Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-05-24
The population of endangered wild Siberian tigers has achieved recovery growth in northeast China over the past decade, research has found.
A tiger and its cubs at the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, May 6. (File photo/Xinhua) |
The population of endangered wild Siberian tigers has achieved recovery growth in northeast China over the past decade, research has found.
Approximately
28 Siberian tigers and 42 Amur leopards have been spotted in the forests in
northeast China's Jilin province, according to a decade-long survey by the
Jilin Provincial Forestry Department and Beijing Normal University unveiled in
March.
Whereas, a
1998 project by US and Russian scientists showed there were only six to nine
Siberian tigers and three to seven Amur leopards in the area.
The
country's crackdown on poaching and recent wild animal protection measures have
contributed to the growth, said Lang Jianmin, director of the scientific
research and publicity center of the Hunchun National Siberian Tiger Nature
Reserve in Jilin.
But the
increase of wild animal populations has also caused damage to the local
people's interests. To solve the problem, the Jilin provincial government has
rolled out a series of measures to compensate for personal injuries or property
damage.
"We
got compensation from the government after our cornfield was damaged by wild
boars. Other villagers were compensated after their cattle was killed by
tigers. We appreciate the policy," said Zhang Jincheng, a villager from
Chunhua town, Hunchun city.
As an increasing
number of Siberian tigers roam the China-Russia border, experts have suggested
cross-border nature reserves be set up to provide a favorable environment for
tiger movement.
The barbed
wire on the border should be removed and a state-level Siberian tiger nature
reserve should be jointly built by China and Russia so that the tiger
population could continue to grow, said Jiang Guangshun, deputy director of the
Feline Animal Research Center under the State Forestry Administration.
Siberian
tigers, also known as Amur or Manchurian tigers, mainly live in Russia's Far
East, northeast China and northern parts of the Korean Peninsula. Less than 500
Siberian tigers are believed to survive in the wild, with an estimated 18 to 22
in Heilongjiang and Jilin. The world population of Amur leopards is less than
60, with most of them living in Russia. The species has been on the brink of
extinction in northeast China as a result of poaching and deforestation.
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