What Are Some Threats to the Siberian Tiger?

Loss of Habitat

• The logging of large tracts of forest inhabited by Siberian tigers caused the tigers to lose their homes. The shrinking forests are also essential habitat for the red deer, wild boars and other mammals that are the tigers' prey. Forest fires are a major threat. Climatologists have surmised that El Nino events and changes in the monsoons leave the land prone to more frequent forest fires. In 2008, Smithsonian National Zoological Park scientists estimated that each Siberian tiger female required over 150 square miles of land to raise her cubs safely to adulthood. The amount of area available fluctuates depending on the often delicate balance of the community.

Hunting and Poaching

• Siberian tigers often range across the Russian border into China and North Korea in search of food. Here they face an even more significant threat from hunters and poachers. Some desire tiger pelts as trophies. Some sell tiger body parts to people who use them as ingredients for traditional Chinese medicines. Dealers also sell some tigers to exotic animal enthusiasts. Hunters also compete with the tigers by killing many of the deer and boar that make up about 85 percent of the tigers' diet.

Reduction of Prey

• The main prey animals of Siberian tigers, red deer and wild boars, also suffer from poachers and loss of habitat. Thus, the tiger must travel farther for food. To make matters worse, according to Wildlife Conservation Society biologist Dale Miquelle, the boreal forest is the only place where the Siberian tiger must defend his kills from brown bears, lynxes, wolves and other predators. At the same time, the tiger must compete with the native carnivores such as black bears and leopards who also dwell in this habitat.

Isolation

• Like all other tigers, the Siberian tiger is a solitary animal. However, it often faces increased isolation from its own kind. Humans encroach on the forests where the Siberian tigers live. This splits the tiger communities into small isolated segments. The tigers are then forced to interbreed with just a few other tigers, which reduces the genetic diversity in the population. This weakens the resilience and adaptiveness of these populations of tigers and the species as a whole.