Camera-trap monitoring of Amur Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) in southwest Primorsky Krai, 2013–2016: preliminary results

Abstract

Southwest Primorsky Krai retains the sole remaining population of critically endangered Amur leopards, but and also holds an isolated population of Amur tigers. This small group of tigers plays a key role as a core breeding population for potential Amur tiger recovery in neighboring Jilin and Heilongjiang Provinces of Northeast China. A large scale camera-trap monitoring program initiated by the United Administration of the State Nature Biosphere Reserve Kedrovaya Pad and Land of the Leopard National Park in 2013 provides a more precise means of tracking dynamics of animals' abundance than previous snow-track counts and is to act «early warning system» in a case of dramatic decreases in tiger numbers. Surveys were conducted over three years, beginning in August 2013 and ending in July 2016. During each survey year, we planned to select a survey period of no more than 92 days when no less than 80% of camera-trap stations were active. However, as the camera-trap stations were not simultaneously deployed and checked during the last year (2015)(2016), using the 80% cut point substantially was not feasible, so we lowered the limit to 55%. To estimate detection rates for adults, we used only those animals that were present in a given year both before and after the survey period, with the assumption that if a tiger were present both before and after, most likely it was present during the survey period as well. From the 320 photographic captures obtained over three years we identified 39 adult Amur tigers and 22 cubs. Among them only seven adult individuals (18%) were captured in all three years, while sixteen adult individuals (41%) were captured only in one of the three years; the rest (41%) were captured in two of the three years. Females demonstrate greater fidelity, and a greater likelihood or being present in all three years. Tigers were more frequently captured during the cold season from October to March with the peak numbers recorded in December. However, there were only ten instances in which adult/subadult tigers were photographed both before and after the survey period in all years combined. Of those, in only six instances (60%) tigers also photographed during the survey period, suggesting a relatively low detection probability. However detection of cubs was even lower: twenty-two cubs were photographed during the three years of the study but only three (14%) were photographed during the three survey periods. These results suggest that capture rates of cubs are much lower than those of adults/subadults reaffirming recommendations to not include cubs in formal population abundance estimates.

Population structure and spatial distribution of the tiger (Panthera tigris, Felidae, Carnivora) in Southwestern Primorye (Russian Far East)

“…In 2007, only 11-13 individuals (four males, four females, and 3-5 individuals of unknown sex and age) were identified by the traditional winter tracking method in the same area (Pikunov et al, 2009). Later estimation of tiger numbers in this region, which was based on monitoring with camera traps, showed results that were similar to our data (Matiukhina et al, 2016).…”

“…The camera trap method, due to high labor and material costs (Riley et al, 2017), is more suitable for use in small study areas, limited in size by protected areas and hunting tenures. A significant downfall of this method is the extremely rare dedection of tiger cubs by camera traps, noted in the previous surveys (Soutyrina et al, 2013;Matiukhina et al, 2016) and associated with the rather secretive lifestyle of family groups. Females with cubs, for example, rarely visit objects of intra-and interspecific indirect communication such as mark trees (Kolchin & Soutyrina, 2012) that are traditionally prime locations for setting up camera traps.…”

Efficient and cost-effective non-invasive population monitoring as a method to assess the genetic diversity of the last remaining population of Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) in the Russia Far East

“…Using the fecal DNA and a panel of 12 microsatellites amplified in three multiplex PCR reactions, we successfully identified 24 unique Amur leopard individuals, which include 18 males and 6 females. These represent approximately a quarter of the Amur leopard population of the Land of the Leopard [ 21 , 45 ]. The greater number of males was in contrast to the findings of a camera trap study conducted in the Southwest of Primorsky Krai, which reported a male to female ratio of 1:1.2 [ 46 ].…”

Seasonal food habits and prey selection of Amur tigers and Amur leopards in Northeast China

“…Habitat loss, landscape fragmentation, prey depletion and poaching have contributed to the decline of the Amur tiger from more than 3,000 to about 500 during the past century 1 – 3 , while the Amur leopard, to less than 100 individuals 4 . The Amur tigers are currently existing in two separate populations: a larger one in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains of Russia (415–490 individuals) 5 , 6 , and a much smaller one, almost isolated from the larger one, in southwestern Primorsky Krai, Russia, and the nearby Hunchun region in China 4 , 7 , 8 . The Amur leopards occur as a small single population co-existing with the smaller tiger population 6 , 9 , 10 .…”