China enhances population of Siberian tigers in resourceful way

A breeding center in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has been implementing captive breeding and conducting re-wilding training to conserve the endangered Siberian tiger and boost its population.

Established in 1986 and dubbed "home of Siberian tigers", the China Hengdaohezi Feline Breeding Center is the world's largest breeding center for Siberian tigers.

This year, the breeding center welcomed 63 newborn tiger cubs, and nearly 90 percent of them have survived.

"We use the milk powder specially formulated for the baby tigers and feed them four to six times a day," said Xu Haitao, a caregiver of the veterinary department of the breeding center.

With the help of big data, the baby tigers are bred in a way to protect their elite genes so as to avoid inbreeding in the wild and guarantee the population quality.

"It mainly depends on their genes. We prefer the ones with a good temperament. We want elite genes in their hunting ability and the physical condition of the male tiger," said Xu.

The breeding center also boasts a rewilding training area covering an area of 40,000 square meters.

The training area simulates the primitive forests so that the tigers can be rewilded in a close-to-natural environment.

"In winter we mainly train the tigers to resist the cold, and we don't allow them back indoors. The outside is their perpetual territory, where they will learn to survive on their own and improve the ability to survive in the wild," said Xu.

At present, the population size of the wild Siberian tigers in China is not large enough for their sustainable survival in the wild, and the improvement of the ecological environment is an important factor for their smooth return to the mountains and forests.

In recent years, Heilongjiang has built a number of nature reserves to protect Siberian tigers, Amur leopards and other wild animals, implemented forest protection and wetland restoration projects, and cracked down on various illegal and criminal activities that harm wildlife resources. As a result, the populations of rare and endangered wild animals including Siberian tigers have been effectively restored.

"As a flagship species, the

Siberian tiger stands at the top of the food chain, and its very existence proves that the food chain is complete," said Xu.

Siberian tigers, otherwise known as Amur or Manchurian tigers, mainly live in eastern Russia, northeast China and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula.