Changbai Mountain welcomes wild Siberian tiger after 30-year hiatus

A wild Siberian tiger was spotted near Changbai Mountain in Northeast China's Jilin province on Tuesday, marking the return of the species to the mountain after a 30-year hiatus, according to the Jilin Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau.

Staff members from the Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve Management Center captured clear footage of the tiger near a tourist road on the western slope of the mountain. Seven days earlier, the reserve center personnel found what appeared to be wild Siberian tiger tracks, 300 meters away from the location.

The bureau said the discovery of a wild Siberian tiger, or Northeast China tiger, in the Changbai Mountain National Nature Reserve signifies an expansion of the tiger's habitat, which extends over 200 kilometers westward from the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park.

Staff members then deployed nine monitoring cameras near the discovery site and promptly devised a plan to prevent human-tiger conflicts, issuing warnings to the public and installing warning signs at the location to alert people about the presence of tigers.

The bureau highlighted that in recent years, Jilin has intensified its ecological conservation efforts by prohibiting hunting and commercial logging in natural forests. The biodiversity of flora and fauna in the Changbai Mountain forests continues to thrive, with species like sika deer and roe deer increasing year by year.

Established in October 2021, the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park is located at the junction of Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces in China, in the southern region of the Laoye Mountain — a branch of Changbai Mountain. Over 6,800 patrol officers have been patrolling the 14,100 square kilometers of the Siberian tiger habitat.

In 2021, a joint research effort involving Professor Jiang Guangshun's team from Northeast Forestry University, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration's feline research center, and institutions including the University of California in the United States revealed that the northeastern region of China is a crucial habitat for Siberian tigers and could potentially support over 300 of the tigers in the future.

Jiang mentioned that amid the global trend of the rapid loss of tiger habitats, China's potential for the recovery of the Siberian tiger population and its habitat is enormous, making it one of the countries with the most promising prospects for tiger habitat restoration worldwide.

In April, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the number of wild Siberian tigers living stably within the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park has reached around 70, nearly doubling from the pilot phase of the park in 2017. The population of wild Amur leopards has reached around 80.

Last month, an incident occurred in Boli county, Heilongjiang province, where a Siberian tiger entered a village and caused injuries to residents.

The management center of the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park told villagers that when encountering wild Siberian tigers or leopards, they should calmly withdraw to avoid behavior that may provoke or attract them. It is crucial not to approach or provoke the animals and to immediately contact local wildlife conservation authorities.