* Chapter 14:
Behavior of Tigers in Relation to Humans
In recent decade, many publications have appeared containing information on how tigers react to people during direct encounters with humans (Smirnov 1984; Kucherenko 1985, etc.).š The increasing number of such communications is a reflection of a long-term tendency toward a growth in the tiger population, and the ever more frequent entries of the animals into densely populated, economically developed regions.š Now, various types of conflict situations are not uncommon, with such situations having already been the subject of special discussions (Nikolaev 1985; Smirnov 1985).š The facts bear witness to definite changes in the behavior of tigers.š Observations made at the beginning of the 1970s can also serve as a point of reference for the estimation of such changes.š The results of investigations on our long-term study area for those years are sufficiently typical to permit a characterization of the behavior of tigers living in conditions of limited contacts with humans.š The reactions of the animals that are revealed by these data obviously lie within the normal limits of the tigers' behavior.
One circumstance of a methodological character is also important.š The majority of publications dealing with the theme of the present chapter contain few observations made by specialists, and the main focus is on stories from hunters or even from occasional witnesses.š The accuracy of this sort of information is not always to be relied upon.š Frequently, more is said about the emotional condition of people during encounters with tigers than about the behavior of the animals themselves.š Essential details regarding the sequence of the tigers' body positions and the movements of the animals, the surrounding circumstances, and the length of time involved in the observations, etc., are omitted.š A clear deficiency of first-hand data characterizing the reactions of tigers to people and based on a rigorous methodology for collecting and recording such data has existed up until the present time.š It is possible to judge just how valuable such data are by referring, for example, to two small, naturalistic sketches by V.A. Voronin (1980, 1985) that nevertheless fully meet the latter criterion.š We present below a description of actual cases, the great majority of which are the result of personal observations made by A.G. Yudakov.š They are reproduced here in a form that is as close to that of a field diary as possible.
Tigers encountering people and traces of human activity on the long-term study site behave cautiously and secretively in relation to them.š While utilizing human trails and roads for their travels, the animals do not appear near settlements, and avoid hunters' cabins and storage sites for logging equipment.š But during encounters with moving transport on roads, tigers would abandon the roads in time they could pass unnoticed.š
Tigers go around hunters' cabins usually at a distance of several hundreds of meters.š In only two instances did the tigers behave differently: a tigress went past a wintering cabin that had not been visited by people for a long time at a distance of 70 m from it, and a male went around a setup of logging equipment, which was guarded by a watchman, by moving along a steep slope at a distance of 40 m from the watchman.š Tigers exhibit almost no reaction to place where campfires have burned or to hunters' shacks that are made of branches and straw.š During encounters with motor transport on roads, they go away to one side of the road in a timely fashion, usually at a walking pace, but sometimes by leaping.š Having departed from the road most often for a distance of 50-60 m, the tigers, as a rule, lie down to allow the vehicle to pass by them, and then the tigers re-emerge onto the road by following their own old tracks.š Having turned off the road, they sometimes walk to one side of the road for a distance of 100-200 m before returning to the road.š Direct observations of tigers in the taiga were extremely rare; it was mainly the drivers of logging trucks who succeeded in seeing the animals.
There were no cases during the years of our observations where the behavior of tigers might have created some sort of direct threat to the lives of people.š Conflict situations were of an indirect nature and involved only hunters: here the issue is above all one of hunting dogs being used to pursue tigers.š Traps are not usually touched by the tigers that pass by them; a total of four cases were observed when tigers stopped near such traps.š In one of these instances, a tigress tore apart a Siberian weasel that had been caught in a net trap.š Twice, the animals turned out to be the guilty of having damaged Manchurian deer meat from deer that hunters had killed.š A tigress, which happened by chance to enter a place where a Manchurian deer had been prepared, pulled off the skin of the Manchurian deer, which was laid on a stump, carrying it away into the undergrowth of a bush.š The tigress dug up the meat that had been left by the hunters, meat that was later eaten by ravens and large-billed crows.š On another occasion, a male pilfered and bit off some Manchurian deer meat that had been hidden by a hunter near a wintering cabin.š In two cases, the male tigers failed even to make up their minds to approach a place where Manchurian deer had been killed and minced by people.
During the period of our fieldwork dedicated to the study of the tiger, which also included work done outside the long-term study site, we had a total of 15 direct encounters with these animals.š In five of these instances, we visually observed the animals.š Encounters with tigers took place in varying circumstances: along tiger paths and human trails, on roads (including encounters while driving in an automobile), near tiger kills, and during both the light and dark portions of the 24-hour period.š We observed both males and tigresses, which were either alone or with cubs.
