Panthera Tigris Altaica Research Articles

Assessment of physiological status of felids as indicator of their welfare in the wild

One of the main approaches to monitoring the welfare of wild mammal populations in the wild is animal health estimation based on an analysis of their physiological parameters. To assess that for the natural felid populations, we analyzed adrenal activity level, white blood cells (WBC) counts and occurrence of seropositive reactions to different diseases. The first study was conducted in the Southwest Primorye, in natural habitats of Far Eastern leopard. Unevenly cold and snowy winters in 2010 and 2011 provided extreme natural conditions for overwintering mammals across the Russian Far East. Adrenocortical activity of leopards was significantly higher in 2011 (fecal cortisol level was 712.7 ± 92.4 ng g-1) than in 2010 (361.4 ± 80.5 ng g-1). We suggest that abundance and availability of weakened deer and carcasses could facilitate hunting for leopards and help them to avoid starvation. In the second study we used WBC counts as a health index for three felid species: Pallas cat (Daursky State Nature Biosphere Reserve, 2010), Far Eastern leopard (Southwestern Prymorie, 2011), Siberian tiger (Ussuriskii Reserve, 2010-2011). The ratio of neutrophils to lymphocytes (N:L) was used as an indicator of stress and/or disease state. Occurrence of seropositive reactions to 12 different pathogens was analyzed in all the animals after the hematological analysis. Pallas cats had the lowest N:L ratio (1.0 ± 0.1), significantly differing from leopards (42.8 ± 16.0) and tigers (24.5 ± 9.2). The N:L ratio correlated with the occurrence of seropositive reactions but not with the pathogen diversity. Pallas cats had the lowest occurrence of positive reactions to 4 pathogens: Toxoplasma gondii (12.5%), Mycoplasma sp. (12.5%), influenza A (7.1%), and feline leukemia virus (8.3%). Leopards had the highest N:L and occurrence of seropositive reactions only to 2 infections: T. gondii (16.6%) and Candida sp. (100%). On the contrary, tigers had positive responses to 6 pathogens, including canine distemper (7.7%), feline immunodeficiency virus (8.3%) and Aujeszky’s disease (31%), which were not found in other cats. Values of N:L depended also on the time spent to get blood samples. In the big felid species effects of glucocorticoids on the WBC ratio (neutrophilia) were obtained in blood samples from anesthetized animals, taken more than 2 hours after capture. In Pallas cats blood samples were collected within 13 ± 2 min without anesthesia. Thus the high N:L ratio in big felids can be explained by several reasons: stress of capture, immunosuppression and a high diversity of detected infections. The present findings may have important implications for creation of effective conservation strategies of rare felid species in the wild.

Presence of the Endangered Amur tigerPanthera tigris altaicain Jilin Province, China, detected using non-invasive genetic techniques

AbstractChina is home to three subspecies of tigerPanthera tigrisbut there are no estimates of the size of any of the populations. We detected a population of the Endangered Amur tigerPanthera tigris altaicain Hunchun Nature Reserve in Jilin Province using both mitochondrial DNA and nuclear microsatellite loci. Four male and one female tigers were detected, indicating the potential for a small breeding group. However, genetic diversity was low overall, with six loci showing a heterozygote deficiency and a mean of 2.55 alleles per locus. This study is the first estimate of the wild Amur tiger population in China to use non-invasive techniques, and the presence of a female tiger indicates this is a potentially viable population. We provide baseline genetic diversity estimates to support monitoring of the population. The small number of tiger scats located indicates the importance of continuing the current conservation efforts for this tiger subspecies in Hunchun Nature Reserve. Such efforts include reducing poaching of tigers and their prey, and implementation of management plans to encourage the persistence and recovery of tigers in this area.

