Vladivostok, the capital of Primorye, marked Amur Tiger Day on 26-27 September. Those who contributed to the rare animal’s conservation received their well-earned awards on these days. This year, Yuri Dunishenko, senior researcher at the Far Eastern Branch of Prof. Zhitkov Research Institute of Game Management and Fur Farming (VNIIOZ), also received a letter of commendation from the Russian president this year.

Question: When you first saw the tiger in the wild, how did it happen and what did it feel like?

Yuri Dunishenko: I didn’t meet a tiger in the wild for a long time, although I had to walk in their footsteps quite a lot. The animals walked off the path, let me pass while watching from a distance, and then resumed their journey. The first time I saw a tiger close was when he followed my footsteps to a hollow stub where I was hiding to observe hoofed animals. I first noticed him when he was crossing the salt licks. In the moonlight he looked absolutely white! Then he came up to my shelter, bit off a piece of bark, sniffed and started walking around the stub. Strangely enough, I didn’t feel like grabbing him by the tail through the hole. Then the animal lay down five metres from me and stayed there all night, although I couldn’t see him from where I was. I could only hear him when he shook his head to get rid of gnats. What did it feel like? At first, it was a bit suffocating in my shelter but then I got used to my neighbour. He left early in the morning, and I made my way home quickly. I’ve been living in the taiga and dealing with large predators all my life. I’ve had more than enough encounters with wildlife. Fear? No, rather a sense of danger that mobilises attention and readiness to repel a possible attack.

Question:  Why do we need to protect the tiger?

Yuri Dunishenko: There are several reasons. The first is that the tiger is an indicator of a healthy environment. When it worsens, large predators are the first to go. The tiger is at the top of the pyramid, and preserving its population means preserving our habitat, too (through creating specially protected nature reserves, limiting detrimental economic activity, etc).

The second is international commitments that we have to meet to maintain our country’s prestige. The tiger is not only an environmental but a political indicator. It is a criterion that the international community uses to assess a country’s attitude towards the environment in general and towards human values.

There are also purely economic reasons. The tiger is a very attractive animal for eco-tourism – tourism of the future. It can earn money for its conservation itself while providing a serious advantage for the people. Also, the tiger is a far lesser evil than the wolves that it kills and hunting wolves costs nearly as much as protecting the tiger. Another reason is aesthetic — the tiger is the jewel of the Ussuriysk taiga and of those of us who live here. We are proud that we have preserved this wonder of nature.

Question: What do people know about the tiger? How much have researchers found out?

Yuri Dunishenko: Surveys show those who are interested know a lot thanks to information that is available in books, on the Internet, in local media and through public organisations. Although the majority still think a tigress looks after her cubs for three years, a tiger can’t climb a tree and uses his eyes to hypnotise his victims. As for research, it is still unclear what a tiger feeds on in the snowless period, how young tigers resettle, what relations are like between family clans, how many cubs die from male tigers and so on. So we are waiting for drones, thermal cameras and other technical equipment for remote monitoring. In fact, despite all of the information available about the tiger, there is still a lot to learn.

Question: The hunter and the tiger — is there a compromise between them?

Yuri Dunishenko: A compromise is not only possible but it has been in place ever since tigers and hunters started living side by side. Had there not been a compromise, the tiger would have long been completely extinct because it has virtually no defence against a rifle. Environmental organisations can boast as much as they like, but it is still impossible to even count the number of tiger species in the area without hunters’ help.

However, as the habitat gets destroyed, tensions between them grow. Undermined game management and the replacement of professional hunters and real amateur hunters with armed people who don’t want to understand the laws of the taiga have also contributed to increased tensions. But as far as I know, the situation is getting better.

Question: What do you think needs to be done to improve the situation with tigers?

Yuri Dunishenko: This question is closely connected with the previous one. We will be unable to preserve the tiger unless we protect its habitat, stabilise and increase the number of its potential prey (the boar, Siberian stag, roe deer, sika deer). This is in the interests of both the tiger and game management centres whose efficiency fully depends on the amount of the tiger’s prey. The only way to do it is by compensating partially the food for wild hoofed animals, which was lost by cutting down oak, cedar and hazel trees. We need feeding grounds, mineral supplements, semi-free animal farming. Only game management centres are capable of doing this, no other organisations are interested or will be interested in our country. But they will be able to do so only if they receive government support. The first thing to do would be to allocate budget funds to cover game management expenses for animal reproduction and security. It would help to preserve the tiger’s population on their territories and to take relevant measures. Clearly, the initial expenses will be quite high – buying and renting biotechnical equipment is expensive. But if at least one billion roubles could be confiscated from thieves and used for these purposes, we wouldn’t have to worry about the tiger. Incidentally, game breeding is a priority in government policy for many Western European countries. Although they don’t have a tiger there, the purpose is purely pragmatic — to get the best quality organic meat products. And the results are impressive.

It is also important to ban oak tree cutting in the tiger’s habitat. Cedar tree felling should also be strictly banned despite sham excuses. Scouring rush woods also need to be preserved. Environmental examination has to be resumed when plots are allotted, damage has to be calculated and damage payments used for compensatory measures. Game management centres need incentives to be more efficient rather than suffocated with excessive accountability and payments. In places where the tiger lives, game management centres have to enjoy special privileges.

Question: What can you say about tiger count? Do the figures reflect the real situation?

Yuri Dunishenko: In the past 30 years, I’ve had to organise tiger count three times in the Khabarovsk Territory and I’ve also been responsible for monitoring tiger populations for 13 years. So I know what it is all about. I would give a “good mark” to the organisation and procedural framework. Certainly, some people involved in the count were replaced over the nine years since the previous monitoring but for most of them it wasn’t the first time.  So I don’t think the chance of human error, which is normal after people’s rotation, was higher than usual. Besides, human error is multi-directional and compensated by the electronic data processing group using Murzin’s algorithm.

The only drawback that made work a bit more complicated was the delayed start, but it was later compensated for, providing a prompt resolution to all issues. The coordinators’ report contained a careful, accurate assessment of the tiger population. All traditions were observed and the results are compatible with the previous reports on overall monitoring.

As for the Khabarovsk Territory, the statistics were unexpectedly high. But it is like this in nature – we excluded all “dubious” tigers from our calculations. Besides, I myself spent a month last winter in the tiger’s habitat and registered footsteps of up to five various tigers in one walk. Plus, the majority of tigresses had two to three cubs; there are lots of tiger paths around. Thanks to intensive game breeding at the Anyuisky National Park, tiger populations nearly doubled in the Nanaisky Region. It is not such good news and might be rather worrying — big snow has reduced the number of hoofed mammals, which can be disastrous for the tiger and for people as these predators may enter villages and towns.

I’m not very well-informed about the situation in the Primorye Territory but coordinators were confident and convincing as per eliminating doubts in tiger count data in some regions when the results were discussed in Vladivostok. So, where the populations have shrunk, that is really the case; where they have increased, they have indeed grown.

The Khabarovsk section of the tiger’s areal borders on its natural areal. Changes in such places are more obvious and usually reflect what is happening with the population as a whole. So we can only be proud that despite difficulties Far Eastern experts are doing well in terms of maintaining the stability of the tiger “community”.