One of the first encounters took place at dusk on January 15, 1970, along a hunter's trail laid down along the valley of the Milogradovka River (the eastern macroslope of the Sikhote-Alin Mountains).š A male tiger (with a "heel" width of 12 cm), along whose tracks an observer was walking, returned along his usual route going downstream from the upper reaches of this river.š Crossing the stream and having ascended the precipitous slope on the opposite side of the stream, the tiger noticed a man approaching him at a distance of not more than 200 m from the tiger.š A section of the trail cut off a large bend of the stream at this site.š Having noticed the man, the tiger again descended toward the stream, and, keeping to the shoreline, walked 18 m downstream, attempting to go around the person that he had encountered.š Probably, seeing that he would not succeed in passing unnoticed here, the tiger turned around.š Rocks that dropped off steeply toward the stream hindered him from going around the man located on the opposite shore.š After passing by the point where he had emerged onto the shore, the tiger squatted down behind a rock near the water.š From there, he once again crossed the stream and headed backward along the trail by following his own old footprints.
After going a distance of 200 m beyond the point where he had emerged onto the shore, the tiger left a urine mark on the trail.š Farther on, these markings followed one after another at distances of 95, 100, 500 and 105 m; the latter mark was left on a scrape.š Then the animal departed from the trail for 40 m by turning to his right, and then the tiger stopped.š Having returned to the trail by following his own footprints, he crossed the path.š Walking 400 m along left of the path, the tiger re-appeared on it. An undesired pursuit of the tiger by the man in the ensuing darkness was not without danger for the latter, and so the man went farther on on the frozen river, which paralleled the trail, to the wintering quarters.š On the following morning, it was determined that the tiger had come up along the trail almost to the wintering cabin, about 6 km from the site of the encounter.š Thus, the tiger in the present case, having unexpectedly encountered a man and being unable to go around that person, would have been forced to turn back.
It has been observed that the scent-marking activity of tigers abruptly increases during their encounters with humans.š Apparently, this is one of the manifestations of the stimulation of the animal.š A male Indian tiger showed increased scent marking activity while being pursued by a person in an automobile (Schaller 1967).
Another encounter took place in the basin of the very same river on January 14, 1970.š Nightfall caught up with an observer during that observer's tracking of a tigress with her cubs.š The observer began to collect wood for a fire when it was already dark.š Returning to the site where he would spend the night, he saw by lamplight the perfectly fresh tracks of a tiger.š On the following morning, it was established that the tigress had observed the man from a distance of approximately 20 m.š Upon the observer's approach, the tigress made several leaps to one side; then she went along at a walking pace.š As subsequent tracking showed, the female and her three cubs, which had been left in a lair, had not eaten anything for more than a week up until that moment.š The tiger had encountered at night a person unarmed and walking without dogs.š However, neither persistent stalking nor an attempt at an attack followed.
Let us mention another episodic observation: during the tracking of a male (with a "heel" width of 13.5 cm) on November 28, 1970, in the upper reaches of the Narva River, the tiger, which had been frightened away from its prey, departed by leaping upward along a steep slope.
The following encounter on the evening of February 18, 1971, which also occurred near the prey, but which now involved a tigress and two cubs, actually took place on our long-term study site (in the upper reaches of Bol'shoi Stream in the basin of the Orekhovka River).š The tigress ("Empress"), which was located on a laying place at a distance of 11 m from her prey (bears), having heard the approach of an observer, went to meet him and lay down on a open site near the tiger trail.š Having seen that the person avoided her to pass alongside by another tiger track, she once again went to meet him and lay down under the hanging branches of a spruce (Picea) tree.š When the distance between the man and the animal had decreased to 17 m, the tigress, making a sound that was similar to that made by a domestic cat when alarmed, only much louder, rushed away from the person by making leaps in the direction of her cubs, which had been lying next to the prey.š It is possible that the tiger cubs had abandoned their laying place moments earlier, when they heard the approaching human, since the female began walking along their tracks.š At a distance of 36 m from the prey, the tigress departed from the cubs' tracks, going 4 m to her right where she again hid under hanging branches.š Then she by the trail made by the cubs went on another 9 m, and once again leaving the cubs' trail by going 2 m (this time to her left), she lay down.š A later similar departure from the cubs trail, to her left for 6 m, occurred only 4 m farther on.š The tigress left her final laying place by following the tracks of the cubs, without making any more stops.
An encounter with the cubs of this same litter, again near the prey, took place along the middle course of Bol'shoi Stream on March 16, 1971 during the daytime.š A tiger cub unexpectedly walked up along a trail toward an observer, who was making records in a field notebook near the cubs' lair and then stopped at a distance of 25 m from the observer.š Having prepared his camera, the man made an attempt to approach closer to the animal.š He had already succeeded in decreasing the distance to 12 m, when a dog, which was on a leash, saw the tiger cub and rushed at him.š The cub turned around and ran away, without seeming too disturbed, however.š The tigress was not located right alongside her cub, although she remained nearby.
