuing not boars but some other animal, and indeed, less than ten minutes after our stop, a tiger appeared at the opposite edge of the clearing, moving quickly along the edge. The dogs ran out after him into the clearing, staying about 60 paces from him (no closer), barking fiercely at him, with their tails tucked and expressing fear with their hoarse voices. The predator stopped, turned his powerful head towards the dogs, and began to intimidate them with growls, baring his mouth to reveal long saber-like fangs. After each growl, the dogs jumped to the side. The distance from us to the tiger was no more than 150 paces. I had a Kodak camera with me, measuring 4x6 cm. I remembered it and immediately focused the viewfinder on the animal. It took just a few seconds. In the tense silence of the taiga evening, interrupted by the tiger’s roar and the barking of dogs, the camera shutter clicked, and almost simultaneously, the three-line rifle of the hunter Pletnev fired. The predator roared louder than before and plunged its head into the snow. Then I dropped the camera into the snow and prepared to shoot; but it was no longer necessary, as the convulsive movement of its legs showed the animal’s agony. We approached within 10 steps of the fallen tiger. The dogs surrounded it but didn’t dare come too close, even to the dead animal. Judging by its raised ears and motionless tail tip, the beast was indeed dead. The reddish, black-striped, powerful figure stood out sharply against the bright white of the fluffy snow. The setting sun cast its farewell rays on the group of hunters and the quieted dogs. The animal turned out to be of average size. Its total length was 18 quarters. Judging by the dark color of its fur, it belonged to the Korean race. It was a magnificent male, well-fed, and even fat. Its weight likely reached 160 kg. The bullet entered near the right ear, but there was no exit wound. Judging by the crunch of skull bones, the bullet had shattered the brain and cranium. After this, I had several opportunities to hunt tigers, and in 1911, I took one of colossal size. It was 375 cm in length, 116 cm at the shoulder height, and weighed (after gutting) 250 kg. In December of last year, the Chinese transported an even larger tiger from Vladivostok to Mukden via Harbin. According to the invoice (consignment note), it was listed at a weight of 390 kg.N. A. Baikov, Hunter Magazine, No. 8, 1927
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Post by fantasticstruggle788 on Nov 10, 2024 14:50:31 GMT -5
Some Aspects of the Biology of the Amur Tiger (Panthera tigris longipilis) in Relation to Its ConservationRukovsky N.N. (1968). [Zoological Journal 47 (5).] pp. 786-788Moscow State Pedagogical Institute Named After V.I. Lenin The 20-year ban on tiger hunting within the Soviet Far East, along with a reduction in the allowed capture of tiger cubs, has positively affected the population and range of this predator. While in the early 1940s (Kaplanov, 1948), the tiger population was estimated at only 20-30 individuals, confined to the most remote areas of the taiga, primarily in the basin of the Iman River, by 1960, the area inhabited by tigers, according to our calculations, was approximately 105,000 km², and the population had reached 120 individuals. Further conservation efforts and habitat restoration for the tiger necessitate a comprehensive study of its biology. In connection with this, in 1959-1961, the Sikhote-Alin Reserve attempted to examine the interactions of the tiger with wolves and bears, as well as to determine the causes of this predator’s attacks on domestic animals. During the winter of 1959/60, in the Sikhote-Alin Reserve, tracks repeatedly indicated that tigers were driving wolves out of the valley of the Sitsa River. Through gathering survey data, it was discovered that similar occurrences were noted in other tiger habitats. Only four of the 42 surveyed local hunters, who were long-time residents, claimed that the tiger coexists with wolves, with wolves following it and feeding on the remnants of its meals. The remaining 38 expressed a general opinion that the tiger actively pursues and kills wolves or drives them out of the territories it has claimed. Hunters from the village of Yelovka (Anuchinsky District, Primorsky Krai) and the village of Koksharovka (Chuguevsky District, Primorsky Krai) reported that with the appearance of the tiger near their settlements, wolves disappeared entirely. This observation aligns with studies conducted in the Sikhote-Alin Reserve and confirms that the tiger views the wolf as an antagonist. This also sheds light on the history of wolf colonization in Primorye. In the mid-19th century, when the tiger was widespread in the Far East, wolves were absent from this region. According to R. Maak (1861), the wolf at that time was only found in the valley of the Ussuri River and around Lake Khanka. In the upper reaches of the Ussuri, this predator was not present. As the tiger’s numbers and range declined, along with forest logging and the development of livestock farming, the wolf gradually expanded throughout Primorye. Wolves only appeared along the Sea of Japan coast and the eastern slopes of the Sikhote-Alin in the early 20th century. For instance, in the area of the villages of Plastun and Jigit, local residents informed me that wolves were first observed in 1905, while in the Samarga River basin, they only appeared in the 1930s. In the remote areas of the western slopes of the Sikhote-Alin, wolves also appeared only in 1938-1939 (Kaplanov, 1948). This timing coincides with the period of the tiger's lowest numbers in Primorsky Krai. At present, as the tiger's range and population have begun to recover, the opposite phenomenon is observed – a reduction in the distribution area of the wolf. The time of the red wolf’s (Cyon alpinus) disappearance from the eastern slopes of the Sikhote-Alin coincides with the arrival of the gray forest wolf. The relationship between the tiger and the bear is considerably more complex. Among 42 hunters in Primorsky Krai, 7 stated that the tiger specifically hunts bears, 6 said that bears follow tiger tracks and gather leftovers of their prey, 14 described fights between tigers and bears without fatal outcomes, 2 reported cases where a bear