Specific features of feeding of the Amur tiger Panthera tigris altaica (Carnivora, Felidae) in a densely populated locality (with reference to Bol’shekhekhtsirskii Reserve and its environs)

Abstract

Specific features of feeding of the Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) in the Bol’shekhekhtsirskii Reserve located in a densely populated locality (15 km to the north of the city of Khabarovsk) have been investigated. For a long time (1992–2000) the diet of tigers consisted 100% of wild animals, although the accessibility of domestic animals, dogs, in particular, was high. From 2000 to 2007, in their feeding, the proportion of dogs increased (up to 47%), and the proportion of wild animals decreased (50.8%). Tigers attacking dogs were physically weakened (broken fangs, wounds, inflicted by humans, diseases). It was shown that even in a densely populated locality, the tiger’s diet includes domestic animals only at exposure to different negative factors.