On January 31, 1972, in the evening when it had already gotten dark, a male tiger ("Emperor") and a person ran into each other on a ski track, which had been laid down along an abandoned road in the valley of Bogdanov Stream in the basin of the Gornaya River.š Descending along the valley of the stream, with the aid of a lamp the observer discovered tiger tracks coming from the opposite direction.š Having heard the man, the animal turned around, and ran away in the opposite direction at somewhat of a trotting pace, and then shifted to leaps, trying to conceal himself beyond a curve in the road.š Having gone 50 m by making leaps, the tiger turned to his left from the ski track and the road; then he changed to a trot, and then the tiger began to ascend the left bank slope at a walking pace, going around the man.š At a distance of 290 m from the site where the tiger had turned around, he left a urine mark on the track.š After going 190 m beyond his site of departure from the road, the tiger lay down and then, emerging onto a skidding road, moved with short leaps upward along this track.š After going 95 m, the tiger again lay down and then walked at a vigorous pace.š Farther on, a series of laying places followed at intervals of 420 m, 78 m and 50 m.š The last laying place was located on a "fork" (a ridge of a descending spur) and was oriented toward the road.š Gradually turning around toward the valley of the stream, the tiger walked 620 m farther after which he settled down in a long-term lair.š Continuing his path to the valley from this site, the tiger finally appeared on the ski track once again, but now he was located considerably higher upstream.š His entire circuitous path totaled 1.7 km.
One and a half months later, on March 18, 1972, this same male was frightened away from his lair during the tracking of his prints along the upper reaches of Stepanov Stream, which flows into Bol'shoi Stream (in the basin of the Gornaya River).š Having heard the man, the tiger arose from his laying place, took several steps toward the man, and then went away from the observer by bounding downward along the slope.
At the beginning of the following winter, on November 25, 1972, a male tiger (the "Lazy" tiger) left the road to allow our automobile, which was driving up to the wintering cabin at 18:30 hours, to pass by him.š Tracking showed that, having turned away from the roadbed, the animal, after going 260 m farther, emerged at the Gornaya River.š Then the tiger walked for a short time downstream along the bank, and then having made a right angle turn, he once again turned up on the road opposite the wintering cabin.š Having climbed up onto the verge of the road, the tiger stood for a while opposite the wintering cabin at a distance of not more than 200 m from it, and then he continued his path along the road.š When leaving the wintering cabin to go to the settlement, we frightened the tiger away from the road a second time at 18:45 hours; this time, we succeeded in observing the animal, which was fleeing from the road (over the course of 15 minutes, he succeeded in going 1.6 km).š At a distance of 45 m beyond the site where the tiger, changing to a fast trot, had abandoned the road, he had a laying place that he used briefly.š Apparently, he had just succeeded in lying down for a time when he heard the noise of the automobile that had overtaken him.š Removing himself from the road by going a distance of 65 m, the tiger lay down for quite a long time.š The footprints that he had left near his laying place were evidence of the fact that the animal took a certain period of time before making up his mind to emerge onto the road.š Then, he nevertheless returned to the road along footprints that he had left earlier and then headed farther along the road.
Twenty-four hours later, this tiger was once again encountered on the road.š This time the animal was located between a person, who was approaching the tiger, and an automobile that was located behind the tiger.š After a signal shot made by the observer at a distance of several tens of meters from the tiger, the latter stopped, kneaded with his paws, and then abruptly turned away from the road.š Having gone away to one side of the road for a distance of 90 m, the tiger lay down.š After the automobile had taken the observer on board and had then disappeared, the tiger returned to the road by following his own old tracks.š Then the tiger walked along the road for almost 4 km without making any stops.š Up until the point when he had been disturbed by people, the tiger had lain down for short periods four times over a distance of 3 km and had made six marking "approaches".
During the tracking of the "Miniature" tigress in the basin of the Malinovka River during the middle of the day on March 6, 1973, this tigress was frightened away from a wild boar that she had killed.š Having heard a man, the animal walked 45 m in the direction of the man along a trail made by wild boar, after which she returned to her prey.š The tigress made three leaps away from the site of her prey, and then departed along the trail at a walking pace.š Going away from the man, the tigress twice crossed his subsequent path, making departures from the trail.
The following encounter took place at dusk on March 28, 1973.š A male tiger ("Emperor") and an observer, having ascended opposite slopes of the divide of the watershed of Bondarenkin and Bol'shoi Streams in the basin of the Orekhovka River, almost met each other at a saddlepoint in the watershed.š The encounter took place along a tiger trail at a site where tigers habitually crossed the divide.š The weather was warm, without wind, the observer walked very quietly, and so the tiger could scarcely have discovered the observer's approach by hearing him.š Most likely, the tiger saw the man when the observer had already emerged onto the saddle.š The first thing that attracted the attention of the observer was the crows which were sitting 100 meters away from him in trees located along the ridge of the divide.š The birds looked downward and cawed, thereby announcing someone's presence.
The footprints along the saddle revealed that a tiger had very recently been sitting there.š From this site, he turned around, and, taking large steps, walked backward along the trail.š Not having a rifle with him, the man coughed loudly several times and walked along the tracks of the animal.š As tracking later showed, the tiger at this moment was not more than 40 m distant from the man, and, having heard the coughing, the tiger changed his pace, making leaps.š Soon, however, the tiger again went along at a walking pace, and then, moving off the trail, the tiger ascended onto a small hill and lay down there.š When the man once again approached him, the tiger returned with a vigorous step to the trail and headed downward along it; then his tracks finally turned away from the trail, going to the tiger's right.š Having ascended the divide at another site along a wild boar trail, the tiger lay down for a while on a "fork", having turned his head in a direction opposite to that of his previous movement.š Farther on, the tiger crossed over the divide using a convenient saddle located to one side of his previous path.š But, having descended into the valley of Bol'shoi Stream, the tiger returned to his usual route.š Having discovered the fresh tracks of a man here, the tiger made two laying places on the trail, one of which was oriented along in direction of the tiger's path and the other of which was oriented opposite to the direction of the tiger's movement.š And only after this did the tiger continue onward.
