Northeast Tiger: An Uncertain Future

On April 23, residents of Baishiwan Town, Mishan City, Heilongjiang Province, found a local northeastern tiger, which was initially determined by professionals to be "most likely a wild northeastern tiger". During the search process, a villager was bitten and taken to the hospital for treatment. At 21:00 that night, the tiger was shot by the police with a tranquilizer gun and has been sent to the Hengdaohezi Feline Breeding and Breeding Center in good health.

In this incident, the concern is not only the safety of this northeastern tiger and the residents but also the overall survival status of the wild northeastern tiger. In an interview with Xinhua, Feng Limin, deputy director of the Northeast Tiger and Panthera Monitoring and Research Center of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, said that there are currently three relatively independent populations of Northeast tigers (all located in Siberia, Russia or Northeast China), and based on geographic location, the Northeast tiger that entered the village is most likely from the largest Northeast tiger population habitat today Sikhote-Alin region in Russia. It is estimated that 500-550 wild Northeast tigers exist here, accounting for more than 90% of the global total.

In contrast, the number of wild Northeast tigers living in China is much smaller. Although the exact number is difficult to determine, according to the 2019 International Workshop on Transboundary Conservation of Tigers and Leopards, there are about 27 wild Northeast Tigers remaining in China. Feng Limin also described in the interview that the cross-border continuous habitat formed by China's Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park and Russia's Leopardland National Park has a total of about 50 wild Northeast tigers.

On the other hand, according to 2016 data, the number of captive-bred tigers in China exceeds 6,000, more than half of which are Northeast tigers. The huge number gap between the two also reflects the hidden crisis in the conservation of endangered animals. This article, originally published in the August 2016 issue of Global Science, tells us about the conflicting scientific philosophies behind China's Northeast tigers.

In January 2016, Yan Xie took some volunteers to clean up illegal hunting tools in the habitat of the Northeast tiger in Hunchun, Jilin. The knee-deep snow made it difficult for them to travel, and the wire twisted sets and rudimentary cast iron hunting clips were hidden in more secluded areas of the forest. Kneeling in the snow was not an easy task, but they had to do it.

Over the years, Xie Yan has visited all the major nature reserves where the Northeast tigers are found, and although they regularly clean the mountains of hunting tools every year, every other year they go back and the snares and hunting clips appear again. At this time, the reserve was chilly, the seized wire and hunting clips were piled up there colder than ice, and the coniferous forest was permeated with blinding sunlight and had a crispness. If it weren't for these annoying iron guys, the surroundings would be like a paradise, pleasant and sedate.

The last 27

Xie Yan, who founded the Reserve Friendly Systems Group at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and was once the director of the Wildlife Conservation Society International's (WCS) China program, has devoted a lot of time to protecting the wild Northeast tigers. "In addition to figuring out their habits, preventing poaching and expanding habitat are all very important aspects of protecting wild Northeast tigers," Xie Yan told Global Science. "The snares we remove are not necessarily directly targeted at Northeast tigers, but after other creatures are hunted in large numbers, Northeast tigers find This is enough to kill them in the cold, prey-starved winter. Of course, some tigers fall into the trap of predators by mistake, causing direct casualties."

Since 2007, Beijing Normal University's national biodiversity innovation team has been setting up infrared cameras in the northeast, and so far has set up more than 1,200 infrared cameras in more than 20,000 square kilometers of potential habitat. Based on the camera monitoring, they speculate that at least 27 Northeast tigers, including 10 males, 8 females, and 9 cubs, were active in the territory of Jilin Province during 2011-2016. Some of them settled in the territory and others wandered over from the Russian border in search of food. Northeast tigers are also found in some areas of Heilongjiang, but the exact number is unknown.

As a national-level protected animal, the endangered wild Northeast tiger is difficult to develop rapidly in a short period. They have very high requirements for their habitat environment. The territory of a female tiger in the breeding stage ranges from 450 km2 or more, up to thousands of km2. The size of the territory varies depending on the number of prey within this range. In the case of the Merganser, for example, there must be at least 500 ungulates of similar size to the Merganser in the area to stably support a large Northeastern tiger. Male tigers generally occupy the territorial range of three to five females.

