Society
Signs of wild Siberian tiger discovered
(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-19 11:28
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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, an official said on Friday.
Li Guidong on Monday reported one of his calves had been half-eaten while grazing on a hillside at Yongfeng Forest Farm, near where the 8-month-old cub was found, said Gao Jinfang, Party chief of the Heilongjiang provincial forestry administration.
"The paw prints 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 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.
Animal conservationists say they have been tracking the tiger for five or six years in the administrative area of Dongfanghong forestry bureau and Yichun forestry bureau.
On Feb 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 had left after its baby died," 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 20 wild Siberian tigers living in the regions of Changbai mountains in Jilin province and the Wanda mountains of Heilongjiang province.
Xinhua