基于C-Plan系统保护规划软件的长白山阔叶红松林保护效率研究

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 基于C-Plan系统保护规划软件的长白山阔叶红松林保护效率 DOI: 10.5846/stxb201404040643 作者: 作者单位: 北京林业大学林学院 省部共建森林培育与保护重点实验室 北京,黑龙江科学院自然与生态研究所 哈尔滨,北京林业大学自然保护区学院 北京,中国林业出版社 北京,北京林业大学林学院 省部共建森林培育与保护重点实验室 北京,北京林业大学林学院 省部共建森林培育与保护重点实验室 北京 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 科技部"十二五"科技支撑项目(2012BAC01B03) Conservation effectiveness of broadleaved korean pine forest in Changbai Mt. based on C-Plan systematic conservation planning software Author: Affiliation: BeiJing forestry university,,,,,Beijing forestry university Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:阔叶红松林(Broadleaved Korean pine forest)是北温带物种最丰富的地带性群落之一,是极危动物东北虎(Panthera tigris altaica)的重要栖息地。长白山地区是阔叶红松林在中国范围内的中心分布区,中国政府建立了由24个自然保护区组成的网络来保护阔叶红松林及其他自然生态系统。以长白山地区为研究区域,在系统保护规划方法流程框架下,选择阔叶红松林生态系统中具有代表性的物种和群落做为优先保护对象,并制定量化保护目标,利用系统保护规划软件C-Plan,计算了研究区域规划单元的不可替代性值、各保护对象在保护网络中实现其保护目标的贡献值(Ti)及包含多个保护对象的保护区域的保护效率值(C),以此在多角度评估保护网络及其中各自然保护区的保护效率。结果显示:现有保护网络涵盖了本研究确立保护对象种类的90.4%,已达到保护目标的保护对象占其总数的25.3%。以保护阔叶红松林为"标尺"衡量各保护区的保护效率,长白山国家级自然保护区与松花江三湖省级自然保护区保护效率值最高,其余各保护区保护效率值不足10,整个保护网络保护效率值为59.99。不可替代性分析结果显示:仍有79.97%的高保护价值规划单元未被现有保护网络覆盖,空间上存在明显空缺。将空缺纳入保护网络后,新保护网络的保护效率值将提高到96.32,提高了36.33,77种保护对象达到保护目标(占保护对象总数的92.8%),5种保护对象仍未能达到保护目标,但保护对象贡献值Ti均不同程度提高,保护成效显著。 Abstract:Broadleaved Korean pine forest is one of the zonal communities with most abundant species in the North Temperate Zone. It is also an important habitat for the endangered animal of Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica). Changbai Mountain have been the center of China distribution areas for broadleaved Korean pine forest. A network of 24 nature reserves have been established by the Chinese government to protect Broadleaved Korean pine forest and local natural ecosystem.The paper applied the C-Plan,by following the theoritical framwork of systematic conservation planning, we seletced the representative species and communities in Broadleaved Korean pine forest ecosystem as priority conservation objects and set quantitative conservation target which is in the light of the biodiversity characteristic of broadleaved Korean pine forest. In addition, three key indicators were also caculated: (1) The irreplaceability value of planning unit of study areas; (2)the contribution value (Ti) to the reserved network by the conservation objects; (3) the conservation effectiveness value (Ti) of the protected area which contains multiple objects. All those results were aimed to multiple perspectives evalutating the conservation effieiency of the reserved network and the reserves in it. The evaluation results indicated: the existing conservation network has covered 90.4% of the protection objects 25.3% of protection objects reached the protection target.The highest conservation effectiveness value occurred in Changbai Mountain Reserve and Songhuang River Reserve.The rest of reserves has conservation effectiveness value less than 10. The conservation effectiveness value of whole conservation network is 59.99. The results of irreplaceability analysis indicated that 79.97% of planning units with high protection value has not been covered by existing conservation network.There are obviously GAP in layout. The new conservation network's conservation effectiveness value was 96.32, increased by 36.33 after including GAPs into conservation network. For 77 kinds of protection objects, it reached the protection target. It accounted for 92.8% of total protection objects. 5 kinds of protection objects could not reach protection target, while their protection efficiency has greatly enhanced.The protection effectiveness of the study area was significantly enhanced. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Behavioral responses to mammalian blood odor and a blood odor component in four species of large carnivores.