Twelve days later, on the evening of April 9, in the valley of Bystryi Stream (a tributary of the Orekhovka River) there even occurred an encounter with an entire family of tigers.š The observations of A.G. Yudakov, which were carried out on this and on the following days, i.e., during the next to last season of our work, are of particular interest.š While walking along the road to the wintering cabin and having discovered the fresh tracks of tigers, the investigator decided to find out what the tigers were doing there.š Nearby, large-billed crows, which were sitting on trees, called out lazily.š Leaving the road, the man unexpectedly heard the noise made by the leaps of an animal along the south-facing slope, which was free of snow, and which lay in front of the man. And then at a distance of 50 m from him, the observer also saw the tiger.š The animal went behind a tree and hid.š The investigator hurried to the rucksack, which contained motion picture and still cameras, that he had left behind on the road, while still trying to keep the site where the tiger was located in his field of vision.š However, having returned, he did not find the animal there.š It seemed improbable that the tiger had departed unnoticed from the almost open slope.š Apparently, the masking effect of the yellowish-brown background was responsible here.
This was the tigress ("Empress"), which at the moment of the man's approach was located along the foothills of the slope, where she had gnawed on the remains of a yearling Manchurian deer (a shil'nik) that she had killed.š She had rushed onto the slope only when the man had approached to within a distance of 14 m.š The tracks of a tiger cub and those of a male tiger that had been there earlier were discovered near the prey.
Having continued his path along the road from this place, the observer was soon forced to leave the road, since he had come to the end of a snow-covered track which had been left by an automobile that had passed earlier.š Walking along the untouched virgin snow was very difficult.š The snow crust, which had thawed over the course of the day, would not hold a man on skis; crushing the snow he pulled his skis out from underneath him with some difficulty.š Planning to return to this site on the following day, A.G. Yudakov left his carbine and photographic apparatus in order to walk more easily, and he headed along the valley of the stream outside of the roadway.š Having walked 2.5 km after his encounter with the tigress, the investigator suddenly saw near the stream the tracks of a male tiger that had approached him and that then had striven to get away from the man by leaping in the opposite direction across the stream on a left bank terrace.š At the point of the curve, the tiger had kneaded with his paws and had even walked for a short while in the direction from which the man had approached him.š The section of the path that the tiger had covered by leaping totaled about 150 m.š At the end of this segment, the man again encountered the prints of a tigress with a cub, which had, according to their tracks, returned along the terrace.
The situation became more complicated, since it had begun to get dark, and the man turned out to be playing the role of an unwilling pursuer of the tigers that he had disturbed.š The observer once again emerged onto the road, removed a hatchet from his rucksack (nothing more suitable for use in case self-defense was required was present), and traveled onward.š The path along the road was traversed only with difficulty; after a certain amount of time, once again turning away to one side, the investigator suddenly discovered that the tiger was walking along the road in front of him at a distance of 15-20 m from the road.š As was later determined, the male tiger had descended from the terrace into the valley, and had overtaken the man on an old trail, so that the tiger was not more than 40 m away from the man.š The circumstances became ever more alarming.š The investigator returned to the road and suddenly heard in front of him the low growling of the tiger, which was repeated again after a short time.š It was possible to determine from the sound that the animal had also emerged onto the road.š Sixty meters farther on along the road, the tracks of the tiger, which had approached this site along an old tiger path, were actually discovered. From the site of his first encounter with the tiger, the man had walked, up to this time, for about 800 m.
The tiger, while still growling, also continued walking onward traveling a parallel course to that of the man.š Meanwhile, the darkness had become total.š The man would be forced to go at night toward an excited animal, while breaking through a snow crust and sinking into deep, wet snow.š When growling was heard, the man coughed loudly and knocked one ski on the other ski or knocked with the hatchet on the ski.š The sound produced was rather loud.š However, this did not frighten the tiger, which walked as before alongside the road on the foothills of a slope.š Approximately 600 m farther on, near a descending "fork", the road turned precipitously toward the opposite side of the valley.š From here, the tiger at first headed along the slope, but then the tiger began to ascend to the ridge of the spur.š He lay down several times or, having stopped for a short time, he kneaded with his paws.š Having passed the slope and then the ridge while traversing a distance of about 800 m, he again descended into the valley following his own earlier footprints; the tiger walked downward along the valley for a short while and lay down on a terrace that was free of snow.š The investigator reached the cabin safely.
