China establishes first national reserve for Siberian tigers

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China establishes first national reserve for Siberian tigers

 

12/29/2000

BBC Monitoring

Source: Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in English 0132 gmt 29 Dec

00/BBC Monitoring/© BBC

 

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New

China News Agency)

 

Changchun, 29 December: Northeast China's Jilin Province is planning

to upgrade one of its nature reserves to a national one for Siberian

tigers.

Huangnihe Nature Reserve, in the Mount Changbai area, was established

by the provincial government in May 2000. About 96.4 per cent of its

area of 23,476 ha has witnessed a growing number of wild boars and roe

deer, which often fall prey to tigers, thanks to the hunting ban imposed

by the provincial government five years ago.

 

Over 40 cattle, raised by local farmers, have been attacked by

Siberian tigers since last autumn and 15 of them have been eaten by the

tigers.

 

A panel of experts followed and videotaped the process of a Siberian

tiger chasing after a roe deer last month in the nature reserve.

 

It was an adult male tiger, said Li Tong, a wildlife expert of the

panel. The tiger stopped " hunting " after the roe deer ran across a

forest road.

 

Guo Keqin, an official of Hungnihe Nature Reserve, estimated that four

to six Siberian tigers are in the reserve.

 

Chinese, Russian and American experts believed two years ago from a

survey that less than 20 Siberian tigers were living in the wild in

northeast China. Mount Changbai is their main habitat.

 

Mount Changbai, stretching into the Democratic People's Republic of

Korea (DPRK), is known as a genepool of the species and an area with the

most intact ecological system.

 

 

 

Folder Name: Asia Conservation

Relevance Score on Scale of 100: 95

 

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