Only little is known about whether single volatile compounds are as efficient in eliciting behavioral responses in animals as the whole complex mixture of a behaviorally relevant odor. Recent studies analysing the composition of volatiles in mammalian blood, an important prey-associated odor stimulus for predators, found the odorant trans-4,5-epoxy-(E)-2-decenal to evoke a typical “metallic, blood-like” odor quality in humans. We therefore assessed the behavior of captive Asian wild dogs (Cuon alpinus), African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus), South American bush dogs (Speothos venaticus), and Siberian tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) when presented with wooden logs that were impregnated either with mammalian blood or with the blood odor component trans-4,5-epoxy-(E)-2-decenal, and compared it to their behavior towards a fruity odor (iso-pentyl acetate) and a near-odorless solvent (diethyl phthalate) as control. We found that all four species displayed significantly more interactions with the odorized wooden logs such as sniffing, licking, biting, pawing, and toying, when they were impregnated with the two prey-associated odors compared to the two non-prey-associated odors. Most importantly, no significant differences were found in the number of interactions with the wooden logs impregnated with mammalian blood and the blood odor component in any of the four species. Only one of the four species, the South American bush dogs, displayed a significant decrease in the number of interactions with the odorized logs across the five sessions performed per odor stimulus. Taken together, the results demonstrate that a single blood odor component can be as efficient in eliciting behavioral responses in large carnivores as the odor of real blood, suggesting that trans-4,5-epoxy-(E)-2-decenal may be perceived by predators as a “character impact compound” of mammalian blood odor. Further, the results suggest that odorized wooden logs are a suitable manner of environmental enrichment for captive carnivores.

Estimating the potential impact of canine distemper virus on the Amur tiger population (Panthera tigris altaica) in Russia.

Lethal infections with canine distemper virus (CDV) have recently been diagnosed in Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica), but long-term implications for the population are unknown. This study evaluates the potential impact of CDV on a key tiger population in Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Zapovednik (SABZ), and assesses how CDV might influence the extinction potential of other tiger populations of varying sizes. An individual-based stochastic, SIRD (susceptible-infected-recovered/dead) model was used to simulate infection through predation of infected domestic dogs, and/or wild carnivores, and direct tiger-to-tiger transmission. CDV prevalence and effective contact based on published and observed data was used to define plausible low- and high-risk infection scenarios. CDV infection increased the 50-year extinction probability of tigers in SABZ by 6.3% to 55.8% compared to a control population, depending on risk scenario. The most significant factors influencing model outcome were virus prevalence in the reservoir population(s) and its effective contact rate with tigers. Adjustment of the mortality rate had a proportional impact, while inclusion of epizootic infection waves had negligible additional impact. Small populations were found to be disproportionately vulnerable to extinction through CDV infection. The 50-year extinction risk in populations consisting of 25 individuals was 1.65 times greater when CDV was present than that of control populations. The effects of density dependence do not protect an endangered population from the impacts of a multi-host pathogen, such as CDV, where they coexist with an abundant reservoir presenting a persistent threat. Awareness of CDV is a critical component of a successful tiger conservation management policy.

Population and Habitat of the Amur Tiger in the Russian Far East

In the beginning of 19th century, the range (areal) of Panthera tigris altaica included the forest part of the Korean Peninsula, the northern provinces of China, and the left bank of the Amur River in Russia and approached Transbaikalia and Yakutia. By the late 1930s, the number of tigers in Russia had decreased to 20–30 individuals. Protections against hunting (1947), the entrapment of tiger cubs (1965), and a lack of a market for tiger derivatives contributed to growth in tiger numbers. By the 1960s, the tiger population in Russia had increased to 100–110 individuals. According to a count in 1970, the population of tigers had reached 140–150 individuals. At this point in time, the range covered the forest territory of Primorsky Krai and southern Khabarovsky Krai. The last two total counts (1995–96 and 2004–05) revealed a further increase in the numbers to 450–500 animals and a range of 156,000km2. The latest recordings have confirmed the maximum numbers of tigers in the Sikhote-Alin and Lazovsky reserves and adjacent territories. However, the small areas of the reserves and their territorial separation preclude the maintenance of or increases in the population to or beyond 400–500 adult animals, which in genetic terms, would ensure the long-term conservation of the tiger. Further conservation of the region requires the assignment of two protective zones of 45,000–50,000km2 with centres in the Sikhote-Alin and Lazovsky reserves. Within these protective zones, economic development involving any type of forest felling or ungulate hunting should be fully prohibited. The creation of protective zones is the only route to preserving the natural complex of the Sikhote-Alin, including the Amur tiger in Russia.