On the following day, the observer was confronted with the necessity of passing along the very same path using the previous day's tracks in order to retrieve the weapon and the photographic apparatus that had been left behind, and then, if it was possible, to continue the tracking.š Emerging from the wintering shack with a premonition of an immediate encounter with the very same tiger (it was the "Emperor" tiger), A.G. Yudakov hoped to pass during the middle of the day the site where he had run up against this tiger last night, šas it was reasonable to suppose that during this time the animal, most probably, would have gone away to rest somewhat farther on.š At 13:20 hours, the observer was at that site where he had last heard the voice of the tiger last night.š Continuing onward, he carefully "checked out" the surrounding space by scanning with his eyes, and suddenly he saw the tiger, standing to one side of the road immobile as a sculpture.š The pose of the animal was reminiscent of a tightly wound spring that was ready to break loose as the result of the smallest stimulus.š Despite the great sensitivity of the situation, the tensely immobile tiger evoked a sense of admiration for its primordial beauty and power.
Without giving any indication that he had noticed the animal, the man slowly walked along the soggy snow.š It was a bright sunlit day.š The tiger stood 35 m from the road on a hill covered with melting snow, and the tiger was completely revealed to the observer-from the paws to the ends of its whiskers.š The latter so clearly defined their whiteness on the background of its muzzle that they, it seemed, might easily be counted.š But the tiger was already no longer to be seen even at the edges of one's vision.š It became necessary to strain one's hearing in order to catch any sound that might be emitted by the animal.š However, the tiger had not moved from its original location.
About 16 hours had passed since the time of the previous encounter, and during all this time the tiger had lain near the road, possibly, awaiting a human.š Subsequent tracking showed that having "allowed the person to pass by", the animal had moved in the opposite direction.š The tiger walked about 400 m along a slope, crossed the road and the bed of a stream, and departed toward hills on the left bank.
The final encounter with the tigers took place at approximately the same location during tracking on April 14.š Assuming that he would soon discover the tiger's prey, the observer heard the cry of the crows in front of him.š As in other such cases, the voices of the birds sounded somewhat lazy, quiet, and thin.š Probably, large-billed crows always call to one another in this manner when they are observing tigers near prey over an extended period of time.š Cautiously moving forward along the tracks, the man suddenly saw an animal (this time, the tigress), which stood under the drooping branches of a spruce tree in a tense pose and which was looking at him.š The tigress was about 40 m away from the man.š After several seconds, the tiger hid behind trees, and then departed by leaping away.š Then a shot into the air was heard, the aim of which was to frighten off the tiger cubs, if they were in the vicinity and to determine how many cubs were in the litter.š Actually, a tiger cub jumped up from out of the forest after the shot and ran to the site where the tigress should have been located.š The man had disturbed her from around the carcass of a Manchurian deer that had been killed, and the tiger cub at that moment had stayed nearby on a sunlit patch of ground.š Having discovered the man, the cub ran around him at a distance of 15-20 m from the man and ran away in the same direction as had the tigress.
The cases that we have described characterize the behavior of seven different individuals (not counting the cubs) in various situations.š These data fully agree with the opinion that had already been expressed in his time by L.G. Kaplanov (1948), concerning the fact that tigers exhibit extreme caution in relation to people and usually avoid direct encounters with humans.š However, in contrast with the majority of other large animals, which upon discovering the presence of a human immediately strive to conceal themselves, tigers at times behave differently.š It is far from true that their reactions are always expressed by rapidly running away.š Having heard a suspicious rustling noise, including those produced by an approaching human, the tiger, as a rule, at first comes up to meet him, observes him for a certain time and only after this, having elucidated the cause of the disturbance, departs.š Also well known is the habit of tigers of secretly accompanying people and following their actions.š Here, it is as though the animal were assessing the degree of possible danger.
Moving at a short distance from a person in the same direction as the human, a tiger usually repeatedly crosses the person's path.š Both a movement toward the source of disturbance and also the crossing of the path of a stranger are very characteristic features of the behavior of tigers, associated with their orientating and investigatory reactions.š E. N. Matyushkin (1973) noted the very same characteristics of the tigers' behavior in a different situation and for other individuals--on the maritime macroslope of the Sikhote-Alin Mountains within the boundaries of the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve.
In those instances when the tigers behave, as L.G. Kaplanov (1948) has written, "very audaciously", we have to do with most often mock attacks.š The animals are attempting to drive off the person, to force him to retreat.š Such was the behavior of a tigress, which was leading two cubs, upon the appearance of an observer near her prey on February 18.š A male tiger, which had walked along the trail growling on April 9, also frightened off the stranger.š The latter animal during those days remained together with the tiger family; such an impression was created that his relentless following of the man, threatening the human by growling, etc., was evoked by his concern for the offspring.š In any case, during our previous encounters with this male, when he was far from the tigress and the cubs, nothing similar was observed.
A danger for a person arose, apparently, only once, when the tiger, having taken up a position to one side of the road, "allowed the person to pass by him" when the tiger was only a short distance away.š The behavior of the animal on this occasion corresponded to the pattern of a hunt from an ambush.š It is difficult to imagine how the tiger would have behaved if the person, having observed the tiger, had not exhibited suitable restraint and self-control.š Cases where people, by running away, have elicited an attack by the animals are known in the Primorskii region.
