Posted on March 09, 2010 02:51
In the course of our ongoing scientific research, on November 7, 2009 we have captured two 1.5-year old tiger sub-adults at the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve, whom we named Anya and Valera- a brother and sister. Anya received a GPS collar, while her brother was fitted with a regular radiocollar.
At this time, Valera still lives in the same region of the Reserve where he was captured. Apparently, he still follows his mother from time to time. As for Anya… on February 11, 2010 during a regularly scheduled flight to obtain locations for our tigers, it was discovered that Anya’s collar had switched to mortality mode.
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Posted on February 16, 2010 01:29
Winter is a season which divides people into different categories. Most people fall into two categories: either those who despise the cold and look for excuses to stay in warm spaces while wishing for summer’s quick return, or those who find joy in the cold season, participate in various winter sports, yet still dream of summer’s warmth. But there is a third, small group of people, for whom winter is the most active and favorable time to work, a time when many exciting things happen. These people are called field workers.
Thus, the snow that fell in the Southern Primorye in December of 2009, which caused so much inconvenience for city dwellers, allowed us, the field workers of the Far Eastern Leopard Project, to collect much important information about our subjects (the leopards), and, more importantly, it resulted in a meeting- of a sort that happens once in a lifetime, but of which all researchers dream… But we’re getting ahead of ourselves!
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Posted on February 16, 2010 00:04
On February 9th 2010, the head of Primorsky Krai’s Hunting Control Department notified us of a tiger sighted on a hunting lease near Alekseevka, a village of the Nadezhdinsky district in Primorski Krai. The animal was behaving oddly - most wild tigers, when confronted with people, will either run away, or if cornered, exhibit aggression. But this animal neither ran away or towards people, as if people long ago failed to interest him. As a WCS employee with extensive capture experience, I was asked to assist by immobilizing and examining this strange tiger.
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Posted on February 12, 2010 02:58
Dear friends! Please find below an overview of new articles that have been recently added to our website. You can find the following materials in menu “Publications”.
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Posted on February 09, 2010 01:49
In November 2009, our staff completed the joint WCS/SABZ Siberian Tiger Project fall capture season in the Sikhote-Alin Reserve. A very important method of studying the tiger population is radiotelemetry, i.e. radiotracking of tigers fitted with radiocollars. This method has been used at the Sikhote-Alin Reserve for a long time, and has provided us with practical conservation results for this rare predator.
For this reason, tiger captures are an essential part of our research program. Our methods have been used and approved for large carnivore captures throughout the world, and we use it to safely fit our tigers with radiocollars. Tigers with radiocollars are special because they give us necessary information, based on which we develop tiger conservation plans. These individuals help us carry out an important mission, which we hope will have positive effects on future tiger generations, and on human attitudes towards this magnificent animal.
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Posted on November 18, 2009 21:18
The wild population of tigers, estimated at 100,000 tigers around 1900, has declined to as few as 3,000 individuals today, with four of the eight originally designated tiger subspecies having become extinct in the wild. While numbers plummeted almost everywhere else in the vast range of tigers in Asia, the Russian population showed a remarkable opposite trend. At the start of the 1940’s the Amur tiger had been almost hunted to extinction in Russia with as few as 30 animals remaining. At this critical juncture the situation changed for the better when in 1947 Russia became the first country in the world to ban hunting of tigers. Hunting of the main prey species – ungulates – became restricted by an annual quota system. As a result of effective law enforcement, poaching of tigers became relatively rare and the Amur tiger made a remarkable recovery. In 2005 a full-range survey in Russia showed that the population had recovered to between 428 and 502 individuals (up from 415 to 476 in the previous 1996 count). Moreover, approximately 95% of the Amur tigers are part of one contiguous population, probably the largest in the world.
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Posted on October 16, 2009 02:39
The Siberian Tiger Monitoring Program has released results indicating that Siberian tiger numbers are falling in the Russian Far East, primarily due to poaching and habitat degradation. The results can hopefully be used to improve conditions for tigers in Russia. Official estimates of Siberian tiger numbers in Russia come from full range surveys conducted only once every 10 years. The last such survey, conducted in 2005, revealed that 428-502 tigers resided in Russia. Yearly monitoring program was designed to act as an “early warning device” in case changes in the status of tigers occurred between full range surveys. In 2009, only 56 adult tigers were counted on 16 “early warning” survey units (in contrast to 115 tigers counted in 2005 at the same spots), representing a 40% decrease from the 12-year average.