Assessing the Influence of Environmental Parameters on Amur Tiger Distribution in the Russian Far East Using a MaxEnt Modeling Approach

A better understanding of which biological and anthropogenic parameters are strong predictors of suitable habitats for tigers will help address conservation planning in those areas, which is crucial for maintaining connectivity and preventing further population fragmentation. The aim of this study was to develop a spatial model based on a number of environmental and anthropogenic variables as well as tiger presence data from a 2005 large-scale winter survey to predict Amur tiger distribution within its range in the RFE. Modeling the geographic distribution of Amur tigers required an application of the MaxEnt algorithm using a dataset of 1027 tiger track records and a set of environmental variables, such as distance to rivers, elevation and habitat type, and anthropogenic variables, such as distance to forest and main roads, distance to settlements and vegetation cover change. The models were divided into two groups based on elevation and habitat type. Elevation (AUC=0.821) appeared to be a better predictor of habitat suitability for tigers than habitat type (AUC=0.784).

Including biotic interactions with ungulate prey and humans improves habitat conservation modeling for endangered Amur tigers in the Russian Far East

Wild tiger numbers continue to decline despite decades of conservation action. Identification, conservation and restoration of tiger habitat will be a key component of recovering tiger numbers across Asia. To identify suitable habitat for tigers in the Russian Far East, we adopted a niche-based tiger habitat modeling approach, including biotic interactions with ungulate prey species, human activities and environmental variables to identify mechanisms driving selection and distribution of tiger habitat. We conducted >28,000km of winter snow tracking surveys in 2004/2005 over 266,000km2 of potential tiger habitat in 970 sampling units (∼171km2) to record the presence of tracks of tigers and their ungulate prey. We adopted a used-unused design to estimate Resource Selection Probability Functions (RSPF) for tigers, red deer, roe deer, sika deer, wild boar, musk deer and moose. Tiger habitat was best predicted by a niche-based RSPF model based on biotic interactions with red deer, sika deer and wild boar, as well as avoidance of areas of high human activity and road density. We identified 155,000km2 of occupied tiger habitat in the RFE in 17 main habitat patches. Degradation of tiger habitat was most extreme in the southern areas of the Russian Far East, where at least 42% of potential historic tiger habitat has been destroyed. To improve and restore tiger habitat, aggressive conservation efforts to reduce human impacts and increase ungulate densities, tiger reproduction and adult survival will be needed across all tiger habitat identified by our tiger habitat model.

New evidence of wild Amur tigers and leopards breeding in China

New evidence of wild Amur tigers and leopards breeding in China

Effects of environmental and anthropogenic drivers on Amur tiger distribution in northeastern China

AbstractWe examined environmental and anthropogenic factors drive range loss in large mammals, using presence data of Amur tigers opportunistically collected between 2000 and 2012, and anthropogenic and environmental variables to model the distribution of the Amur tiger in northeastern China. Our results suggested that population distribution models of different subregions showed different habitat factors determining tiger population distribution patterns. Where farmland cover was over 50 km2 per pixel (196 km2), distance was within 15 km to the railway in Changbaishan and road density (length per pixel) increased in Wandashan, the relative probability of Amur tiger occurrence exhibited monotonic avoidance responses; however, where distance was within 150 km of the Sino‐Russia border, the occurrence probability of Amur tiger was relatively high. We analyzed the avoidance or preference responses of Amur tiger distribution to elevation, snow depth and Viewshed. Furthermore, different subregional models detected a variety of spatial autocorrelation distances due to different population clustering patterns. We found that spatial models significantly improved model fits for non‐spatial models and made more robust habitat suitability predications than that of non‐spatial models. Consequently, these findings provide useful guidance for habitat conservation and management.