strangled a tiger, 11 mentioned cases where a tiger killed a bear, and finally, 2 hunters wrote that bears abandon areas where a tiger appears. The opinion of only the last two correspondents cannot be accepted: a bear cannot leave areas occupied by a tiger, as the ranges of these two predators in the Far East have always overlapped. In the Sikhote-Alin Reserve, tracks of both predators are regularly found in the same habitats. The reports from the other correspondents raise no doubt. It appears that the tiger hunts bears only when its usual prey of wild boar and red deer is insufficient, i.e., when it is driven by hunger. Furthermore, according to the hunters, the tiger more often attacks the smaller Asiatic black bear than the brown bear. Fights between large brown bears and tigers seem to occur only in years of food scarcity for the bear. Bears that have not entered winter dens and are wandering may encounter a tiger over a carcass. In some cases, the tiger may become the victim in such encounters, especially if it is a young individual. For example, in December 1960, a very difficult year for bears due to poor food harvests, in the middle course of the Tunsha River (Sikhote-Alin Reserve), a brown bear killed and ate a tiger. From the tracks and the remaining skull, we determined that the bear was very large, and the tiger was about 4 years old. Nevertheless, from the snow trampled by the predators, the fir trees broken as thick as a wrist, blood, and tufts of fur, it was clear that the struggle between the predators was fierce and prolonged. Such cases, of course, are rare and therefore the bear cannot have any noticeable impact on the tiger population. Throughout its range, both in our Far East and elsewhere, the tiger primarily feeds on hoofed animals. In addition to ungulates, the Amur tiger hunts bears, wolves, lynxes, hares, grouse, and even catches fish (Kaplanov, 1948). Domestic animals are not the tiger's usual food, but attacks on cattle, horses, and dogs have long been known in all countries where it is found. However, tiger attacks on domestic animals are associated either with the absence or scarcity of natural prey, unfavorable natural events that make it difficult for the predator to catch its usual food, or, finally, with physical disabilities such as injury, illness, old age, etc. For example, E.T. Smirnov (1883) writes that near Tashkent in 1882-1883, there was an exceptionally harsh winter with heavy snowfall, which led to tiger attacks on domestic animals and even people. V.S. Pokrovsky (1951) reports that in the Amu Darya delta in 1938, after a mass die-off of wild boar from plague, tigers began attacking livestock. Such reports are often found in the literature. To clarify the tiger's attitude towards domestic animals, a broad survey was conducted among residents of Primorsky Krai by distributing questionnaires. Out of 136 questionnaires and letters received from regions where the tiger lives, 43 correspondents reported that the tiger does not harm domestic animals, 30 that it attacks cattle, 44 that it attacks horses, and 19 that it attacks dogs. The number of questionnaires with reports of tiger attacks on dogs would have been significantly higher if the correspondents, in most cases, had not only considered cattle and horses as domestic animals. The majority of questionnaires with negative responses came from the most remote areas of Krasnoarmeisky and Chuguyevsky districts, where wild boar, red deer, and other ungulates are still abundant, as well as from areas where the tiger does not occur consistently. The fact that horses are more frequently attacked by tigers than cows is quite natural, as they graze more often in the taiga or in areas far from settlements than cattle do. Most cows killed by tigers belonged to forest rangers living at checkpoints or beekeepers whose apiaries are located far from villages. However, there are known cases of tigers entering not only pastures close to villages but also directly into household plots and livestock yards in settlements. I received reports about this from the villages of Urta-Polyana and Ariadne in the Kalinin district, from Sokolchi and Chernoruchye in the Lazovsky district, from Abakumovka and Arzamazovka in the Olginsky district, from Krasnaya Rechka in the Chuguyevsky district, and many others. It is known that tigers have repeatedly stolen dogs from kennels at border posts and have also entered deer farm enclosures and killed spotted deer. The increasing frequency of tiger attacks on domestic animals in certain areas of the Far East suggests that these cases may grow as the predator population continues to recover. This is due to the fact that, along with the growth of the tiger population, its food base continues to deteriorate as the numbers of wild ungulates decline. The tiger, a rare and valuable species, may under current circumstances become a predator harmful to livestock farming, complicating its further protection. One of the first measures to counter such undesirable actions by the tiger should be improving its living conditions, namely, along with protecting the tiger itself, it is necessary to protect ungulate animals. It would be advisable to ban boar hunting for an extended period in all areas where the tiger lives, especially since boar hunting in these areas has no economic significance. Hunting of red deer should also be reduced, allowing only limited licensed hunting of bulls during the antler growth period. The capture of tiger cubs, which is currently an official method of controlling the tiger population in the Far East, is completely incorrect. Even after the decision to protect the tiger, nearly 60 tiger cubs were caught in less than 20 years. This may have had a negative impact not only on the species' numbers but also on the structure of its population. The preservation of only older individuals will ultimately lead to both the weakening of the population and an increase in cases of predator attacks on domestic animals. One of the further objectives in preserving the tiger should be conducting a thorough census of its population size and structure, as well as monitoring and protecting the animals that are its food sources. The Amur tiger, as a rare species of great value, must be preserved in our country.
