Extract of the article “Learning about deer – the prey of the Amur Tiger (based on the microstructure of top coat hair in tiger faeces)”

 The Amur Tiger Programme in the Russian Far East is aimed at developing measures to preserve the population of the Amur Tiger in the region. To this end, data is needed on the tiger’s habitat, migration patterns, population dynamics, habitat activity, breeding patterns and prey. The latter involves researching the distribution and population dynamics of the species that are the tiger’s main prey, accounting also for the presence of rival predators.  

At the moment the Amur Tiger population lacks a suitable habitat and adequate prey – wild ungulates. This forces the tigers to migrate, leaving their traditional habitats. Hence this programme concentrates on researching the habits of the tiger’s prey, the ungulate population, and the populations of its main rivals (the brown bear, the Himalayan bear and the wolf) and the relationship between tigers and the Far Eastern Leopard.

The diet of the Amur Tiger is more or less quite well known. The most comprehensive studies have been conducted at the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve. Almost all biologists who studied the tiger’s prey paid particular attention to naming and describing the species, as well as the tiger’s influence on the ungulate population. In their study, Viktor and Yelena Yudin described the various aspects of the Amur Tiger’s diet and its influence on the ungulate population (2009).

The Amur Tiger's main prey are ungulates: wild boar and various deer species such as spotted deer, elk, roe deer and musk deer. To determine the species, biologists usually compare the hair found in the tiger faeces with the hair of various mammals, potential prey that inhabit the area in question. However, examining the hair with an optical microscope cannot determine whether the animal was an elk, roe deer or a musk deer. These four species have a similar top coat hair structure and are part of the same group (deer). This makes it impossible to make conclusive assessments on the tiger’s influence on these populations.

The objective of this study was to develop ways to identify the deer species – musk deer, spotted deer, elk, Siberian roe deer and moose – using the hair found in the predator’s faeces. Identifying the hair of wild boar, another prey of the Amur Tiger, does not present any difficulties.

The ability to distinguish species of prey using the hair found in the faeces of predators and birds of prey would be of immediate interest because it would help answer various questions, such as what the exact diet of a predator is.

Though the prey species of the Amur Tiger are well known, it is still uncertain what proportion each of the deer species make up in the tiger’s diet. Ways to determine the species by their hair have not been sufficiently developed, though the structure of the hair itself is well known. A new system has been proposed, dividing the family of Cervidae into the subfamilies of Cervinae, Mintiacinae and Odocoilinae (Alceinae), based on up-to-date variance methods involving the automated processing of morphometric data of hair cuticle cells.

Furthermore, a comparative study of various deer species, the Amur Tiger prey, has not yet been conducted. This study, which aims to close this gap, proposes simple criteria according to which the hair of the five deer species can be distinguished. The authors tried to use both optical and electronic microscopes in studying the top coat hair found in the tiger faeces.

Authors: Vyacheslav Rozhnov, Olga Chernova and Tatyana Perfilova.

This study forms part of the Amur Tiger Programme in the Russian Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ permanent expedition, supported by the Russian Geographical Society, by a presidential grant for leading research schools (Project No. NSh-7522.2010.4) and the Biodiversity Fundamental Research Programme of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Presidium.