Data Show a Decline for Tigers in Russia

Michael Scwirtz, The New York Times 23 Nov 09;

MOSCOW — Amid the torrent of bad environmental news in recent years, the story of Amur tigers in Russia offered a flicker of optimism. Nearly extinct half a century ago, the tigers rebounded when the government imposed protections, and their numbers remained more or less stable for much of the last decade.

But new data suggest that Russia’s tiger population is once again declining.

Results from an annual survey conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society, an environmental group based in New York, along with several Russian organizations, has shown a 41 percent drop in the Amur tiger population from its average over the past 12 years.

“The most dramatic decline happened in this last winter, 2009, where on our survey units there were dramatically fewer tigers than any of the past years,” said Dale G. Miquelle, head of the society’s Russia Far East program. “It’s time to react.”

Mr. Miquelle cautioned that random factors like heavy snows last winter when the survey was conducted could have interfered with the data. Nevertheless, he said, the evidence points to a steady drop in the past several years.

The decline of the Amur tiger in Russia is especially vexing because the animal had been considered such a conservation success story. Tiger populations in China, India and elsewhere have been rapidly dropping for years, and many species are extinct. “We’re down to the low thousands of tigers around the word, and that’s really very few indeed,” said John Robinson, an executive vice president at the society.

In Russia, the Amur tiger was once found as far as Lake Baikal in central Siberia, some 2,000 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, and in China and North Korea. Before the recent survey, an estimated 400 to 500 animals were thought to be confined to the Primorsky and Khabarovksy regions in the southern portion of what is called Russia’s Far East.

This sparsely populated area was considered the animal’s last bastion of survival. In the last three years, the government has opened three national parks with more than a million acres in tiger territory. Nevertheless, the recent survey noted declining populations in all five protected zones, indicating that the animals were no more secure inside the parks.

Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin, has expressed dismay over the decreasing numbers of Amur tigers, also known as Siberian or Ussuri tigers. The animal is a favorite of Mr. Putin’s, who was given a tiger cub for his birthday last year shortly after returning from an expedition in which he personally tranquilized and tagged a large animal.

“For Russia this is particularly grievous,” Mr. Putin said on a visit to a Russian tiger reserve last year, according to his tiger Web site. “Animals like the Ussuri tiger, the largest and most beautiful tiger in the world, are like our calling card.”

The Amur tiger is a fitting mascot for the steely tough image of Russia that Mr. Putin likes to present to the world. It is the largest tiger subspecies: the male can reach 10 feet long and weigh 650 pounds. The big cat stalks the vast snowy wilderness of the Russian east, hunting deer, wild boar and, as food supplies dwindle, household pets.

The Russian government has called for an international tiger summit meeting to be held in the far eastern city of Vladivostok in 2010 to address the problems.

Not surprisingly, logging and infrastructure development in the tigers’ habitat have contributed to part of the decline, environmental workers say.

But it is an increase in poaching that is the greatest cause for concern, said Igor E. Chestin, the head of WWF Russia. In recent years, he said, the federal authorities have cut back on resources to prevent poaching.

“Our calculation is that for the time being we have about three times less people controlling poaching in the woods within the tiger range than 10 years ago,” Mr. Chestin said.

Scientists estimate that humans cause from 65 percent to 80 percent of tiger deaths, mostly by poaching. Tiger parts like bones, internal organs and whiskers fetch huge prices in Asian markets where they are coveted for traditional medicines. The deep amber-to-orange pelts are also prized acquisitions inside Russia.

Those caught poaching suffer only minor penalties.

“You can catch a poacher dragging a tiger out of the forest here, and he’ll be given a 1,000 ruble fine,” Mr. Miquelle said, citing the equivalent of about $35.

Siberian tiger in severe decline
Victoria Gill, BBC News 25 Nov 09;

The last remaining population of Siberian tigers has declined significantly, according to research.

The work was carried out by the Siberian Tiger Monitoring Programme, which is coordinated by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

Its report says that tiger numbers have shown a "declining trend" over the last four years, and the latest assessment counted just 56 of the animals.

The researchers attribute the decline to poaching and habitat loss.

The organisation carries out annual tiger surveys at 16 monitoring sites scattered across the tigers' range.

The scientists did point out that deep snows during the last winter may have forced tigers to reduce the amount they travelled, making them less active and therefore less detectable

But, in 2005, the total number of Siberian tigers across their entire range was estimated at approximately 500 individuals. This recovered from fewer than 30 animals in the late 1940s.

"The sobering results are a wake-up call that current conservation efforts are not going far enough to protect Siberian tigers," said Dr Dale Miquelle a researcher from the WCS's Russian Far East Program.

"The good news is that we believe this trend can be reversed if immediate action is taken."

Russian scientists and conservation organisations are now recommending changes in law enforcement regulations, improvements in habitat protection, and a strengthening of the protected areas network to help protect the tigers.

Siberian tiger population falls sharply: survey
Yahoo News 25 Nov 09;

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The population of Siberian tigers is dropping sharply, with researchers blaming the slump on poachers who are killing the feline for its pelt and bones, a report showed Wednesday.

A survey of a representative portion of the tigers' range in the Russian Far East found only 56 of the large felines, according to the report coordinated by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Russian government and non-governmental organizations.

That represents a 41 percent decline from a 12-year average of around 95 tigers in a monitoring area of around 15 percent of the tigers' total natural habitat, the report said.

Researchers are "extrapolating there's a decline across the board" from a range-wide count of the tigers completed in 2005 that showed there were 500 of the beasts roaming Siberia, WCS spokesman Stephen Sautner said.

The report's authors blame the decline mainly on increased poaching of the big cats and their preys.

The animals are being killed for their fur and for tiger bone, which is used in traditional medicines, Sautner said.

Annual tiger surveys aimed at detecting changes in the tiger's numbers are conducted at 16 monitoring sites scattered across the feline's habitat.

Range-wide surveys of the tigers are conducted less frequently, largely because of the logistical problems associated with working in icy Siberia, tracking a secretive animal whose habitat covers hundreds of thousands of square miles (kilometers).

A 1996 survey covering the tigers' entire habitat of around 69,500 square miles (180,000 square kilometers) found over 400 of the felines in the Russian Far East, and the most recent range-wide survey counted up to 500 tigers in 2005.

"They were never an abundant species. But they have come back quite a bit since the 1940s when there were only 30 Siberian tigers," said Sautner.

Russia has taken many key steps to conserve the species, starting with a hunting ban in 1947.

The new slump in the number of tigers was "a wake-up call that current conservation efforts are not going far enough to protect Siberian tigers," said Dale Miquelle of WCS's Russian Far East Program and a lead author of the report.