Society
Prints of wild Siberian tiger found in NE China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-06-18 15:46
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HARBIN - Experts have found the first signs of a wild Siberian tiger living in the east of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province since the death of a malnourished tiger cub in February.
Prints from a Siberian tiger were found near the site where a cattle raiser reported a calf had been mauled in the Wanda mountains near the China-Russia border, official said Friday.
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"The pawprints at the scene showed it was an adult female tiger based on my long-term observation," said Dong Hongyu, a senior researcher with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Heilongjiang.
"I'm sure it is the one I have observed for a long time and it is the mother of the dead cub," Dong said.
It was the only wild Siberian tiger known to exist in the Wanda Mountains in east Heilongjiang, he said.
Animal conservationists say they have been tracking the tiger for five or six years in the administrative area of Dongfanghong Forestry Bureau and Yingchun Forestry Bureau.
On February 25, a female cub was found trapped in a pile of firewood in a yard of an employee of the Dongfanghong Forestry Bureau, and died of malnutrition and stress two days later.
The cub's mother was not traced.
"We didn't know whether it had died or left after its baby was dead until now," Dong said.
Tiger tracks were found on a riverbank after the calf was eaten, and the prints were clear thanks to rain, which had smoothed the sand, he said.
No traces were found of the male tiger, which possibly left for the Russian territory, or other cubs. The dead cub may have been a litter of one, or another might still be alive in a cave, he said.
Siberian tigers are one of the rarest species in the world. China has only about wild 20 Siberian tigers living in the regions of Changbai mountains in Jilin Province and the Wanda mountains of Heilongjiang Province near China-Russia border.