The Siberian tiger is the largest of the world’s big cats and is currently classified as an endangered species. This predator once roamed a vast territory spanning the Russian Far East, northeastern China, and the Korean peninsula, but today its range is highly restricted, with the majority of the population residing in Russia’s Sikhote-Alin mountain region. The species’ current status is a consequence of population decline due to human pressures and inherent biological vulnerabilities. The survival of the remaining wild population, estimated to be fewer than 600 individuals, depends on addressing the multiple threats that continue to push the Siberian tiger toward extinction.
Poaching and the Illegal Wildlife Trade
The intentional killing of Siberian tigers represents a major threat to their survival. Poaching is fueled by a sustained, high-value black market demand for tiger parts, particularly in parts of Asia. The market seeks tiger skins for trophies and bones and other body parts for use in traditional medicine.
This illicit activity is often facilitated by organized crime syndicates that manage the logistics of killing, processing, and smuggling parts across international borders, primarily into China. Enforcement is a constant challenge, especially in the vast, sparsely populated forests of the Russian Far East. The accessibility of once-remote tiger habitats, created by logging roads, has inadvertently made it easier for poachers to enter and exit these critical zones.
Habitat Destruction and Fragmentation
The loss and fragmentation of the tiger’s natural environment severely limits their ability to survive and breed. Logging is a major contributor to habitat destruction, degrading the quality of the forest essential for supporting the tiger’s entire ecosystem.
Infrastructure projects, such as the construction of new roads, railways, and pipelines, further slice the remaining forest into smaller, unconnected patches. This fragmentation isolates tiger populations, preventing the necessary movement and dispersal of young adults needed for gene flow. The loss of continuous territory is particularly harmful for the Siberian tiger, which requires enormous home ranges—averaging around 175 square miles for an individual—to successfully hunt and reproduce.
Prey Base Depletion
The scarcity of the tiger’s primary food source places pressure on the remaining wild population. Siberian tigers rely on large ungulates like wild boar, red deer, and sika deer. Human activities reduce the density of these prey animals through unregulated hunting and competition for resources.
Habitat degradation, caused by logging and forest fires, also lowers the quality and quantity of forage land for prey species, diminishing their numbers. When natural prey populations decline, tigers are forced to expand their hunting territory, often moving closer to human settlements. This leads to increased human-tiger conflict, such as attacks on domestic livestock, which often results in retaliatory killings by local residents. Poaching of these ungulate species has been identified as having a large negative impact on the long-term viability of the tiger population.
Genetic Bottlenecks and Disease Vulnerability
The small and isolated population of Siberian tigers faces severe biological challenges stemming from its history of decline. The species experienced a devastating demographic collapse in the 1940s, when the wild population was reduced to an estimated 20 to 30 individuals. This event caused a genetic bottleneck.
This lack of genetic diversity makes the tigers highly susceptible to inbreeding depression, which can lower reproductive success and compromise the overall fitness of the population. Low genetic variability limits the species’ ability to adapt to environmental changes, such as new climates or emerging diseases. The population is particularly vulnerable to widespread disease outbreaks, such as the Canine Distemper Virus (CDV), which has been linked to localized declines in the Russian Far East.