Two Chinese fishermen got the catch of their lives…on mobile phone this week. While fishing in the Ussuri River, which acts as a border between Russia and China, the fishermen were approached by a swimming Siberian tiger. These tigers, also known as Amur tigers, are down to around 350-500 animals.
At first the brothers thought the animal was a deer. But when they got closer they realized it was something much more spectacular: a Siberian tiger, the world’s largest feline. At one point the big cat even attempted to board their boat.
“The tiger then put his claws on our boat. I was frightened back to the rear of the boat,” the younger brother, Zhang Mingyu, told China View. “My older brother told me to push it off the boat, so I used a pole to push it away. The animal didn’t dare come close to our boat again.”
The brothers watched at the tiger made its way to the shore and left its footprints in the mud. Experts have since confirmed that the animal was indeed a Siberian tiger. The animal was crossing from Bolshekhekhtsirsky Nature Reserve in Russia to Sanjiang Wetlands Nature Reserve in China. Siberian tigers were absent from Chinese forests for decades, but are now increasingly returning.
Siberian tigers are imperiled by habitat loss and deforestation, however the biggest threat remains poaching for the animal’s body parts which are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. The subspecies almost went extinct in the 1930s when its population dropped to just 20-30 individuals. Due to this, a 2011 study found that Siberian tiger genetic diversity in the wild was incredibly low, essentially putting the “effective population” at just 14 animals.
Male Siberian tiger in the Leipzig Zoo. The world’s biggest cats, these are the only tigers that have adapted to extreme cold and snow. Photo by: Appaloosa/Creative Commons 3.0.
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