Where Do All the Tigers Go? Cub Collars Could Yield Answers

NEW YORK, New York, August 30, 2004 (ENS) - American and Russian tiger experts are working together to improve the chances of survival for endangered Siberian tigers. Nearly half of all Siberian tiger cubs born in the Russian Far East die in their first year, so the scientists have fitted a few cubs with infant satellite transmission collars to see if they can learn what happens to the ones that do not survive.

"If we can somehow improve their chances, we can make a big difference in helping the population to grow," said Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) John Goodrich, who heads the Siberian Tiger project.

WCS scientists and their Russian colleagues from the Sikhote-Alin Reserve have fitted three wild Siberian tiger cubs under six months old with tiny radio collars, making them the youngest wild tigers ever to be tracked by scientists.

The five ounce collars are made with an elastic designed to expand and eventually break and fall off of the growing cubs.

Field technician Alexander Rybin, right, and his brother capture specialist Nikolai Rybin examine and collar two tiger cubs. (Photo by John Goodrich courtesy Wildlife Conservation Society)

The transmitters emit a mortality signal if the unit remains stationary for more than one hour. Finding the animal quickly is crucial in ascertaining the cause of death, the researchers say.

“Through radio telemetry, we’ve learned a great deal about the needs of Siberian tigers, animals so elusive that few field researchers have seen them in their natural habitat,” said Goodrich.

Working near the Sikhote-Alin Zapovednik, the researchers located the den by tracking a radio-collared three year old tigress named Galia.

The researchers waited until Galia’s radio signal indicated that she had left the den site before searching for the cubs, which they found in a collection of rocks on the slope of a hill.

The cubs, which weighed from 6.5 to nine pounds, remained calm as the researchers handled and measured them. After collecting hair and blood samples for genetic and disease analysis, Goodrich and his team fitted them with radio collars and returned them to their den.

The cubs are the third generation of tigers for the project, which has been monitoring the cats in the Russian Far East for the past decade.

The mother of the cubs was captured and radio-collared in the autumn of 2002. The cubs’ grandmother Lidia was fitted with a collar back in October 1999.