The owner of the Ussuri taiga: how many Amur tigers remain in Russia

The Amur tiger is the largest representative of the cat family that lives on the territory of our country. It is also the northernmost subspecies of the tiger on the planet. In the 40s of the last century in our country, there were about 40 of these beautiful animals. Since then, a lot of effort has been made to save the tiger and restore its population.

The Amur or Ussuri tiger lives in the Primorsky and Khabarovsk territories of Russia. The highest concentration of these animals is observed in the foothills of the Sikhote-Alin in the Primorsky Territory.

The Amur or Ussuri tiger is one of six subspecies of the tiger that has been preserved in the wild to this day. Along with Bengal, it is the largest feline on our planet, and the weight of males, as a rule, reaches 300 kg. Among all predatory mammals of sushi, the tiger is the third by weight of the body, second only to the polar and brown bears.

Such impressive sizes require a large territory and plentiful food. The Amur subspecies of the tiger lives exclusively in forests, so the last place where it was preserved in the wild was the Ussuri taiga, untouched by man. Back in the 19th century, tigers lived far beyond Primorye; they could be found in many taiga regions of southern Siberia. It is known that the Amur tiger was even depicted on the coat of arms of the city of Irkutsk. But the intensive economic development of the territory and the physical extermination of the tiger led to the fact that its range was reduced to the seaside taiga.

Even under ideal conditions, the Amur tiger is slowly growing in numbers. They reach puberty only in the 4th-5th year of life. The female gives birth, as a rule, to 2-4 cubs, which are completely dependent on their mother for one and a half to two years. But even after reaching this age, young tigers often remain with their family and live with their mother up to 4-5 years. It turns out that the female brings posterity once every 2-3 years, and the life expectancy of tigers in the wild is about 15 years. Unfortunately, only about half of the cubs survive to adulthood.

Over the past century, the Amur tiger has gone from almost complete extermination to relative prosperity. It is known that in the 40s of the last century in our country there were about 35-40 individuals of the Amur tiger. After the complete ban on hunting for him and the creation of specially protected areas (reserves and national parks), the number of tigers began to grow. According to 2015 data, about 530 Amur tigers live in our country, which is approximately 70% of the total population. The remaining animals of this subspecies live in Manchuria, in neighboring China.

According to experts, the current number is the maximum number of Amur tigers that the territory at their disposal can accommodate. It is the presence of a natural habitat that is the most important condition for the well-being of the Amur tiger population. The preservation of the existing, as well as the restoration of the cut and burned cedar of the Ussuri taiga will guarantee the prosperity of the northernmost tiger on the planet.

More than 500 Amur tigers are a good indicator, but we still have a lot to do. Together with the protection of forests, it is necessary to restore the population of ungulates: only with a reliable food supply can we talk about the continued prosperity of the predator. Another important factor in the conservation of the Amur tiger is the fight against poaching. Unfortunately, barbaric extermination for the sake of skins and other parts of the body is still not uncommon both in China and in our country.