Some folks think the Kodiak Brown Bear is. Others suggest the Polar Bear. But one that most never hear of is the Amur Tiger.


Native to Outer Mongolia (currently part of Russia), there are numerous printed accounts of ones 14' in length from nose to tip of tail....or about 10' not including tail.

Rowland Ward once reported that though not bought to him for official measurements, he examined one in his early years which "had to be at least 16' long when alive...." or over 11' long without the tail. That's roughly the length of a mini-van or midi-van these days.

Amur tigers, also know as Siberian Tigers, Woolly Tigers, Korean Tigers, and other local names, are commonly recognized to have heads the full width of a large human male's shoulder tip to shoulder tip length, and immense mouths and fangs....not slim dainty things, as they have a body of sufficient size and beef to support and use that head and the paws & claws claws which hold their prey in a position to bite to kill.

They kill a relatively few hundred people a year in Russia, because they have become
"educated" to the fact that the people of Russian Taiga zones are usually armed with rifles, pistols, and/or shotguns.

But they kill thousands and thousands of people annually of Northwestern China in the Manchurian border area, because there the tigers know the typical Chinese are NOT armed with firearms (their government won't allow them to be). Plus many Chinese consider them Gods and actually build temples where with offerings they try to placate the local tigers.

Interestingly enough, though fully legal permits to hunt them are now very rare and VERY expensive a very small number of permits can still be had.

When it comes to expense, even just the body of an Amur Tiger delivered to a sea port of Manchuria or a border crossing into China will bring about $60,000 U.S, dollars to the seller, and they are bought as quickly as they can be delivered, mainly by Chinese nationals who believe they acquire some of the DNA, sexuality, power, etc. of the Tiger by eating it....no legal hunt involved and no non-local Manchurian slayer in involved. Most appear to be killed with shotgun ball or SG ammo, or rifles chambered for such as the 7.62x54R.

Interesting thought-food for both trophy hunters and those trying to decide what is an adequate DG rifle, eh?

Just did some quick reading about the Amur tiger – today they’re physically the size and weight of Bengal tigers having gotten progressively smaller over the past 150yrs. Heavy poaching to sate the Asian market, hunting targeting the largest males, and loss of habitat and prey populations to sustain their numbers and size has taken their toll on the Amur tigers.

How is it that the 400 to 500 remaining Siberian Tigers are killing 'thousands and thousands' of unarmed people a year in China, particularly when most of their very limited range lies outside of this country? Furthermore, most of the armed interaction between man and tiger in Russia appears to occur in the form of poaching, botched attempts at which seem to have caused most of the few attacks reported over the past decades.

If interested in Amur tigers this book is good to read:

http://www.thetigerbook.com/the-book/

A .375 H&H with 300gr. Swift A-Frames or Barnes TSX ought to be adequate.

If it's charging, I'd want a larger gun. And a diaper.

George

On one of my trips to Thailand we were at a local tourist trap. A handler was sitting there with a beautiful Siberian Tiger for people to sit next to and pose to have their photo taken.

It was sitting there looking half asleep. The size of a large horse. It was huge.

The handler would touch it with a little bamboo stick and it let out a large growl. Unbelievably intimidating.

A few people would sit next to it and put their hand on it while a photo was snapped. Me? Go ahead and call me any name you want. I was afraid to get near it.

Where is the Howdah pistol when you meet it?

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T0kzdu_wTM0

I would not want to be in the area of a hungry wild tiger.

Gorgeous animals. They deserve the occasional person now and again.

quote:

Originally posted by Alberta Canuck:
...Interestingly enough, though fully legal permits to hunt them are now very rare and VERY expensive a very small number of permits can still be had...

I wonder where one can acquire a permit?

quote:

Originally posted by oldgold:
How is it that the 400 to 500 remaining Siberian Tigers are killing 'thousands and thousands' of unarmed people a year in China, particularly when most of their very limited range lies outside of this country? Furthermore, most of the armed interaction between man and tiger in Russia appears to occur in the form of poaching, botched attempts at which seem to have caused most of the few attacks reported over the past decades.

400 to 500 is quite a low estimate seeing that there are huge areas which have had almost no on the ground research conducted.
Just a couple years ago a breeding population of tigers was found in Bhutan where nobody before thought to look for tigers. And that in an area, though remote, has reasonable human activity. There are areas in China which have very little human activity even compared to a couple decades ago with the trend from rural to urban living.
I have heard, though, that many of the deaths attributed to tigers are murders perpetrated by poachers in order to keep people out of their areas of operation, of course with the help of the local (bribed) constabulatory and medical examiners...

quote:

Originally posted by tanks:

quote:

Originally posted by Alberta Canuck:
...Interestingly enough, though fully legal permits to hunt them are now very rare and VERY expensive a very small number of permits can still be had...

I wonder where one can acquire a permit?

Probably through political connections, or outfitters who are politically connected.

Russia has dozens of wildlife preserves, which, unlike the U.S., supposedly NO ONE except forest guards and bonafide scientists are allowed to enter. But why do you think they have the guards? In Tiger preserves, the guards are called Tiger Teams, and over time members of the teams come to be called Tigers. Their job is to both protect the animals, and to hunt down and kill the ones which have taken to killing people.

When a country's social system is collapsing or collapsed, many of the locals actually live in the preserves illegally. And like local officials everywhere, especially 4,000 or more miles from Moscow, the Tiger Teams sometimes turn a blind eye, knowing how desperate times and the people are. The teams themselves are locals who were/are lucky enough to have SOME income from their poorly paid jobs. Their families and friends are also locals, who probably have no work, have lost their homes, and who without the forests would have no wood for heat, no relatively clean water to drink, and nothing to eat...which includes all manner of animals which they compete with the Amur Tigers for, plus the forest dwellers can build shacks from native trees, and can get edible vegetation, roots, nuts, pine cones and other things to hold broken bodies & souls together.

And in those condiitions money and connections together speak very loudly.

If they know a particular man eater needs to be killed...and they weigh the miserable pittance they are paid by the government against what they can get for a locally and legally issued permit on the free market can bring, Quien Sabe?. Would anyone be in a state of wonderment if the odd permit (which are granted by local preserve officials, even to Tiger Teams when a Tiger needs killing) was to be seen as a real assist to the welfare of their people?

And in heavily populated rural areas such as small towns, areas near former gulags or military bases, etc., there is a large population who can't afford to move anywhere else. They can derive the difference between death and surviving by "using" the local forests.

Who would be surprised at just one man-eating Tiger killing literally up to 100 such people in a year...especially as they don't really recognize international borders and can also enter the most populated country in the world just by crossing a local river into a country where almost no civilians own a gun.? (Such northern tigers are notoriously good swimmers and actually enjoy being in water...)

And in the Russian preserves, the tide has turned in favor of the Tigers. They have come back from being almost totally extinct 15 years ago to being quite numerous in those areas now. And they are becoming slightly more prosperous every year since just after the recent millennium.



There is an old Russian saying logician skeptics might want to learn

"You can't understand Russia with your mind".