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Posted on August 03, 2009 00:21
For the first time ever, tiger numbers in the Russian Far East were estimated using remote cameras set in the forest to “capture” tigers automatically on film. Because the stripes of each tiger are unique, it is possible to differentiate and count tigers based on photographic evidence. Camera-trapping studies conducted in Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Zapovednik (SABZ) from 2006 to 2008 provided the basis for providing the most statistically robust estimates of tiger densities ever derived for the Amur tiger.
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Posted on August 02, 2009 23:08
We often hear the statistics of how many tigers are lost to poachers each year. But what the statistics don’t tell us is the story behind each event, the life that each tiger lived up to that tragic moment when a poacher ended its life. Nor do we hear of the impact of that loss on those people who live close to and care most about these magnificent animals. In 2001, Svetlana Soutyrina came to the village of Terney (base for the Siberian Tiger Project) from Siberia, and was instantly captivated by the region and its tigers. Over that past 8 years, she has worked for the WCS Siberian Tiger Project, and dedicated her life to the tigers she studies each day. Below is her personal account of the life and death of one such animal.
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Posted on July 24, 2009 00:44
This past winter the village of Terney made international news as the “epicenter” of record snowfalls. Nearly 2 meters of snow fell in a span of three days, paralyzing and isolating Terney and nearby villages for days and weeks. Not surprisingly, the deep snows were catastrophic for many wildlife species as well. But to determine the impact on wildlife, you have to be able to get out to the forests to observe what is happening. And that can be hard to do when you can’t even get to the center of the village with snowshoes!Our long-term research project on tigers – The Siberian Tiger Project - is supposed to go on, rain, snow, or shine. But as you can imagine, when serious weather hits, just surviving can be difficult, and conducting research can be nearly impossible. This spring, another epic weather phenomenon visited Terney. Below, Dale Miquelle, Director of the WCS Russia Program, describes his three days during record rainfalls in the village of Terney.
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Posted on June 05, 2009 18:29
From May 25th through 31st, 2009, Chinese and international specialists gathered in Changchun City (capital of Jilin Province) to plan for a future in northern China that includes tigers. Such a meeting would have seemed absurd 150 years ago, when Siberian tigers were abundant and considered a pest in the forests of northern China – what was then known as Manchuria. (Click on article title to read more.)
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Posted on May 11, 2009 15:22
At the end of April WCS staff headed out for a trip to the Chin San Model Hunting Lease, where WCS is providing financial and technical support to help local people achieve a new level of wildlife management. We hope that our work with Chin San will demonstrate that with modest investment, community-based hunting leases can increase ungulate numbers, protect rare species (particularly Amur tigers), and develop economic activities that will provide long-term income..
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Posted on April 15, 2009 21:26
Dozens of fires are burning throughout Amur tiger and Far Eastern leopard habitat in southwestern Primorsky Krai. Thanks to good snow cover through March, the spring fire season got started later than usual, but is now in full swing, bringing some of the worst fires seen in years, according to local specialists. WCS Russia is working with local government and other stakeholders in order to find a solution to this problem.
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Posted on April 08, 2009 02:32
This winter and spring Siberian Tiger Project staff continue to monitor radio-collared tigers in Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve, which allows us to obtain important information about how tigers live. For the past 6 years we have been tracking two eight-year-old tigresses, “Vera” and “Galya,” who live in the southeastern portion of the reserve. Vera and Galya are neighbors: their home ranges are right next to each other. But each tigress knows the other’s territory, and they are respectful of each other, and do not trespass.
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Posted on March 31, 2009 23:19
"This news update finds us in improving weather conditions, deteriorating road conditions, and the heart of our camera-trapping effort..."
Our field crew based in SW Primorsky Krai, Russia, reports on the latest, including camera-trapping work and our findings from snow-tracking of tigers and leopards in the winter of 2008-09. (Click news headline to read more.)