Tigers that had been alarmed by us departed, as a rule, silently.š In general, during the years of our observations in the long-term study area, we almost never happened to hear the voices of the animals.š Therefore, the sole instance in which a male tiger expressed his dissatisfaction by growling was even more remarkable.š In the case of the cubs, at least during the first year of their lives, stereotyped reactions to humans have not yet been developed.
It is not appropriate to forget the fact that in specific circumstances the behavior of tigers can create a real danger for people.š L.G. Kaplanov (1948, p. 39) had already presented an exemplary list of such dangerous situations.š Information that has accumulated during recent years notably broadens this list.š And nevertheless, now, as in earlier periods, tigers' expression of aggression in relation to humans remains the exception.š Our data, collected one and a half decades ago, allow us to assert that, in the presence of favorable food reserves for the tigers, when the habitat of the animals experiences only a moderate economic influence, their "peaceful coexistence" with humans is entirely possible and realistically achievable. For the conservation of the species in the future, it is especially important to establish which specific factors [and in what "dosage"] call forth deviations from the normal behavior of tigers in order to work out preventative measures for such anomalies.
š
Conclusion
After a severe depression in the numbers of the Amur tiger, when, from the former wholeness of its geographic distribution in the Far East of the USSR, only several local refugia were conserved, a tendency toward continuous growth in the Sikhote-Alin population of the tiger has been maintained over the course of the last two decades.š According to data from the all-district census of 1969-1970, the tigers had already at that time populated practically all the territory of Primorskii region that is covered by forests.š Such is also the situation now, with the sole difference being that regular immigration of the animals has begun to be observed not only into sparsely wooded, economically developed regions of the district, but even onto agricultural lands and into cities.š The situation at the beginning of the 1970s, which has been examined in this book, can be characterized as the first phase of a long-term increase in the tiger population, when the food resources of this predator on a large portion of his geographic range had not yet been severely damaged and when the animals did not usually emerge beyond the limits of their main habitats.
The area selected for long-term observations during 1970-1973 in the basins of the Malinovka, Orekhovka and Gornaya Rivers along the western macroslope of the Central Sikhote-Alin Mountains is entirely typical with regard to the conditions of existence of the Amur tiger.š Regular tracking in the long-term study site over the course of three winter seasons (the total distance tracked here was approximately 1500 km) revealed the main features of the utilization of their territories by male tigers and tigresses, the spatial structure of the population, the utilization of their food resources by the predators; a characterization of the behavior of the animals was given, in the greatest detail for the tiger's hunting behavior.
A population cell consisting of 5-8 animals (including the cubs) was under observation.š The area of the territories of male tigers is on the order of 600-800 km2, while the territories of females range up to 300-400 km2.š The territories of animals of the same sex remained, as a rule, separated; however, a nomadic male tiger that we discovered walked for a rather long time in places where other territorial males stayed.š As a result of a fight with one of these territorial males, the stranger perished.š For male tigers and tigresses, even the core areas of their territories overlapped; they utilized shared trails, and the animals were in regular contact with each other.š The fundamental spatial structure of the population of the Amur tiger is, apparently, monogamous families or the union of one male with two (several?) females.
The territories of tigers do not have clear linear boundaries.š The most stable, regularly repeated routes of individuals are concentrated in the central part of the territory, in its "core".š Here the system of the tiger's travels exhibits the highest degree of order.š Inequalities in territory use increase from the core to the periphery of the territory, and gaps in the network of routes increase in a similar way.š The maximum length of the tigers' journeys along the long axis of the territory reaches 80-110 km.š In this case, the daily travel distance of tigers turned out to be significantly less than had been calculated earlier: on average, this distance was 9.6 km for males and 7.0 km for females.š The animals prefer to stop during the daytime for a long rest, but a strictly consistent and regular change in the activity phases over the course of 24 hours does not exist.š On the whole, the 24-hour activity rhythm of the Amur tiger is of a polyphasic nature.
Tigers usually select sites with a good field of view for laying places used over a long period of time.š They often lie down in the dens of wild boar.š They willingly use shelters: rock overhangs and niches, as well as hollows under fallen trees.š The animals repeatedly visit such lairs; they appear to serve as a kind of landmark along their journeys.š Tigers prefer to lay down their routes along south-facing slopes, especially along ridges, avoiding the steepest ascents and areas with a great deal of snow.š The majority of regularly used shelters are also associated with south-facing slopes.š Trails and logging roads are favorite paths for the tigers' journeys.
The marking activity of tigers is highest in those routes along which the animals walk most frequently, independent of whether these routes cross the periphery or the "core" of the territory.š The animals always leave clear markings at orienting points that stand out sharply from the surrounding background, on sites of abrupt turns, or where they encounter the tracks of other tigers.š Marking activity significantly increases during the mating period.š The data we have gathered allows us to view the marking behavior of the tigers not only as a delimitation of the individual territories of different animals, but also a mechanism of preserving constant contacts between individuals and of forming stable connections of each animal with a defined territory.