ORIGINAL TEXT FROM GOOGLE BOOKS :
Некоторые вопросы биологии амурского тигра (Panthera tigris longipilis) в связи с его охраной
НН Руковский
Зоологический журнал 47 (5), 786-788, 1968
Московский государственный педагогический институт им ВИ Ленина 20-летний запрет добычи тигра в пределах советского Дальнего Востока И сокращения нормы отлова тигрят положительно сказались на численности и ареале этого хищника. Если в начале 40-х гг.(Капланов, 1948) тигр в числе всего 20-30 экз. обитал лишь в наиболее глухих уголках тайги, главным образом в бассейне р. Иман, то к 1960 г. площадь, на которой держались тигры, по нашим подсчетам, равнялась приблизительно 105 тыс . км2 , а численность достигла 120 особей . Дальнейшая охрана и восстановление ареала тигра вызывают необходимость все- стороннего изучения его биологии .
В связи с этим в 1959—1961 гг . Сихотэ - Алиньским заповедником была предпринята попытка выяснить взаимоотношения тигра с волком и медведем , а также установить причины , вызывающие нападение этого хищника на домашних животных . Зимой 1959/60 г. в Сихотэ - Алиньском заповеднике неоднократно наблюдалось по следам , как тигры вытесняли волков из долины р . Сица . Путем сбора анкетных сведений удалось выяснить , что подобные явления замечены И В других районах обитания тигра . Только четыре человека из 42 опрошенных местных охотни ков - старожилов утверждали , что тигр уживается с волками и что последние ходят за ним следом и питаются остатками его трапезы . Остальные 38 человек высказывают общее мнение о том , что тигр ревностно преследует и уничтожает волков или вытес- няет их из тех угодий , в которых он обосновался . Охотники дер . Еловка ( Анучинский р - н Приморского края ) и с . Кокшаровка ( Чукуевский р - н Приморского края ) сооб- щают , что с появлением тигра в окрестностях их селений волки исчезли совершенно . Это полностью совпадает с наблюдениями , проведенными в Сихотэ - Алиньском запо- веднике , и убеждает в том , что тигр преследует волка как своего антагониста . По-следнее проливает свет на историю заселения Приморья волком . В середине прошлого столетия , когда тигр был широко распространен на Дальнем Востоке , волка здесь не было . По данным Р. Маака ( 1861 ) , волк в то время встре- чался лишь в долине р . Уссури и у оз . Ханка . В верховьях Уссури этого хищника не было . По мере уменьшения численности тигра и сокращения его ареала , вырубання лесов и развития животноводства волк в Приморье распространялся на все большей и большей территории . На побережье Японского моря и восточных склонах Сихотэ- Алиня волки появились только в начале нашего столетия . Например , в районе селений Пластун и Джигит , как сообщили мне местные жители , волки впервые были замечены в 1905 г. , а в бассейне р . Самарга они появились только в 30 - х гг . В глухих районах западного склона Сихотэ - Алиня волки появились тоже лишь в 1938—1939 гг . ( Капла- нов , 1948 ) . Это совпадает со временем наименьшей численности тигра в Приморском крае . В настоящее время , когда ареал и численность тигра начали восстанавливаться , налицо обратное явление - сокращение области распространения волка . Время исчез- новения красного волка ( Cyon alpinus ) на восточных склонах Сихотэ - Алиня совпа- дает с появлением здесь серого лесного волка .
