Siberian Tigers By: Allison Mayfield
Siberian Tigers
The Siberian tiger or Amur tiger is the largest subspecies of tiger and one of the largest cats in the world. The Siberian tiger has developed many physical adaptations to endure the cold climate of its habitat like a dense coat and pale fur and a white chest, belly, inner limbs and the area around the neck to easily blend in with their snowy environment. The Siberian tiger also has yellow or reddish skin with dark, narrow and widely separated brown stripes.
An individual Siberian tiger typically consumes Musk deer, Manchuria wapitis, Gorals, Moose, wild boars, Siberian roe deer, Sika deer, hares, rabbits, pikas and even salmon. This powerful predator has to travel long distances in search of food, usually at night. Its striped fur allows it to blend in with the environment, to sneak up on their prey and attack from behind in a quick jump delivering a lethal neck bite.
Siberian Tigers can be found in the southern part of Russia and northern parts of China. Siberia is termed a tundra yet trees cover 80% of Siberia the other percentage is mostly mountain ranges and valleys. Year round Siberia is frozen over in snow except for the very short and late summers. An individual male tiger is know to take up 39 square miles (100km squared) of territory, which is fiercely protected, and marked with urine. Siberian tigers have a male to female ratio of 2.4 females per male. After leaving their mothers male Amur tigers can travel over 100 miles to find their own territory, while females will stay with their mothers longer and evenly divide the territory established by their mother.
Unfortunately, the Siberian tiger has endured these difficult times mainly at the expense of human activities. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified the Siberian Tiger as Endangered, but in the 1990s it was Critically Endangered. One of its worst times for the Siberian tiger was in the early twentieth century when the population fell to about 20-30 individuals in the 1930’s. A 2005 census estimated a small population of 360 specimens.
Interesting video about the Siberian tiger: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ifErUXPdw8Y
Resources:
The Siberian Tiger Habitat: http://berrysiberiantiger.weebly.com/habitat.html
The Siberian tiger: https://www.tigers-world.com/siberian-tiger/
I always thought that tigers were such interesting animals. They are a large predator to a lot of animals, but prey to none which is super cool to me. It is amazing that we were able to go from so little of the big cats in the 1900's to almost 400 in the 2005 census. This is great although I feel like we as humans could help even more.
ReplyDeleteTigers are fascinating animals. With their size they are still such a graceful animal and able to sneak up on prey. So sad that just because of their beauty they are hunted for their fur.
ReplyDeleteIt’s sad to see people hunting for just their fur to use as decoration or coats for when it gets cold. Its upsetting to see the tiger population at the low of a number.
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