Sex determination of Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) from footprints in snow

ABSTRACTThe Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) population in China, once widespread, is now reduced to an estimated 20 individuals widely dispersed over a large area. The Chinese government is making concerted efforts to restore this population from the contiguous Russian population. However, they face a challenge in finding an effective monitoring technique. We report on the development of a robust, non‐invasive and cost‐effective technique to identify the sex of Amur tigers from snow footprints. Between December 2011 and December 2012, we collected 523 digital images of left‐hind footprints from 40 known captive Amur tigers (19 F, 21 M), of age range 3–13 years (F mean age = 8.07 ± 0.18, M mean age = 8.36 ± 0.19; F = 1.18, P > 0.05). Images were captured with compact digital cameras according to a standardized photographic protocol (Alibhai et al. 2008). Using JMP software from the SAS Institute, 128 measurements were taken from each footprint according to the protocol developed by Alibhai et al. (2008), and were subjected to a stepwise selection. With just 10 variables, and testing with both Jackknifing and 50% holdout methods, the resulting algorithm for sex determination gave 98% accuracy for individual footprints. The algorithm derived from captive tiger footprints of known sex was then used to identify the sex of 83 footprints from 8 trails collected from unknown free‐ranging Amur tigers in the winter from the end of 2011 to the beginning of 2012. The algorithm predicted 5 trails from females and 3 from males. This technique is a potentially valuable tool for monitoring the recovery of Amur tiger populations at the landscape scale in northeastern China. © 2014 The Wildlife Society.

Comparative neuronal morphology of the cerebellar cortex in afrotherians, carnivores, cetartiodactyls, and primates.

Although the basic morphological characteristics of neurons in the cerebellar cortex have been documented in several species, virtually nothing is known about the quantitative morphological characteristics of these neurons across different taxa. To that end, the present study investigated cerebellar neuronal morphology among eight different, large-brained mammalian species comprising a broad phylogenetic range: afrotherians (African elephant, Florida manatee), carnivores (Siberian tiger, clouded leopard), cetartiodactyls (humpback whale, giraffe) and primates (human, common chimpanzee). Specifically, several neuron types (e.g., stellate, basket, Lugaro, Golgi, and granule neurons; N = 317) of the cerebellar cortex were stained with a modified rapid Golgi technique and quantified on a computer-assisted microscopy system. There was a 64-fold variation in brain mass across species in our sample (from clouded leopard to the elephant) and a 103-fold variation in cerebellar volume. Most dendritic measures tended to increase with cerebellar volume. The cerebellar cortex in these species exhibited the trilaminate pattern common to all mammals. Morphologically, neuron types in the cerebellar cortex were generally consistent with those described in primates (Fox et al., 1967) and rodents (Palay and Chan-Palay, 1974), although there was substantial quantitative variation across species. In particular, Lugaro neurons in the elephant appeared to be disproportionately larger than those in other species. To explore potential quantitative differences in dendritic measures across species, MARSplines analyses were used to evaluate whether species could be differentiated from each other based on dendritic characteristics alone. Results of these analyses indicated that there were significant differences among all species in dendritic measures.

Complete mitochondrial genome of a wild Siberian tiger

In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome of Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) was sequenced, using muscle tissue obtained from a male wild tiger. The total length of the mitochondrial genome is 16,996 bp. The genome structure of this tiger is in accordance with other Siberian tigers and it contains 12S rRNA gene, 16S rRNA gene, 22 tRNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes, and 1 control region.