The hunting sites of the tigers are distributed relatively uniformly across the area of their territories.š Our data support the opinion that the main prey of the tiger is wild boar.š These predators hunt wild boar mainly along mountain slopes having Korean pine forests.š The Manchurian deer occupies the second place in the tiger's diet.š The mean index of the success of hunts on wild boar (54.5%) is significantly higher than that of successful hunts on Manchurian deer (28.9%).š The percentage of yearlings of either species among the prey of the tiger is higher that their percentages in the populations of these ungulates.š Therefore, the predators utilize primarily the annual increase in the population.š During the course of the snow season, they remove on average 14% of the wild boar individuals and 6% of Manchurian deer individuals.š The annual losses are approximately twice as large.š However, even with such magnitudes of removal of prey by tigers in our study region, a significant suppressing influence on prey numbers was not present; the density of the populations of prey over the period from 1970-1973 remained stable at high levels.
Under conditions of low human populations in the mountain-forest landscapes, tigers do not present a major danger for humans; they behave very cautiously and secretively in relation to human.š They do not cause a significant loss to domestic animals either here.š The situation observed by us in the long-term study site in the Central Sikhote-Alin Mountains about fifteen years ago and later, might be considered as modeling that ecological situation and that use of natural resources that it is necessary to maintain in the main "tiger sectors" in the Far East of the USSR in order to guarantee the conservation of the species in the long term.
References1:
1The list of literature includes all of A.G. Yudakov's scientific works, including those not relevant to the theme of the present book.
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Abramov, K.G. 1960.š Conservation of the tiger in the Far East. Nature Conservation and Nature Reserves in the USSR. Moscow. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Vol. 5, pp. 92-95. [In Russian]
Abramov, K.G. 1961a.š The Amur tiger: a unique natural treasure of the Far East. Abstract, First All-Union Meeting on Mammalian Biology. Moscow, Vol. 3, pp. 8-9. [In Russian]
Abramov, K.G. 1961b.š Methodology for censusing the tiger. Problems of the Organization and Methods for Censusing Faunal Resources for Terrestrial Vertebrates.š Moscow: Academy of Sciences of the USSR, pp. 53-54. [In Russian]
Alisov, B.P. 1956.š The Climate of the USSR.š Textbook for Higher Educational Institutions. Moscow:Moscow State University Press. 127 p. [In Russian]
Arsen'ev. V.K. 1947a.š Collected Works. Vladivostok: Primizdat.š Vol. 1. 398 p. [In Russian]
Arsen'ev, V.K. 1947b.š Collected Works. Vladivostok: Primizdat. Vol. 2. 308 p. [In Russian]
Arsen'ev, V.K. 1948.š Collected Works. Vladivostok: Primizdat. Vol. 5. 220 p. [In Russian]
Baikov, N.A. 1925.š The Manchurian tiger. Kharbin.š 18 p.
Bromlei, G.F. 1959.š An index to measure the difficulty of movement by ungulates in snow. Reports of the Far East Affiliate of the Siberian Division of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Vladivostok. Issue No. 11, pp. 129-131. [In Russian]
Bromlei, G.F. 1964.š The Ussurian Wild Boar. Moscow: Nauka Publishers. 107 p. [In Russian]
Bromlei, G.F. 1970.š The importance of snow cover for the mammalian fauna of the southern part of the Far East. Biological Resources of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Vladivostok. Pp. 233-244. [In Russian]
Bromlei, G.F. and S.P. Kucherenko. 1983.š Ungulates of the Southern Part of the Far East of the USSR. Moscow: Nauka Publishers. 304 p. [In Russian]
Vakhreev,š G.I., V.G. Yudin, and I. G. Nikolaev. 1983.š The relationship between morphological characteristics of the tiger and age. Rare Mammal Species of the USSR and their Conservation.Moscow. Pp. 88-89. [In Russian]
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Dubinin, V.B. 1949.š The mammalian fauna of the focus of tick-borne typhus in Primor'e.š Problems of Regional, General and Experimental Parasitology. Moscow: Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR. Vol. 6, pp. 16-33. [In Russian]
š
Zhivotchenko, V.I. 1976.š The Amur tiger.š Hunting and Hunt Management, No. 7, pp. 16-19. [In Russian
Kaplanov, L.G. 1948.š The Tiger in Sikhote-Alin (Tiger, Manchurian deer, and Moose). Moscow: Moscow Society of Naturalists. Pp. 18-45. [In Russian]
Kolesnikov, B.P. 1956.š Korean Pine Forests of the Far East. Moscow and Leningrad: Academy of Sciences of the USSR. 261 p. [In Russian]
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Nasimovich, A.A. 1948.š An experimental study of the ecology of mammals by means of winter tracking.šš Zoological Journal (Zoologicheskii Zhurnal). Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 371-378. [In Russian]
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Sludskii, A.A. 1966.š The Master of the Jungle. Alma-Ata: Nauka Publishers. [In Russian]
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Almanac of the Climate of the USSR. 1968. Leningrad: Gidrometeoizdat. No. 26: Primorskii District. Pt. 4: Humidity, Atmospheric Precipitation, and Snow Cover. 273 p. [In Russian]