Между тигром и медведем взаимоотношения значительно сложнее . Из 42 охоГ- ников Приморского края 7 заявило , что тигр специально охотится за медведем , 6 че- ловек , что медведь ходит по следам тигра и собирает остатки его пищи , 14- описы- вают драки тигра с медведем без трагического исхода , двое приводят случаи , когда медведь задушил тигра , 11 — когда тигр убил медведя и , наконец , два охотника пишут, что медведь покидает угодья , в которых появился тигр . Нельзя согласиться с мнением лишь двух последних корреспондентов : медведь не может покидать угодья , занятые тигром , так как на Дальнем Востоке ареалы этих двух хищников всегда совпадали . На территории Сихотэ - Алиньского заповедника следы обоих хищников постоянно встречаются в одних и тех же угодьях . Сообщения остальных корреспондентов не вызывают сомнения . Тигр охотится за медведем , по- видимому , только тогда , когда нет в достаточном количестве его обычного корма кабана и изюбра , т . е . когда его вынуждает к этому голод . Причем , по словам охот- ников , тигр чаще нападает на более мелкого гималайского медведя , чем на бурого . Драки между крупными бурыми медведями и тигром происходят , по - видимому , лишь в голодные для медведя годы . Не залегшие на зиму « шатуны » могут сталкиваться с тигром у добытых животных . В отдельных случаях при этих столкновениях жертвой может стать тигр , особенно если это была молодая особь . Например , в декабре 1960 г. , очень тяжелого для медведей из - за неурожая кормов , в среднем течении р . Туньша ( Сихотэ - Алиньский заповедник ) бурый медведь убил И съел тигра . По следами оставшемуся черепу мы определили , что медведь был очень крупный , а тигр - расте 4 лет . Несмотря на это , по вытоптанному хищниками снегу , сломленным пихтам в руку толщиной , крови и клочьям шерсти , можно было заключить , что борьба хи ц- ников была жестокой и продолжительной . Подобные случаи , конечно , редки и , сле- довательно , медведь не может оказать сколько - нибудь заметного влияния на числен- ность тигра .
- в во3- Пищей тигру как у нас на Дальнем Востоке , так и на всей территории его ареала служат в основном копытные животные . Кроме копытных , амурский тигр добывает медведя , волка , рысь , зайцев , рябчиков и даже ловит рыбу ( Капланов , 1948 ) . Домаш- ние животные не служат обычной пищей тигру , но нападения его на рогатый скот , лошадей и собак с давних пор известны во всех странах , где он распространен . Однако нападения тигра на домашних животных связаны либо с отсутствием или недостатком естественных кормов , либо с неблагоприятными природными явлениями , затрудняю- щими хищнику добычу обычной пищи , либо , наконец , с физическими недостатками зверя - ранением , болезнью , старостью и т . п . Например , Е. Т. Смирнов ( 1883 ) пишет , что под Ташкентом в 1882-1883 гг . была исключительно суровая зима с обильными снегопадами , это вызвало нападения тигров на домашних животных и даже на лю- дей . В. С. Покровский ( 1951 ) сообщает , что в дельте р . Аму - Дарья в 1938 г. , после массовой гибели кабана от чумы , тигры стали нападать на домашний скот . Подобные сообщения в литературе встречаются часто . на ло- Для выяснения отношения тигра к домашним животным был произведен широкий спрос жителей Приморского края путем рассылки анкет . Из 136 анкет и писем , полу- ченных из районов , в которых обитает тигр , 43 корреспондента сообщают , что тигр не приносит вреда домашним животным , 30 , что он нападает на коров , 44 — шадей и 19- на собак . Количество анкет с сообщениями о нападении тигра на собак было бы значительно большим , если бы корреспонденты в большинстве случаев не посчитали бы за домашних животных только рогатый скот и лошадей . Подавляющее число анкет с отрицательными ответами получено из наиболее глухих мест Красно- армейского и Чукуевского районов , в которых до настоящего времени в обилии обл- тают кабан , изюбрь и другие копытные , а также из районов , где тигр встречается не постоянно .
Тот факт , что лошади чаще , чем коровы , становятся жертвой тигра , вполне зако- номерен , так как они чаще , чем рогатый скот , пасутся в тайге или на удаленных от поселков участках . Большинство коров , убитых тиграми , принадлежало лесникам , живущим на кордонах , или пчеловодам , чьи пасеки расположены далеко от поселков . Однако известны случаи проникновения тигров не только на пастбища , расположен- ные в непосредственной близости от селений , но и прямо на приусадебные участки и в скотные дворы в поселках . Об этом мне сообщали из селений Уртаз - Поляна и Ариадное Калининского района , из селений Сокольчи и Черноручье Лазовского р - на , Аббакумовки и Арзамазовки Ольгинского р - на , из Красной Речки __ Чукуевского р - на и многих других . Известно , что тигры неоднократно похищали собак из питомников пограничных застав , а также проникали в парки оленесовхозов и убивали пятнистых оленей . Участившиеся в ряде районов Дальнего Востока нападения тигра на домашних животных дают основания предполагать , что этих случаев по мере дальнейшего вос- становления популяции хищника будет больше . Последнее связано с тем , что , наряду с ростом поголовья тигра , его кормовая база продолжает ухудшаться идет сокра- щение численности диких копытных . Тигр - редкий и ценный вид при сложившихся обстоятельствах может превратиться во вредного для животноводства хищника , и дальнейшая охрана его будет осложнена .
