Social structure and space use of Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) in Southern Russian Far East based on GPS telemetry data

Abstract

To better understand the spatial structure of Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) at the southern edge of their range we fitted 14 tigers (6♀♀ and 8♂♂) with 15 GPS-Argos collars between 2008 and 2011 in 2 study sites: the Ussuriskii Reserve of southern Sikhote-Alin and the Land of the Leopard National Park in southwest Primorye, Russian Far East. Fixed kernel estimates of male home ranges were larger than those of female home ranges (P < 0.05 [mean 95% fixed kernel(♀) = 401 ± 205 km(2) ; mean 95% fixed kernel(♂) = 778 ± 267 km(2)]). The home range size of females varied greatly, but on average was similar to estimates derived from earlier work further north. Low overlap of adjacent home ranges suggested that females retained exclusive territories. Real core areas of females overlapped only slightly, and remained stable over multiple years. The home ranges of adult males were smaller than those of males to the north, and in contrast to previous studies, high overlap among males indicated the absence of territoriality. Nonetheless, real core areas of males did not overlap, suggesting some spatial separation. In comparison to other tiger populations and other areas of the Russian Far East, the sex ratio in our 2 study areas was highly skewed towards males. We believe this skewed sex ratio resulted in the dissolution of territoriality of males due to an inability to defend individual females, with males resorting to scramble competition for mates. Continued monitoring of these sites to determine whether shifts in the sex ratio might result in a return to male territoriality would provide confirmation of our tentative hypothesis.

Estimating abundance and density of Amur tigers along the Sino–Russian border

“…used radio collars to estimate tiger home ranges using fixed 95% kernel estimators in Sikhote-Alin to be 390 km 2 for resident female and 1385 km 2 for males. Hernandez-Blanco et al (2015) obtained similar estimates for female tigers in Southwest Primorye, but a smaller home range size for males. Using the spatial scale parameter, sigma, we calculated home ranges that were approximately 458 km 2 for females and approximately 1818km 2 for males.…”

Genetic structure of the Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) population: Are tigers in Sikhote‐Alin and southwest Primorye truly isolated?

“…The territory from southern Primorskii Krai (including Ussuriskii State Nature Reserve) to Khabarovsk is a nearly continuous habitat (Hebblewhite et al 2014) referred to as the Sikhote-Alin Mountain ecosystem, whereas southwest Primorye appears to have been separated from the Sikhote-Alin Mountains by human development in the Razdolnaya River Basin over the past 25 years (Henry et al 2009;Miquelle et al 2015). This conclusion seems at odds with the well-known capacity of Amur tigers to disperse long distances (Heptner and Sludskii 1992;Hernandez-Blanco et al 2015;Wang et al 2015). Hence, we sought to test the conclusions of Henry et al (2009) that tigers from southwest Primorye represent a subpopulation isolated from the Sikhote-Alin Mountains (including Ussuriskii State Nature Reserve, Udegeyskaya Legenda National Park and Khabarovskii Krai), and whether there truly is genetic isolation between tigers in Southwest Primorye and the nearby Ussuriskii State Nature Reserve.…”

Home range estimator method and GPS sampling schedule affect habitat selection inferences for wild turkeys

“…Concurrently, range estimators are continuously refined to incorporate increasing accuracy and deployment lengths of tracking data sets and, consequently, have provided unprecedented insight into animal behavior and ecology (Tracey et al , Walter et al , Fleming et al ). As Global Positioning Systems (GPS) units have become miniaturized, use has increased such that they have been deployed on animals as large and cryptic as Amur tigers ( Panthera tigris altaica ; Hernandez‐Blanco et al ) to as small and common as European hedgehogs ( Erinaceus europaeus ; Recio et al ). However, sampling intensity continues to be problematic for studies using this technology because researchers must optimize battery life relative to data needs to address hypotheses of interest (Hebblewhite and Haydon , Cumming and Cornélis ).…”