A close encounter of the rare Siberian tiger kind
Source: Xinhua |
November 21, 2012, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A SIBERIAN tiger has been spotted on a farm in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, forestry officials said yesterday.
The tiger, believed to have been hunting for wild boar, came face to face with several workers on a forestry farm in eastern Heilongjiang on Sunday, said an official with the provincial Forestry Industry Bureau.
The farm is on the sparsely populated Wandashan Mountain, where Siberian tigers have been spotted many times, but it was the first time such an animal had come so close to humans.
"We had just finished work in the forest when the tiger appeared out of nowhere," said Shi Chun.
The workers rushed to their tractor to avoid an attack and the tiger followed for several hundred meters before going away, Shi said.
The tiger remained calm throughout the encounter, the workers said. On Monday, local authorities checked the site where the big cat was spotted and found plum-shaped pawprints, which they believe belong to an adult tiger.
Yang Lijuan, a wild animal protection official with the Dongfanghong Forestry Bureau, said: "The farm is in a zone where coniferous and broad-leaved trees grow, which provides much food for the tigers' prey, such as boar and deer."
Siberian tigers, otherwise known as Amur or Manchurian tigers, mainly live in eastern Russia, northeast China and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. It is estimated that only about 500 live in the wild, with about 12 in Heilongjiang Province and eight to 10 in neighboring Jilin Province.
The Dongfanghong bureau has stepped up efforts to increase food for wild boar, roe deer and red deer on its farms where tigers have been spotted to ensure ample prey for the endangered species.
The tiger, believed to have been hunting for wild boar, came face to face with several workers on a forestry farm in eastern Heilongjiang on Sunday, said an official with the provincial Forestry Industry Bureau.
The farm is on the sparsely populated Wandashan Mountain, where Siberian tigers have been spotted many times, but it was the first time such an animal had come so close to humans.
"We had just finished work in the forest when the tiger appeared out of nowhere," said Shi Chun.
The workers rushed to their tractor to avoid an attack and the tiger followed for several hundred meters before going away, Shi said.
The tiger remained calm throughout the encounter, the workers said. On Monday, local authorities checked the site where the big cat was spotted and found plum-shaped pawprints, which they believe belong to an adult tiger.
Yang Lijuan, a wild animal protection official with the Dongfanghong Forestry Bureau, said: "The farm is in a zone where coniferous and broad-leaved trees grow, which provides much food for the tigers' prey, such as boar and deer."
Siberian tigers, otherwise known as Amur or Manchurian tigers, mainly live in eastern Russia, northeast China and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. It is estimated that only about 500 live in the wild, with about 12 in Heilongjiang Province and eight to 10 in neighboring Jilin Province.
The Dongfanghong bureau has stepped up efforts to increase food for wild boar, roe deer and red deer on its farms where tigers have been spotted to ensure ample prey for the endangered species.
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