Одной из первых мер , направленных против таких нежелательных действий тигра, должно быть улучшение условий его существования , а именно : наравне с охраной самого тигра необходима охрана копытных животных . Целесообразно было бы на длительный период запретить отстрел кабана во всех районах обитания тигра , тем более , что охота на кабана в этих местах не имеет экономического значения . Следует также сократить охоту на изюбря , разрешая лишь лицензионный отстрел ограничен- ного числа быков в период пантовки . Совершенно неправильным способом регулирования численности тигра , узаконен- чым на Дальнем Востоке , является отлов тигрят . Уже после решения об охране тигра за неполные 20 лет поймано около 60 тигрят . Это могло отрицательно сказаться не только на численности вида , но и на составе его популяции . Сохранение только ста- рых особей в конечном итоге приведет как к ослаблению популяции , так и к увели чению случаев нападения хищников на домашних животных . Одной из дальнейших задач в деле сохранения тигра должно быть проведение тщательного учета численности и состава его поголовья , учета и охраны животных , являющихся его пищевыми объектами . Амурский тигр как редкий вид , имеющий огромную ценность , B нашей стран должен быть сохранен .
Source: www.google.dz/books/edition/%D0%97%D0%BE%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%B6%D1%83%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BB/nPLRAAAAMAAJ?hl=fr
Note: The publication can also be found here : www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://amur-tiger.ru/uploads/files/domyslylegendi2_0055694001701075454.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiHiu6qxtKJAxUFbKQEHSGMLdwQFnoECA4QAQ&usg=AOvVaw0bLr41ovbZBj1oKTrwG1K6
(though it's not the full version.)
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Post by fantasticstruggle788 on Nov 20, 2024 9:04:31 GMT -5
TIGER HUNTING .Sysoev V.P. (1958) [The taiga.] pp. 74-85
Far - Eastern tigers with their longer and softer hair are the biggest species of the cat family . Some specimens attain a weight of 880 lbs .
This handsome , agile , and powerful animal has survived in the Far East since the Quaternary period , when the climate there was tropical , and has fully adapted itself to the severe present day conditions in the Amur basin .
It dwells in the mixed cedar and broad - leafed forest of the Sikhote Alin and Little Khingan ranges , occurring most frequently along the rivers Khor , Bikin , Iman , and Bidzhan .
But its numbers are few - adding up to a mere few dozen .
It feeds on the larger ungulates , and is particularly fond of wild hogs, which are far easier approached than any other species . Seeing that tiger tracks mostly run along hog tracks, local hunters have nicknamed the animal " swine - herd ". The Chinese say , " The tiger's progress is as silent as the moon's . " The tiger is fond of red deer , elks and , to a lesser degree , of roes . When opportunity presents , it also attacks medium- sized bears , taking them in their den. A full - grown tiger annually kills and consumes nearly 30 large animals , each weighing some 220 lbs .
But it does not confine itself to big game alone. It also catches rodents , hares , and grouse , and feeds on salmon after spawning , coming in quest of it to the dried - up beds of the tributaries of mountain streams.
The tigress bears her young every three years , but if her offspring happen to die , she pairs anew . The litter usually consists of two or three cubs , but on one occasion five embryos were discovered in a shot female . In their first year , while they are still very small , the cubs feed in their den on food brought by the tigress . As soon as they are somewhat larger and able to weather a long march , the mother takes them along on her journeys . At first the tigress does all the hunting herself . She brings down a hog or red deer , puts the cubs on to it and departs in search of new game . In their second year the cubs hunt sucking - pigs on their own . A three - year - old cub weighs up to 260 lbs . This is the time when its milk - teeth are being replaced and it stands in need of its mother's assistance . But its tracks are by then almost undistinguishable from an adult tiger's. In the fourth year the cubs leave their mother and start an independent life .
In places where the tiger feels itself entirely safe , it hunts throughout the day and night , although generally its habits are nocturnal .
It is capable of very long marches of several hundred miles , but is usually attached to a certain , though very extensive , locality . There have been cases , however , when tigers migrated to the Sikhote Alin from Manchuria across the Zaruben Range near the mouth of the Bikin River .
The tiger has almost no enemies . All animals make way for it, with the sole exception of full - grown brown bears . Nor does it attack man . Not a single tiger - hunter is known to have been killed by it in the last 50 years , to say nothing of the local rural population . It does not attack domestic cattle either , the reason being that it keeps away from human habitation .
Tiger - hunting has been prohibited since 1947.
But the practice of catching tigers alive is not restricted . Captured tigers are placed in zoos or circuses . In the last twenty years , thirty - nine tigers , four of them adult and the others at an age of two to three , were captured in the territory .
Full - grown tigers are not usually taken alive . Ignat Trofimov and his team one day tried to capture an old tiger with the help of forked poles , but were unable to hold it down . The beast pounced on Trofimov , wounding him in the shoulder , and his companions had to shoot it .
