The Tiger

Siberian tiger caught in a camera trap in the far north of China. This is a Google Map showing the location where this Siberian tiger was captured by a remote camera trap device. These cameras are left alone and activated by movement. The name of the location as reported in online news media is confusing as there appears to be different versions of the same name of the names are wrong. For sure, though, this large tiger was spotted in a mountain range called 'Greater Hinggan Mountains' in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Xiao Hinggan Ling as shown in the map is an individual mountain as I understand it. In any event the location is in the extreme north-east of China and a place where the experts believed that the tiger was extinct. They've been proved wrong. As is the case with all tiger populations, there has been a massive diminishing of numbers since the turn of the 20th century. Some subspecies of tiger have become extinct in the wild.  The Siberian tiger is...

This is a highly contentious issue. It has been for a very long time. It affects tiger conservation dramatically. A research study published in 2008 provides us with some information about the attitudes of Chinese people living in China about eating bits of tiger and using Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) tiger products and the effect on conservation. Traditional Chinese Medicine tiger products which are hugely damaging to tiger conservation. Image: WWF The scientists surveyed 1,880 residents from six Chinese cities. In summary the results are as follows: 43% had consumed some products that were said to contain tiger parts (this points to the fact that some of these products may not have genuinely contained tiger parts but were sold as containing them) 71% of the respondents said they preferred wild products over farmed ones. This means that they believe that eating the body parts of wild tigers was more beneficial to them than eating the body parts of farmed tigers. You properly kno...

The Siberian tiger is also called the Amur tiger. There is an interesting article on the China Daily website about a forest ranger, An Jianwu, who works in the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park in Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces. Interestingly, Google Maps does not identify this huge park very well or at all.  Siberian tiger. Image in public domain. Photo above : In April 2021 this Siberian Tiger was spotted in China in the far north east of that country where it was eventually tranquilized with darts and is DNA analysed and the stripes also analysed to check whether it had wandered over from Russia. It weighed 200 kg and it was a male. People were astonished to see it wander down a village. It is up in the north of China and it appears to cross into Russia. A study describes the park as an area of "cross-border, cross-province, cross-region and cross-ownership. Its stakeholders are diversified.". There's been enhanced conservation of the Siberian tiger in...

NEWS AND COMMENT: I know that the majestic tiger is nothing to the British government. The tiger's gradual extinction in the wild is not on Boris Johnson's radar. Never has been. BUT I am sure Carrie Symonds, his fiancée, has considered the abuse of the tiger by four Asian countries: China, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos and as such here is a real opportunity to add some conditions to the trade links that Britain wants to develop with China and neighbouring countries.   British PM needs to think of the tiger when pushing trade links with China. This is a tiger farm. Gross animal abuse. Cruel. These tigers will soon be killed and their body parts harvested. Pic in the public domain. I recently wrote about the abuses dished out to the tiger by these countries  - click to read it . If anyone cares about animal welfare it is horrendous. For example, deboning living tigers to make pink tiger bone jewellery. Can you believe it?  It is truly time to tackle tiger abuse and ex...

COMMENT AND OPINION ON THE NEWS: This is a quick note on a topic which frankly disgusts me. In Laos some commercial enterprises are sedating tigers and cutting their bones from them and using the blood filled bones to make jewellery. It is sick human behaviour.  Perverted human behaviour in the creation of pink tiger bone jewellery. Pic: in public domain. What happens to the tigers after they wake up? They've been deboned. Which bloody bones are they missing? Does it affect them badly? Can they move? These bloody bastards are harvesting the body parts of tigers while they are alive. They can't even bloody well wait until they kill them to 'harvest' the bones, skin, teeth, penis etc.. There is a film about this sort of mass and extreme abuse and exploitation of tigers which will be aired shortly I believe. It is called The Tiger Mafia by Karl Ammann and Laurin Merz. Tiger in severe ill-health at an Asian tiger farm. Acute abuse. Horror. Hateful human behaviour. Unfor...

About 6,500 years ago the Chinese divided the sky into four parts in Chinese astrology. They are north, east, west, and south. Each section contains seven stars which look like images of four mythical creatures and Bai Hu is a white tiger in charge of the west of the sky. The white tiger is a symbol of loyalty, power, justice and bravery. It was used by the military in Chinese history such as on a flag and seal. It probably still is. Bai Hu mythical white tiger from Chinese mythology. Image: Pinterest. Bai Hu represents autumn and it was believed to be a reincarnation of the tiger star, Alpha, in the Milky Way. According to I Ching, the tiger symbolises Yin or evil and the dragon symbolises Yang or good.  It roughly corresponds with the prominent constellation of Orion that dominates the autumn and winter night sky. Fiona Sunquist in her book (with her husband Mel), Wild Cats of the World , writes that "the breath of the Tiger creates the wind and the breath of the dragon c...