However, based on the existing prey population, the area of the Jilin Hunchun Northeast Tiger National Nature Reserve can only accommodate about 10 tigers. To gradually increase the population, it is necessary not only to find ways to increase the number of active prey in the area but also to further expand the area of the reserve so that some of the scattered isolated reserves can gradually be connected by ecological corridors to become larger reserves.

Since 2012, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has worked with the Jilin Wangqing Forestry Bureau to release nearly 100 artificially bred horse deer and plum deer in the Wangqing Lanjia Forest. Releasing the deer not only increases the prey of the Northeast tiger but also allows it to integrate with the local deer population and speed up the scale of breeding. Judging from the current release, this method is effective in restoring the ecosystem.

6000: False prosperity

Since it is possible to release artificially bred horse deer and mergansers, why can't we directly increase the population size of Northeast tigers by artificial breeding? Several institutions in China are doing captive breeding of Northeast tigers, with the Heilongjiang Northeast Tiger Forest Park on the north bank of the Songhua River being one of the most important. It is the largest artificial tiger breeding base in the world, with at least 2,000 Northeast tigers cooped up in the garden. In addition, there are several gardens licensed to breed Northeast tigers and a large number of zoos where Northeast tigers are kept. According to incomplete statistics, more than 6,000 tigers have been bred in captivity in China, more than half of which are Northeast tigers.

"It is generally believed that species have a minimum effective population, below which they will go extinct within a certain period. Although controversial, most species have a minimum effective population of 50 or more, and this number is also influenced by factors such as the genetic diversity of that population," said Diao Kunpeng, who works at the Shanshui Nature Conservation Center, a local nature conservation organization in China. "If the population is smaller than this, the population may not be able to be maintained, and survival is challenged." The captive-bred Northeast tigers in China have moved completely away from this red line in terms of numbers, even giving the illusion that they can be seen everywhere in the country.

But this "boom" has not eased the burden of Northeast tiger conservation work. First of all, when the industry determines whether a species is "endangered" or not, the survival of the species in the wild is examined, and individuals in captivity are not counted; secondly, as a large feline with high predation intensity, there is no precedent of successful release worldwide so far; again, keeping a large number of captive-bred Northeast tigers requires a staggering In addition to renting out Northeast tigers to various zoos for exhibitions, the gardens concerned are also trying to sell some forms of tiger products privately, which may, in turn, intensify the poaching of wild Northeast tigers; finally, the serious inbreeding in the park has already laid a large number of genetic disease hazards for the artificially bred tigers.

"Whether we advocate the conservation of wild Northeast tigers or other flagship species, the aim is to promote the prosperity of the entire ecosystem," said Yang Weihe, who is working on Northeast tiger conservation at the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "The logic is simple: to enhance Northeast tiger populations, we have to guarantee To enhance Northeast tiger population, we need to ensure that there are enough hoofed animals in their area of activity, and if we want these hoofed animals to maintain their size, we need to provide good enough vegetation."

However, captive-bred Northeast tigers are kept in captivity, and instead of promoting ecological conservation, more people are getting used to treating Northeast tigers and other animals as pets, which in turn is a serious violation of the spirit of modern wildlife conservation.

In the summer of 2015, it was reported that a female tiger kept in the Northeast Tiger Forest Park successfully gave birth to four tiger cubs in semi-loose natural conditions, laying the groundwork for their release into the wild. Even if the tigers are released in the future, they will still face many problems. Wild Northeast tigers generally do not come close to humans, but tigers bred in captivity often come into contact with people, and after their release, they are likely to frequent nearby villages, intensifying human-tiger conflicts; if there is a demand for food, these hungry tigers are likely to directly choose familiar humans; there are very limited nature reserves suitable for Northeast tigers, and the diversity and quantity of prey are deficient.