Tiger - hunters use forked poles reminiscent of old - time wooden pitchforks , which they usually cut on the spot . Knocked off its feet and pinned down to the ground with these poles , the tiger can neither bite nor scratch the hunters . Keeping it pinned down in that manner , the hunters bind the beast's legs and jaws .
Prokopy Bogachov's team , of Khabarovsk , does not use pitchforks . They take the tigers with their bare hands . The Bogachov team consists of six men . Each has a good dog , for it takes dogs to pursue , stop , and bring the tiger to bay . Prokopy Bogachov , in his sixties , goes after the beast at the head of his nephews , Matvei , Miron and Lu- ka , and his pupils , Cherepanov and Reutov .
The year Bogachov told me about , his men and he left for the Sikhote Alin in late October . November happened to be warm . The crust of ice that formed on the rivers over- night melted during the day and the current bore away the frail ice - floes that were thin as glass . Bogachov had all the confidence in the world in his team , although Luka and Miron were tiger - hunting for the first time . What worried him were the dogs , which were young and with no experience against tigers . Just one of them , Verny , had previously hunted wild hogs and bears .
The hunters made camp some 25 miles up a mountain stream . The tall cedar and broad - leafed forest stretched to its very banks . In places , the trees were hung with lianas . The southern hill - slopes were covered with oaks , but acorns were scarce and the wild pigs had gone elsewhere . For seven days the hunters looked for tiger tracks . Finally , they found them . But it was a problem to take up the pursuit . The warm sun had melted the thin blanket of snow and prevented the overnight frost from icing the mountain streams . But it went against the hunters ' grain to abandon the fresh tracks of a tigress and her half - grown cubs . And the hunters followed the tiger brood, braving the cold rivers and brooks . They went far .
Dark clouds invested the sky . The steady snowfall covered the faint imprints of tiger paws . Crossing the river along slippery iced wind - fallen logs was getting to be dangerous . The food supplies ran out . The men were compelled to turn back . They decided to devote a few days to hog and deer hunting , for they needed meat for themselves and for the tigers they hoped to capture.
Late at night , Chenguma , an Udehei hunter , looked them up in their camp . In his fifty years of taiga hunting he had frequently met Bogachov and had this time volunteered to walk six miles to inform his old friend about the fresh tiger tracks he had spotted that day . He told Prokopy that the tiger den was on a certain rocky hill , that the tigress and her two cubs had come down to the bank of the Katen the day before , had frolicked about on the ice , and had then returned to their hide - out . Next day the men , bent by their heavy loads , headed for the spot pointed out by Chenguma . They built a shed of fir branches at the foot of a rocky hill and spent the night in it . They sat up late , discussing next day's plan of action , made sure of all possible trifles , and weighed all the pros and cons . They did not get much sleep .
At crack of dawn they broke up into two groups in order to circle the hill and locate the tiger den . The rock - strewn hill was densely overgrown with spruces and firs , and a mingling of cedars . There was also an occasional old far - branched yew - tree with its reddish bark, against which tigers are fond of " cleaning " their claws . The stones and the sheer cliffs were covered with weird designs of lichen and moss . The snow - clad sombre forest gave the new - comers an unfriendly reception . The snow was very deep in places , and the jutting rocks and the windthrow made progress on snowshoes extremely difficult . Lumps of moist snow fell on the men from the branches. They marched long through this dreary wilderness before glimpsing a flock of black crows hovering in the trees ahead . Cherepanov , who was walking in advance of the party , stopped , wiped his perspiring forehead with his mitten and peered intently into the thickets . What spoils had these rapacious black birds found in the forest ? The hunters descended into a hollow . They found the carcass of a wild hog black against the snow and a strangled sucking - pig near by . Fresh tiger tracks fanned out from the pigs in all directions . The hunters had clearly interrupted the tigers ' meal . Each minute counted .
The hunters started shooting into the air in unison , holding back the tugging dogs . " Luka ! " Bogachov shouted loudly . " Drive off the tigress ! " The young hunter followed the biggest tracks , tearing through the bushes and shooting haphazardly into the air . After a while , the team took up the tracks of the cub which had gone left . " Unleash the dogs ! " Bogachov ordered on the run . In less than ten minutes a hoarse baying indicated that the quarry had been stopped . Nothing infuses so much vigour into hunters than the barking of dogs who brought a beast to bay . The tiger - hunters dashed ahead swiftly on their snow- shoes , enveloped in clouds of snow - dust , hoping fervently that the beast would not break the circle of besieging hounds .
