Chapter 2: Modern Siberian Tiger
Together with the animals of the mammoth-rhinoceros fauna, also the tiger has lived. Its upper Pleistocene remains they have found in N.E. China, and in Russia’s Far Eastern Amur Region, near the Pacific Coast. Eurasia’s cave lion and America’s lion looked like across between a lion and a tiger. Where is the tiger living now? How far north? In what kind of a climate does it live? Where is it able to live, and where not?
V. G. Heptner, Professor of Biology, University of Moscow, and A. A. Sludskii, Zoological Institute in Alma Ata, in Kazakhstan, have studied the tiger in the former Soviet Union. They report in Die Säugetiere der Sowjetunion vol. III (1980):
“In Kazakhstan and in other parts of West Siberia the tiger has appeared at different places. They have curiously come from the Balkhash foreland, and perhaps, from the rivers Tshu and Saryssu, and from the area of Lake Saisan.
“In East Siberia, the animal has never been a resident, or its occurrence lies so far back, that no direct evidence for this exists anymore. It was known as a nomad (in German: Überwechsler) from Transbaikalia and the Baikal foreland.” (1980:105)
“Rather characteristic was its distribution in Transbaikalia. Here, the animals have only come as nomads (in German: waren nur Überwechsler). They obviously come from the Great Khingan in North East China, and do not reproduce themselves, also not, when staying there for a long time. They wander mostly into the easternmost and the southernmost parts of Transbaikalia.” (1980:111)
“Through large, closed spruce-forests it (the tiger) wanders through in a hurry (= does not stay there). When the black boar is drawing the tiger into the river valleys and cembra pine forest, it hunts the many Isubra stags (a kind of red deer) on the burned areas. … The tiger is able to move through a deep snow-cover and across a not very hard snow-surface only with great effort. The pressure upon 1 cm² of paw-surface in Primorye is 158 g. That is the largest sole-pressure of any of our wild cats. …
“The Amur tiger is able to endure low temperatures quite well. It has a thick hair-cover, and puts on fat in autumn. … The deep snow-cover (of more than 30 cm) and the lack of the wild boar, the roe, and the red deer, connected with this, is obviously the main factor, why the tiger has not moved further north. In Transbaikalia and in the middle Amur region, it has lived up to 52° N, that is, further north, than in any one of its other ranges. The largest depth of snow in this area is 20 cm, in some places only 10 cm. Only on the ridges and on the foot-hills it is deeper than 30 cm.” Heptner, V. G. et al. (1980:111, 133, 134)
“In Sichote-Alin (= east of the Amur River and north of Vladivostok), a grown tiger kills and eats during one year about 30 large animals of 100 kg each. One tigress and her 3 cubs have devoured within 20 days 280 kg of meat (Isubra deer, 150 kg; wild boar, 100 kg; young wild boar, 20 kg; musk-deer, 10 kg). One litter consumes in one year about 5040 kg of meat (Kaplanov, 1948).” (1980:145).
Original range of the tiger in the former Soviet Union at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, and where it seems to have lived during the Middle Ages (10-12th century). 1. Solid line: Area, where the tiger has lived permanently and where he has often come as a visitor. 2. There the tiger has come less often. 3. Dots: Furthest, single advances of the tiger. At the places, indicated by the black dots, the tiger has only lived as a nomad. That is, he has no home range and does not raise there any cubs, even when living up there for many years. Because there is too little food, not enough to raise any cubs. From: V. G. Heptner (1980) Fig. 45.
Amur tiger in Russia’s Far East. From: Viktor Shiwottschenko, Wissenschaft in der UdSSR, Nr. 3, 1991, pages 95-97. Top: An Amur tigress with her cub. Bottom: Amur tiger resting at a rocky place, from where he is able to watch his surroundings.
How large is the home range of the Amur tigress with cubs? How much prey biomass does her “child-bed range” contain, where she is raising her small cubs? And in what kind of a climate is this prey biomass growing there?
Prof. V. G. Heptner and co-workers: “A female with cubs, less than 2 years old, is living, contrary to solitary tigers, in a small district. In Sicholte-Alin, a tigress, with her cubs, was living in a district, rich in ungulates, from the 24th of December 1940 till the 15th of January 1941, on an area of 5 x 3 km, which she did not leave (Kaplanov 1948).
“A tigress with cubs, 2-3 years of age, undertakes already longer excursions. In 1957, at the upper course of the Maiche River, a tigress with 2 cubs, settled down. They were then in their second year of life. Until the spring of 1958, she was living on a rather small territory. Later, the animals enlarged then their radius of action. And during the autumn of 1959, it was an area of about 50 x 60 km (V. Abramov 1962).
“During the course of her life, a tigress will have 20 – 30 cubs. And of these, half will not get older than 6 months (Burton 1954). In the USSR, a female gives birth to only 10 – 15 cubs (A. A. Sludskij). “ Heptner, V. G. et al. (1980:147, 156).
How much prey biomass is there in the tiger’s northernmost range: in the Amur region? Up there, the tigress will have only 10 – 15 cubs during her life. And of these, half of them will not get older than 6 months. How large must be then the prey biomass of the childbed range of the Amur tigress: where this residential tigress raises her small cubs?
In Sichote-Alin, a grown tigress kills and devours in one year about 30 large animals, weighing 100 kg each. Her cubs devour in one year about 5040 kg of meat (without bones and stomach contents).
3000 kg = 30 animals of 100 kg live-weight each per year
5040 kg meat for one litter per year
1512 kg for bones and stomach contents
9552 kg prey biomass (live weight) per year.