Climate change and landscape fragmentation jeopardize the population viability of the Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica)

The Amur tiger, a flagship species of the boreal forest ecosystem in Russian Far East and northeastern China, has declined dramatically in population and geographic distribution due to human caused habitat fragmentation and poaching over the past century. The fate of this largest feline species will also be influenced by the worsening impacts of climate change. In this paper we assess the possible effects of climate change (three scenarios from the 2007 IPCC Report) on the Amur tiger by integrating species distribution modeling (SDM) and population viability analysis (PVA). We projected the potential and realized suitable habitat distributions to examine the impacts from anthropogenic factors, and evaluated the changes of suitable habitat and extinction risk for 100 years under climate change. The realized suitable habitat was projected to be more severely fragmented than the potential suitable habitat because of human-related factors. The potential suitable habitat would expand northward under all climate change scenarios considered. However, the tiger population would suffer the largest decline and highest extinction risk in the next 100 years under the worst climate change scenario (A1B) even though the size of potential habitat would be greatest. Under climate change, the tiger population could persist for the next century only if the size and quality of current habitat patches would remain intact. In addition, our study demonstrated that using SDM alone could grossly overestimate the geographic distribution of the Amur tiger, and that coupling SDM and PVA could provide important insights into conservation planning to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Generation and analysis of a large-scale expressed sequence tags from a full-length enriched cDNA library of Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica)

In this study, a full-length enriched cDNA library was successfully constructed from Siberian tiger, the world's most endangered species. The titers of primary and amplified libraries were 1.28×10(6)pfu/mL and 1.59×10(10)pfu/mL respectively. The proportion of recombinants from unamplified library was 91.3% and the average length of exogenous inserts was 1.06kb. A total of 279 individual ESTs with sizes ranging from 316 to 1258bps were then analyzed. Furthermore, 204 unigenes were successfully annotated and involved in 49 functions of the GO classification, cell (175, 85.5%), cellular process (165, 80.9%), and binding (152, 74.5%) are the dominant terms. 198 unigenes were assigned to 156 KEGG pathways, and the pathways with the most representation are metabolic pathways (18, 9.1%). The proportion pattern of each COG subcategory was similar among Panthera tigris altaica, P. tigris tigris and Homo sapiens, and general function prediction only cluster (44, 15.8%) represents the largest group, followed by translation, ribosomal structure and biogenesis (33, 11.8%), replication, recombination and repair (24, 8.6%), and only 7.2% ESTs classified as novel genes. Moreover, the recombinant plasmid pET32a-TAT-COL6A2 was constructed, coded for the Trx-TAT-COL6A2 fusion protein with two 6× His-tags in N and C-terminal. After BCA assay, the concentration of soluble Trx-TAT-COL6A2 recombinant protein was 2.64±0.18mg/mL. This library will provide a useful platform for the functional genome and transcriptome research of for the P. tigris and other felid animals in the future.

Construction and Analysis of Siberian Tiger Bacterial Artificial Chromosome Library with Approximately 6.5-Fold Genome Equivalent Coverage

Bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) libraries are extremely valuable for the genome-wide genetic dissection of complex organisms. The Siberian tiger, one of the most well-known wild primitive carnivores in China, is an endangered animal. In order to promote research on its genome, a high-redundancy BAC library of the Siberian tiger was constructed and characterized. The library is divided into two sub-libraries prepared from blood cells and two sub-libraries prepared from fibroblasts. This BAC library contains 153,600 individually archived clones; for PCR-based screening of the library, BACs were placed into 40 superpools of 10 × 384-deep well microplates. The average insert size of BAC clones was estimated to be 116.5 kb, representing approximately 6.46 genome equivalents of the haploid genome and affording a 98.86% statistical probability of obtaining at least one clone containing a unique DNA sequence. Screening the library with 19 microsatellite markers and a SRY sequence revealed that each of these markers were present in the library; the average number of positive clones per marker was 6.74 (range 2 to 12), consistent with 6.46 coverage of the tiger genome. Additionally, we identified 72 microsatellite markers that could potentially be used as genetic markers. This BAC library will serve as a valuable resource for physical mapping, comparative genomic study and large-scale genome sequencing in the tiger.

