Posted
12th September 2001
Asian Real Tigers Need Cooperation
American, Chinese and Russian wildlife experts and several Chinese
government agencies have joined forces to save endangered Siberian
tigers and Far Eastern leopards. Cooperation takes presidence
when it comes to saving life.
An
estimated 330 to 370 Siberian tigers exist in the wild, but
a single population of only 25 to 40 Far Eastern, or Amur, leopards
remains. The Chinese government has decided to create a new
nature reserve on the Chinese-Russian border that is expected
to increase the amount of suitable habitat for these big cats,
which should allow them to recover. A second reserve is under
consideration. The agreement by China's Jilin Forestry Department
to establish the Jilin Hunchun nature reserve along the border
with Russia's Primorski Krai, follows the recommendation of
biologists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) based
at New York's Bronx Zoo.
The
largest cats in the world, Siberian tigers hover near extinction,
according to surveys in Jilin and Heilongjiang Provinces, cosponsored
and organized by WCS, the United Nations Development Program,
and the forestry departments of Jilin and Heilongjiang. WCS
biologists say creation of the Hunchun Tiger-Leopard Reserve
is the first step in a long process of rebuilding tiger and
leopard populations in China. "We have large tracts of intact
forests in northeast China, and if we protect wild prey populations,
tigers will naturally recover in these areas. "With no evidence
of breeding females, and only a handful of scattered individuals,
it was clear that the only thing preventing extirpation of tigers
in northeast China was the existence of a healthy population
of the big cats in nearby Russia," Miquelle explained.
Gennady
Kolonin, representative of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources,
promised cooperation with China in all efforts to protect this
species by coordinating transboundary conservation efforts.
Tiger and leopard habitat is shrinking due to expansion of human
population and activities, and tigers that migrate to China
from Russia often find little to eat in forests. They prey on
livestock, which often results in reprisal killing of the tigers.
Xioachen
Yu, a Heilongjiang Wildlife Institute wildlife biologist who
has been conducting a tiger monitoring program with the support
of WCS, has located areas where tigers cross the international
border from Russia into the Wandashan Mountains. "We have tigers
in Heilongjiang," Yu said. "If we protect them, I know we can
recover the population here." .
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