Surrounded by three dogs, the tiger cub kept them at a distance with its paws , hissing angrily and baring its impressive fangs . Taking cover behind the cedars and the windthrow , the hunters crept closer to their quarry . When hard by the cub Matvei Bogachov threw his blanket over the beast's head . But the cub instantly tore it to shreds . In the presence of their master , the dogs took heart and redoubled their efforts , seeking to tangle with their adversary . The cub , surrounded by the hunters and dogs , rushed from side to side . The circle of its assailants tightened . Reutov took advantage of an instant when the cub was busy with one of the dogs to seize it by the ears . In the meantime , Cherepancy and Bogachov took hold of its paws . Miron threw himself across its flanks . It was all they could do to hold down the angered beast . The tiger nearly tore its head out of Reutov's strong grip . For a fraction of a second the tiger - hunter lost his hold on the beast's neck , and in the same instant the sleeve of his coat was torn to shreds and blood dripped copiously on to the snow . A few minutes later the beast's paws were tightly bound , and it lay gagged and helpless in the snow . Reutov's wound demanded immediate attention . Luckily , it was not serious .
The excited hunter insisted on giving chase to the second cub . The team left Matvei with the captive , and took up the track . Almost a mile away they unleashed the dogs , but the latter returned a few minutes later . This meant that the beast had gone far ahead .
The team had to divide into two parties. Prokopy and Matvei were to drag their captive back to camp , while the others were to search for the second cub . But Prokopy did not find either Matvei or the tiger . It developed that the tiger had freed its forelegs and bolted in spite of its tightly bound hind legs . All Matvei's efforts to hold it down were in vain . The bound animal was too fast for him . A mile away , Prokopy caught up with Matvei . They recaptured the beast and bound it securely , but in the scuffle the cat tore Prokopy's eyelid and struck Matvei . Their large bag could scarcely hold it . Its head was close to Matvei's ear as they carried it between them . On and off , the hunter would turn to look at it , and their eyes met . The beast hissed with pent - up fury , and the man smiled. It taxed all Matvei's and Prokopy's great strength to carry the 180 - pound beast through the mountain taiga .
In the meantime , their team - mates had the following experience . After losing all hope of catching the second cub that day , Cherepanov , Reutov and Miron long followed its tracks , which described a big circle , and approached the spot where the chase had begun . The hunters stopped and put their heads together . Miron suggested turning back and picking up the track anew the following day . Reutov insisted on setting the dogs on the trail without further delay .
" The cub is near and must be taken today , " he said . “ At night it'll find its mother and they'll escape us . " Cherepanov had his eyes on the dogs . They were tugging at the leash , wagging their tails and yelping . " They've scented game , " he said . " But we're short of rope - what about using the bandages we have in our first - aid kits ? " They quickly twisted reliable cords from the gauze band- ages , and unleashed the dogs .
Not five minutes had elapsed before they heard the hounds baying . Reutov saw from afar how boldly Verny - an angry and courageous dog with a wolf's bite ( its jaws tied with a leather thong when sent against the tiger ) -attacked the cub , how it prodded the beast's flanks until repulsed by the cub's flaying paws , and how it returned to the assault undaunted . There was practically no cover for the hunters to take as they approached the beast . Cherepanov crept forward hiding behind a fir - tree . He was on the point of throwing his jacket over the cub's head when it suddenly rushed Reutov . The latter pulled off his fur mitten and threw it into the cat's open mouth in the nick of time . The same instant , three pairs of strong hands gripped the animal by the hair of its neck and by its paws .
" The most difficult thing is to get your first grip on it , " Bogachov was wont to say . " But once you've taken hold of it , the tiger is yours . " His pupils knew that well . The gauze cords were very good - reliable and soft . They did not contract when wet , which was most important , because the animal's paws could well have mortified in the cold if the cords would tighten . The hunters did not waste any time . Their light clothing , soaked with perspiration , was liable to freeze . They decided to drag their captive to the camp , which was quite near .
The sun set . The evening dusk thickened . A glowing edge of sky was visible in the west through the branches . The creaking of the snowshoes and the rustling of the wind- throw intruded upon the silence of the forest .
" The tigress is back, " Cherepanov murmured , stopping in his tracks . Large tiger tracks ran across the path taken by the hunters . “ Look how close the imprints are — she must be down on her haunches , looking for her cubs . " Soon the hunters came upon the tracks of their teammates . It was no more than four miles from their camp . Along the way they twice crossed the tracks of the tigress . She was obviously trailing the men who were bearing away her cub .
The eerie dusk , combined with the proximity of the infuriated animal , gave Miron , the youngest , a sense of unease . " What if the tigress is lying in ambush for us ? " he thought . But he kept his thoughts to himself , for the others showed no signs of alarm .
Late in the evening , the hunters with their heavy burden , returned to the camp . Prokopy congratulated them . It was fun sitting round the camp - fire , chewing the rag . They relished the details of the day's events . Near by , on a pile of fir branches , lay the two bound feline captives . The dogs , fagged by the chase , sprawled about them , some diligently licking their wounds . On hearing Cherepanov's story about the capture of the second cub , Prokopy commented : " You acted well , but you shouldn't have thrown down your guns . One man must always have his rifle handy when the beast is being bound . My father tells me how they once brought a cub to bay and got down to trussing it . They were almost done with it when the mother suddenly came bounding to her cub's rescue . Father grabbed the gun , and killed her . He had had the good sense to keep the gun close at hand . "
The talk went back and forth for hours . Little sleeping was done that night . The tiger cubs did not sleep either . Verny alone , the tip of his nose stuck into his bushy tail , yelped softly in his sleep .
