Amur Tiger

The rugged  Amur Tiger, Formally known as the Siberian tiger, found in the mountainous rain forests of Eurasia - mostly in Russia, parts of china and korea. Hence the name Siberian Tiger. This feline can grow up to a whopping 450 pounds, varying from females that can be around 300 pounds. With these numbers they actually make them the biggest cats in the world! If you think that's a lot, a male amur tiger can have a territory spanning a little over 700 miles, often accompanying several smaller female territories that range around 100 square miles. In one day they can run around 12 miles a day, thats around half a marathon.  One key feature about this creature that makes it stand out from the rest is its bigger paws used for trekking the colder Russian climate during the winters. They also have much thicker fur in their manes for the colder weather as well.  Tigers are normally solidary creatures. Their diets consists of mainly meat, mainly consisting of larger animals such as the wild boar, elk, and red deer. Surprisingly enough, bears are actually 3% of what their diets consist of.  All tigers have barbed tongues not just to make it easier to clean and groom themselves, but they will also strip the flesh off of fresh kill.

They can live in captivity for 20 years but in the wild they can live for 10 to 15. However due to poaching their lifespan is actually much shorter than expected in the wild.  Only having 400 tigers left in the wild, at one time in the 40s there were only 20 - 30 due to mass poaching. Reporting on currently "Research by partners WCS, has demonstrated that human-caused mortality accounts for 75-85% of all Amur tiger deaths, with an estimated 30 tigers being killed each year". Currently they are “being poached from traditional Chinese medicine, tiger bone wine, and even selfies are complicit in this destruction.” unfortunately. However there are 650 in captivity thankfully in hopes of returning the great striped amur tiger to its previous numbers!

Without these tigers there would be a boom in herbivores and the more herbivores the less vegitation or possibly leaving more room for a possible invasive speices since there isnt an apex predator to keep everything in check and in balance. Currently seen in the U.S. is an invasion of boars that are extreamly aggressive. It is possible the same would probably happen to the Eurasian area, more casualties would happen due to the number of growing boars. As stated about wild boars and why the need to be kept in check as "Wild boars are very dangerous not only because of their aggression but also because they are the carriers of diseases that can be passed on to humans such as tuberculosis, hepatitis E and influenza A. The also cause thousands of accidents on the road each year that can result in serious injuries for drivers". This makes the tigers extreamly importain even for our sakes, they play a critical role in enviornmental balance. Not only are the very important to the enviornment but they are also a beautiful and powerful speices. 

Citation - 

“Amur Tiger Facts.” WildCats Conservation Alliance, 19 Jan. 2022, https://conservewildcats.org/resources/amur-tiger-facts/.

“Siberian Tiger: National Geographic.” Animals, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/siberian-tiger.

Name. “How to Survive a Wild Boar Attack: All You Need to Know.” Restless Backpacker, 11 Jan. 2022, https://restlessbackpacker.com/how-to-survive-a-wild-boar-attack/.

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