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Posted on February 18, 2009 01:45
The body of a Far Eastern leopard was found on the territory of the Nezhinskoye Hunting Lease in Southwestern Primorsky Krai on February 15. A necropsy was performed on the leopard, a female pregnant with one cub, but results pertaining to cause of death were inconclusive. WCS is working with partners to help ensure needed samples are taken in order to further analyze the situation.
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Posted on February 02, 2009 23:26
On the night of January 27, specialists from Primorsky Krai's Wildlife Management Department and the Wildlife Conservation Society responded to a call about an abandoned tiger cub found near a village in southern Primorsky Krai. Dogs had chased the cub into a small space between two heating pipes. The cub was brought to a rehabilitation center in the city of Ussuriisk, where the next day WCS staff immobilized the animal and conducted a medical exam. The tiger turned out to be a female, 3-4 months of age.
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Posted on January 25, 2009 01:20
In early January nearly 2 meters of snow fell in parts of northern Primorsky Krai, posing a significant risk to ungulates, which have difficulty finding food and moving about in such conditions, and also become easy targets for poachers. In order to help relieve the situation, WCS and the Russia Program of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) are providing small, emergency grants to wildlife management organizations and nature reserves in northern Primorye, allowing them to undertake activities to help ungulates survive the winter.
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Posted on December 30, 2008 17:49
In December of 2008 Siberian Tiger Project specialists concluded the field portion of a nearly 3-year long project to camera-trap the Amur tiger in Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve, Primorsky Krai, Russian Far East. Scientists obtained hundreds of photos of 26 different individual tigers living in the 4,000 sq. km reserve. This project, led by graduate students Svetlana Soutyrina and Meghan Riley, represents the first attempt to use camera-traps to monitor the Amur tiger.
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Posted on December 16, 2008 21:27
Siberian Tiger Project specialists Nikolai Rybin and Ivan Seryodkin joined specialists from the Primorsky Krai Wildlife Management Department to help resolve the winter season’s first tiger-human conflict situation, involving a tigress killing dogs in a small village in western Primorye.
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Posted on October 20, 2008 06:09
On Saturday, October 18, scientists working in southwestern Primorsky Krai, Russia under a joint project of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Institute of Biology and Soils (IBS), Russian Academy of Sciences Far Eastern Branch captured an adult female Far Eastern (Amur) leopard. The Far Eastern leopard, Panthera pardus orientalis, is perhaps the world’s most endangered big cat, with an estimated 25-40 individuals inhabiting a narrow strip of land along the Russian-Chinese border in the far southeastern corner of the Russian Federation.
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Posted on September 30, 2008 06:17
Each fall marks the annual celebration of “Tiger Day” in cities and villages throughout tiger range in Russia, giving participants the opportunity to commemorate one of the Far East’s most vibrant living symbols, and to learn about tigers and threats to their conservation. In mid-September hundreds of children and adults attended the festivities in the small village of Terney, base for the Siberian Tiger Project and located in the heart of Amur tiger range. Tiger Day in Vladivostok attracted the attention of national and international celebrities.[Read the rest of this article...]
Posted on July 15, 2008 01:12
Just over a year after its opening, WCS’s Sikhote-AlinResearchCenter is already attracting young wildlife biologists from throughout Russia and from abroad. Currently 6 graduate students (5 Russian, 1 Canadian) are living at the Center, conducting research and participating in Siberian Tiger Project field activities.
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Posted on June 25, 2008 01:18
On June 17th WCS staff wrapped up the Siberian Tiger Project’s 16th annual spring capture season, having radio-collared two young male Amur tigers, the cubs of seven-year-old radio-collared tigress Galya. Although the cubs “Ivan” and “Misha” were nearly two years old and larger than their mother, they had not yet begun dispersing from their natal home range when captured in May along the coast of the Sea of Japan
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Posted on May 25, 2008 01:23
Late winter-early spring 2008 represented the sixth consecutive year in which WCS and the Institute of Biology and Soils, RussianAcademy of Sciences conducted camera trapping surveys to monitor Far Eastern leopards at the northern end of their range in Russia, in some of the best remaining leopard habitat. Eight different leopards, including 3 males, 2 females, one cub, and 2 unidentified individuals, were photographed using camera traps between late February and early May.
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