The tigers lay trussed up in sacks alongside the men while the latter were building a makeshift cage for their captives of dry cedar wood . The cubs ' legs were unbound , and their heads stuck out of their sacks . They lay side by side , purring peacefully , and it seemed that being together made their predicament easier for them to bear . They were fed fresh venison , but during meals their jaws remained tied . The meat was cut in thin slices , put on little sticks and held before their snouts . The cubs scooped the meat up with their tongues and swallowed it unchewed . They ate about ten pounds each the very first day . The tiger - hunters dragged the sled with the cage for two days with the dogs helping in harness , but no little effort was expended before the outlines of their village loomed up in the distance .
Pyotr Reutov is a match for his mentor , Prokopy Bogachov , for sheer courage and agility . In the winter of 1955 he , Cherepanov and two other young hunters spotted the fresh tracks of a tigress and three large cubs . After a two - day chase they caught up the animals . Soon they brought one of the cubs to bay , trussed it up without much ado and resumed their pursuit , leaving one man to guard the captive . By the end of the day they surrounded a second beast . They had their hands full taking it , their force being depleted by one , but in less than an hour the cub was bound and gagged and deposited on a soft pile of fir branches .
Success spurred Reutov on to a further effort . In spite of the late hour he insisted on giving chase to the third cub . Cherepanov agreed hesitantly , and they set off , leaving their mate with their second captive .
The sun sank slowly behind a far - away hill - top . Its orange rays illumined the cedar branches . It seemed there was the edge of a large clearing just a few steps away . Yet Reutov knew that there was no clearing in this dense forest . A countless host of similar dark - green cedars with shaggy crowns ranged on and on beyond the illumined ones . After a march of some three miles they let loose the dogs . The moon rose and helped the chase . As midnight approached it grew lighter . The keen - eyed hunters easily made out the tiger tracks in the snow , although in places they were trampled by the dogs . But fatigue told , and when the two hunters heard the baying of the dogs , this usually exciting sound failed to infuse new strength into them . They staggered from over - exertion and hung on to trees and bushes to stay on their feet . The dogs also showed signs of fatigue and failed to hold the beast . It escaped , and they returned to their masters .
Reutov and Cherepanov made a fire . Its warmth and hot tea revived them . In the meantime , the tiger lay near by in the spruce thickets . The snow melted under its warm body .
At the first hint of dawn the hunters were up . The chase was resumed . They let loose the dogs , but the tired huskies attacked the tiger half - heartedly . The beast kept breaking out of their ring . The hunters were hard on its heels. They saw the striped fury some distance ahead , encircled by the dogs and strained all their remaining strength to keep up with it .
" Take him ! Take him ! " they encouraged the dogs . The cub must have been tiring . The distance between it and the hunters shrank . Disregarding Cherepanov's advice to cut forked poles before taking the dangerous cat , Reutov advanced upon the beast . Furthermore , there was no suitable branch to make a pole from nothing but young spruces and a sprinkling of evonymus .
Cherepanov was the older and the more experienced of the two and though time , which had silvered his hair , had not extinguished his hunter's ardour , he thought it was unwise for two men to engage a three - year - old tiger bare- handed .
Seeing the two men so near it , the beast made a dash at them . The dogs bit into its flanks and hung on , hampering its progress . Reutov stuck the butt of his rifle into the beast's wide - open mouth . But the next instant the gun flew out of his hands and lay buried in the snow . The hunter tore his large fur mittens off his hands and threw them into the tiger's mouth , but the beast ignored them . Its terrible fangs closed on the fur for a second , then gleamed bare and white again . Reutov thought of his jacket , then realized that the animal would be upon him before he ever managed to get it off . Without a second thought he stuck his foot , clad in a soft elkskin boot , into the cat's snout . The tiger bit into it . Ignoring the pain , the gallant hunter grabbed the beast by its ears .
" Hope it doesn't crush the bone , " it flashed across his mind . He made no effort to free his leg and piled on top of the animal , tugging at its long - haired , silky fur.
"Cherepanov, tie him up!’ he shouted. But he hadn’t waited for the command. With the agility of a sailor securing a sail in a storm, he tied the rope around the wide, long-clawed paws with a reef knot. Several times, the tiger tried to shake off the people and dogs, but he couldn’t succeed. Soon, he lay in the snow with his paws and jaws bound. The two exhausted but happy tiger catchers stood by their prize. On this day, they had even outdone their teacher, Bogachov.
(English version from Google books. I couldn't access the last paragraph in the English version, so I referred to the German version of the book for that section.)
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