A comparison of food habits and prey preferences of Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) at the southwest Primorskii Krai in Russia and Hunchun in China

Abstract

A small, isolated Amur tiger population ranges across the southwest Primorskii Krai region in Russia and Hunchun region in China. Many individuals, with "dual nationality," cross the border frequently. Formulating effective conservation strategies requires a clear understanding of tiger food requirements in both countries. While the diets of tigers ranging in Russia is clearly understood, little is known of the tigers' feeding habits in China.. We used scat analysis combined with data on the abundance of 4 prey species to examine Amur tiger diet and prey preferences in Hunchun. We examined 53 tiger scat samples from 2011 to 2016 and found that tigers preyed on 12 species (11 species in winter), 4 of which were domestic animals with 33.58% biomass contribution; this was the first record of Amur tigers eating lynx in this area. Tigers showed a strong preference for wild boar (Jacobs index: +0.849), which were also the most frequently consumed prey, and a strong avoidance of roe deer (Jacobs index: -0.693). On the Russian side, domestic animals (just dog) were rarely found in tiger scat, and tigers did not show strong avoidance of roe deer, but of sika deer. We also found red deer footprints during winter surveys and that tigers ate red deer on the Chinese side, while there was no record of red deer feeding on the Russian side. Reducing or eliminating human disturbance, such as grazing, is essential to recovering tiger prey and habitat in this area and the Sino-Russian joint ungulate annual survey is indispensable for prey estimates of this small, isolated Amur tiger population.

Ascarid infection in wild Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) in China

“…Interestingly, wild Amur tiger show a strong preference for wild boar as diet, which were also the most frequently consumed prey [24,25]. Similarly, the wild boar could take both rodents and earthworm as its diet [26], as well as the earthworm appeared in the diets of the rodent [27].…”

“…3). Most of them were collected in the Hunchun Amur Tiger National Reserve (HNR), which is a key corridor for movement of Amur tigers among China, Russia and North Korea [24]. Those samples were collected in winter or spring when the project of snow-tracking individual tigers was taken; at that time, the local temperature is absolutely below 0°C.…”

The structure of the amur tiger (panthera tigris altaica) potential habitats and evaluation of its prey in the Taipingou national park (China) based on remote sensing data

“…Одним из главных факторов, определяющих пригодность местообитаний для амурского тигра, является присутствие основных видов добычи этого хищника -копытных. На территории Дальнего Востока России к таким видам относятся в первую очередь кабан, пятнистый олень и изюбрь, а также косуля (Miquell et al, 1996;Miquell et al, 2015;Sugimoto et al, 2016;Gu et al, 2018), в Национальном парке Тайпингоу -изюбрь, кабан и косуля. Оценка распределения этих видов копытных и выявление факторов, его определяющих, позволяет прогнозировать использование их местообитаний и амурским тигром.…”

What determines the success of the species identification? The identification of 10 deer (Cervidae) species in China based on multiple parameters of hair morphology

“…Microscopic examination was the only tool available until the emergence of modern identification techniques based on molecular biology in the 1980s. However, DNA technology has been limited in its use for the analysis of carnivore diets because it has strict requirements for sample quality (Gu et al 2018). Often, samples of scat were collected in the field a few days after they were excreted by animals, and the scat was degraded by microorganisms shortly thereafter.…”

“…within a family or genus), which may lead to ambiguous or incorrect identifications. For example, there are five sympatric deer species in the northeastern forests of China whose hairs are frequently found in the scat of the Amur tiger Panthera tigris altaica and leopard Panthera pardus orientalis (Kerley et al 2015, Gu et al 2018. It is difficult to clearly identify Cervidae species because of the similarity in their hair profiles and medullar and cuticular scale patterns.…”