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Yudakov, A.G. 1967.š The status of the conservation of the Siberian spruce grouse in Upper Priamur'e. Conservation, Rational Utilization, and Productivity of the Natural Resources of Priamur'e. Khabarovsk. Pp. 186-187. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G. 1968a.š On the influence of predators on the population size of the hazel hen in Upper Priamur'e. Resources of Birds in the Grouse Family in the USSR. Moscow: Nauka Publishers. Pp. 86-88. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G. 1968b.š The diet of the sable in the basin of the Selemdzhe River.š Some Problems of Biology and Medicine in the Far East. Vladivostok. Pp. 169-170. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G. 1968b.š The nesting of the wedge-tailed shrike in Upper Priamur'e. Some Problems of Biology and Medicine in the Far East. Vladivostok. Pp. 171-173. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G. 1969.š The influence of the sable on the productivity of forests of the
Amur region in connection with the restoration of the sable's numbers. Performance and Productivity of the Hunting Lands of the USSR. Kirov. Pt. II. Pp. 157-160. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G. 1971.š The numbers of tigers in the Primorskii district.š Hunting and Hunt Management, No. 11, pp. 17-18. [In Russian]šYudakov, A.G. 1972.š The biology of the Siberian spruce grouse (Falcipennis falcipennis) in the Amur region.š Zoological Journal (Zoologicheskii Zhurnal), Vol. 51, No. 4, pp. 620-622. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G. 1973a.š On the influence of the tiger on the numbers of ungulates. Rare Mammal Species of the Fauna of the USSR and their Conservation. Moscow: Nauka Publishers. Pp. 93-94. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G. 1973b.š Status of the leopard in the Far East of the USSR. Rare Mammal Species of the Fauna of the USSR and their Conservation. Moscow: Nauka Publishers. Pp 94-96. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G. 1974.š The ecology of Panthera tigris altaica. First International Congress on Mammalian Biology, Abstract. Moscow: VINITI. Vol. 2, pp. 354-355. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G.*, Allenov, B.V., and I.G. Nikolaev. 1976.š The nesting of the golden eagle in the Primorskii district. Nature Conservation in the Far East. Vladivostok. Pp. 184-189. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G. and G.F. Bromlei. 1973.š The Siberian red dog in the Far East of the USSR. Rare Mammal Species in the Fauna of the USSR and their Conservation. Moscow: Nauka Publishers. Pp. 79-80. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G., and V.A. Dymin. 1967.š The effect of the lynx on the industrial fauna of Upper Priamur'e. Conservation, Rational Utilization and Productivity of the Natural Resources of Priamur'e. Khabarovsk. Pp. 164-166. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G. and V.A. Kostenko. 1968.š The distribution of rodents in the forests of the eastern slopes of Sikhote-Alin. Some Problems of Biology and Medicine in the Far East. Vladivostok. Pp. 153-155. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G. and V.A. Nechaev. 1967a.š On the islands of Peter the Great Bay. Nature (Priroda), No. 5, pp. 60-65. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G. and V.A. Nechaev. 1967b.š Nesting of the red-cheeked starling in the south of the Far East. Ornithology (Ornitologii). Moscow: Moscow State University Press. No. 8, p. 377. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G. and V.A. Nechaev. 1968.š Nesting of seabirds on the islands of Peter the Great Bay. Reports of the Siberian Affiliate of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. No. 12. Pp. 93-97. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G. and I.G. Nikolaev. 1972.š The status of the tiger population in Primorskii district. Zoological Problems of Siberia: Reports of the IV Conference of the Zoologists of Siberia. Novosibirsk: Nauka Publishers. Pp. 505-506. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G. and I.G. Nikolaev. 1973.š The status of the Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) population in Primorskii district. Zoological Journal (Zoologicheskii Zhurnal) Vol. 52, No. 6, pp. 909-919. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G. and I.G. Nikolaev. 1974.š Some data on the biology of the Manchurian hare. Fauna and Ecology of Terrestrial Vertebrates in the South of the Far East of the USSR. Vladivostok. Pp. 65-74. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G. and I.G. Nikolaev. 1977. Snow as an ecological factor in the life of the Amur tiger. Rare Mammal Species and their Conservation. Moscow: Nauka Publishers. Pp. 157-158. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G.* and I.G. Nikolaev. 1979.š On the length of the 24-hour activity rhythm in the Amur tiger. Bulletin of the Moscow Society of Naturalists, Biology Section. Vol. 84, No. 1, pp. 13-19. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G.* and I.G. Nikolaev. 1986.š The lair of the Amur tiger. Abstract, Fourth Meeting of the All-Union Mammalogists Society. Moscow. Vol. 1, pp. 390-391. [In Russian]
Yudakov, A.G.*, D.G. Pikunov et al.š 1983.š Methods for a census of Amur tigers. Rare Mammal Species of the USSR and their Conservation. Pp. 132-133. [In Russian]
Schaller, G. B. 1967.š The deer and the tiger. University of Chicago Press. 370 p.
________________________________________________________________________*The asterisk indicates posthumous works of A. G. Yudakov that were written and prepared for publication without the participation of the author himself with only his data being utilized.
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Copyright ¿ A. G. Yudakov,I. G. Nikolaev
Copyright ¿ K. Lofdahl, A. Shevlakov, 2004 (English translation)