<
https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/the-cat-is-back-wild-amur-tigers-rebound-in-china-thanks-to-govt-policies/>
"There was a time when tiger expert Dale Miquelle wasn’t sure if there’d ever
be a substantial population of Amur tigers (
Panthera tigris altaica) in China
again. In the 1990s, Miquelle and his colleagues estimated there to only be
about eight of these big cats, also commonly referred to as Siberian tigers,
left in northeastern China. But in the last eight years, change has come in
leaps and bounds: recent camera trap footage reveals there are at least 55 Amur
tigers living in forests in northeastern China.
“Persistent efforts to protect tigers have paid off,” Miquelle, director of the
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Russia, told Mongabay in an email. “Change
has not come quickly, but there has been slow, steady progress, and we see
there are great opportunities for even more recovery.”
According to a recent study in Biological Conservation, of which Miquelle is a
co-author, camera trap footage taken between 2013 and 2018 identified 55 Amur
tigers in four forested landscapes in northeastern China: Laoyeling,
Zhang-Guangcailing, Wandashan, and the Lesser Khinghan Mountains. The
scientists also genetically analyzed tiger scat, urine and hair to identify 30
tigers in the region. However, only Laoyeling is believed to support a breeding
population, the paper suggests.
The reason for the tigers’ sudden appearance in northeast China is due, in a
large part, to a Chinese national policy called the Natural Forest Protection
Project (NFPP), Miquelle said."
Via Esther Schindler.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