Moreover, wildlife conservation should be a gradual process. Several top international wildlife conservation organizations believe that the northeastern tigers roaming in the Russian border area will gradually settle in Chinese territory after a landscape corridor is built between high-quality ecological reserves. At the same time, they also stressed that they do not recommend artificial breeding and the wild release of big cats. "The South China tiger is special in that it is extinct in the wild," Xie Yan said, "breeding the South China tiger preserves the gene pool of this subspecies from disappearing from the face of the earth."

Back in 1986, when the Heilongjiang Northeast Tiger Forest Park's predecessor, the Hengdaohezi Feline Breeding Center, was established, it involved certain commercial purposes. But the center was established during the same period when the South China tiger eventually went extinct in the wild due to ecological degradation and rampant poaching (there was a custom of using tiger bones for medicine and demand for tiger skin for decoration). To protect the few remaining northeastern tigers, the State Council issued the Notice on the Prohibition of Trade in Rhinoceros Horn and Tiger Bone in 1993, which brought the two endangered animals under strict protection, and the tiger bone was removed from the official pharmacopeia after the ban on trade.

On July 2, 2016, the third revision of the Wildlife Protection Law of the People's Republic of China was finally passed, and the new regulations came into effect on January 1, 2017. This will have a direct impact on wildlife conservation for a long period to come for the industry. "The new law de-emphasizes utilization and no longer considers the protection of wildlife to be predicated on treating them as a resource to be utilized, which is a big step forward," said Sun Quanhui, senior scientific advisor for the World Society for the Protection of Animals, "but for captive-bred wildlife, there may be a new situation."

Article 28 of the conservation law clearly states that the state key protected wildlife with mature and stable artificial breeding techniques, after scientific proof, will be included in the list of artificially bred state key protected wildlife developed by the competent department of wildlife protection under the State Council. Wild animals and their products included in the list, can be artificially bred with a license, by the provincial, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the People's Government of the competent departments of wildlife protection to verify the number of annual production of special identification, and then sold and used with special identification to ensure traceability. Article 29 also provides that wildlife and its products as drugs for business and use should comply with the laws and regulations on drug management.

Many organizations coveting the commercial value of artificially bred tiger species seem to see a silver lining in the "Wildlife Protection Law" that has been enacted to leave room for the use of artificially bred species. The only thing standing in their way now is the 1993 State Council's "prohibition notice" and the cessation of the inclusion of tiger bones in the pharmacopeia. Once these two cornerstones are loosened, tiger products will likely appear in pharmacies.

The new bill takes a distinctly different approach to wildlife living in the wild and wildlife bred in captivity. Significant improvements can be seen in advocating for the public to protect wildlife, enhancing habitat construction, and strictly controlling hunting and consumption. The wild Northeast tigers living in protected areas may thus see their springtime, and the ecological environment of their habitat is expected to be further improved. The wild animals that are bred in captivity, such as the Northeast tiger, may go a different way because of scientific research, public exhibitions, and the production of goods.

Exactly how the development depends on the subsequent administrative approval and interpretation of the regulations. "It needs to be made clear in the development of implementation rules to put whether the starting point is to benefit public welfare conservation," said Sun Quanhui, "commercial use will continue to bring challenges to the conservation of wild animals." This will not only increase the workload of some wildlife conservation organizations (especially those advocating a boycott of wildlife consumption classes) but will also side-step the risk of poaching in the wild, adding to the wild conservation efforts. The arduous field work and indoor breeding work with mixed purposes in protecting the big cats already had a gully that was difficult to fill. Now, after this row of dominoes, there are more commercial benefits from the artificial breeding of protected species. The new regulations attempt to separate indoor breeding and wilderness conservation by law, balancing wildlife conservation and commercial exploitation of captive-bred animals with two separate systems. But when the dominoes are pushed down, no one can be sure if any of the fallen animals are species on the captive breeding list surviving in the wild, or if there are wild Northeast tigers that have been poached.

Compared to the 6,000 captive-bred tigers, the 27 wild Northeast tigers look somewhat pitiful, and the shooting of any wild tiger would exacerbate the crisis of the wild Northeast tiger's extinction within China. We would hate to see the story of the South China tiger repeat itself, and how can we scientifically balance the pros and cons in the face of attractive commercial prospects?