ACUTE LYMPHOCYTIC CHOLANGITIS AND LIVER FAILURE IN AN AMUR TIGER (PANTHERA TIGRIS ALTAICA)

An adult male Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) with confirmed inflammatory bowel disease developed acute severe icterus, bilirubinuria, bilirubinemia, and elevated bile acids after a diet change. Liver biopsies showed moderate lymphoplasmacytic cholangiohepatitis (lymphocytic cholangitis). The tiger developed neurologic signs including ataxia, tremors, and seizures, as well as epistaxis. Therapy consisted of antibiotics, a steroid anti-inflammatory, vitamins, pro-coagulants, and liver-supportive medicines. The tiger improved from acute liver failure within 3 wk, while the epistaxis began at 3.5 wk and did not resolve until 10.5 wk. The long-term maintenance plan consists of oral prednisolone, metronidazole, ursodiol, and an all muscle-meat beef diet.

HUMORAL RESPONSE TO CALICIVIRUS IN CAPTIVE TIGERS GIVEN A DUAL-STRAIN VACCINE

The current feline vaccine with a single strain of calicivirus has been used for captive tigers, yet it may not protect against virulent systemic calicivirus infections. A cross-institutional study investigated the humoral response to a new dual-strain, killed-virus calicivirus vaccine for nine captive tigers. The subspecies of these tigers were Amur (Panthera tigris altaica), Bengal (Panthera tigris tigris), and Malayan (Panthera tigris jacksoni). Serum neutralization titers for virulent feline calicivirus strain FCV-DD1 were higher following dual-strain vaccine administration. There were no reports of adverse vaccine reactions. Dual-strain vaccination may afford broadened cross-protection against different calicivirus strains and is desirable to reduce the risk of virulent systemic calicivirus disease in tigers.

Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) energetic requirements: Implications for conserving wild tigers

The Global Tiger Recovery Program has identified increasing prey populations as a crucial component of recovering wild tiger numbers because prey density is a key determinant of tiger density, especially for Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) living at the northern limit of tiger distribution, where both tiger and prey densities are the lowest range wide. To understand potential prey requirements for Amur tigers, we developed a predictive energetics model based on allometric scaling and literature values for the costs of reproduction to estimate energetic requirements. We parameterized the energetics model with empirical activity budgets and movement rates estimated from 5GPS radiocollared tigers between 2009 and 2013. To avoid starvation, adult male tigers must consume a minimum of 5.2kg/day, non-reproducing adult females 3.9kg/day, and an adult female raising 4 cubs to independence needs 200% more energy, or an average of 11.4kg/day over the 651day reproduction period. Given knowledge of Amur tiger diet composition and prey biomass in the Russian Far East, male tigers would consume 24.8prey per year, non-reproducing females 18.2prey per year, and a female raising 4 cubs 53.8prey per year. However, our energetics model underestimated empirical consumption rates, emphasizing that while the relative costs of reproduction are valid, wild tigers are likely consuming more prey than predicted by basal metabolic demands alone. Quantifying the energetic requirements of tigers allows resource managers to estimate nutritional carrying capacity, estimate the impact of tigers on prey, and develop science-based conservation recommendations.

Screening and analyzing genes associated with Amur tiger placental development

The Amur tiger is a unique endangered species in the world, and thus, protection of its genetic resources is extremely important. In this study, an Amur tiger placenta cDNA library was constructed using the SMART cDNA Library Construction kit. A total of 508 colonies were sequenced, in which 205 (76%) genes were annotated and mapped to 74 KEGG pathways, including 29 metabolism, 29 genetic information processing, 4 environmental information processing, 7 cell motility, and 5 organismal system pathways. Additionally, PLAC8, PEG10 and IGF-II were identified after screening genes from the expressed sequence tags, and they were associated with placental development. These findings could lay the foundation for future functional genomic studies of the Amur tiger.