Amur Tiger
Taxonomy
■ Phylum: Chordata – chordates
■ Class: Mammalia – mammals
■ Order: Carnivora – carnivores
■ Family: Felidae – cats
■ Species: Panthera tigris – Tiger
■ Subspecies: Panthera tigris altaica – Amur Tiger
Conservation
Distribution and Habitat
Tigers once had a wide range across Asia, stretching from Turkey to Russia’s Far East. Today, the six remaining subspecies live in relatively small areas, each adapted to local conditions.
Tigers are highly adaptable to different environments – from tropical and temperate forests to grasslands and wetlands. The key requirement is a sufficient amount of large prey.
Tigers are mostly solitary and live in marked territories.
The Amur tiger is found in the Russian Far East and northeastern China.
Adaptations
Male Amur tigers are larger than females and can reach up to 3.7 meters in length, with the tail making up about one meter. Males typically weigh around 200 kilograms. Females are smaller, about 2.4 meters long and weighing around 130 kilograms.
Their striped coat helps camouflage them in both forests and grasslands. Large herbivores, their main prey, can’t distinguish orange from green, making the tiger’s stripes almost invisible.
Like most cats, tigers have retractable claws, so they don’t leave claw marks in their tracks. These claws are used for hunting, climbing, and marking territory – the height of scratch marks and the scent left behind signal a tiger’s strength and size to rivals.
Diet
Tigers are predators that mainly hunt large animals like deer and wild boar. If such prey is scarce, they may eat birds, fish, rodents, and even reptiles or insects. Good vision and a keen sense of smell help them track prey. Before attacking, they sneak up as close as possible. Their strong jaws and teeth kill the prey, while sharp claws help hold it.
Breeding
Tigers are polygamous – they don’t form long-term pairs, and one male can mate with several females. The gestation period is short, around 100 days. Each litter has 2 to 7 cubs, cared for only by the mother.
Newborn cubs are blind, nearly deaf, and completely dependent on their mother. At around 1.5 years old, they start hunting by learning from her. Tigers become independent at 2 to 3 years of age.
Conservation and Threats
The main threats to the species are poaching and habitat degradation. To help preserve them, ex situ breeding is carried out in zoos – including here at Rīga ZOO.
As apex predators, tigers are indicators of environmental change. Monitoring programs in different regions track their populations to detect shifts early on.
References:
Goodrich, J., Wibisono, H., Miquelle, D., Lynam, A.J., Sanderson, E., Chapman, S., Gray, T.N.E., Chanchani, P. & Harihar, A. 2022. Panthera tigris. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T15955A214862019.en
UNEP 2025. The Species+ Website. Compiled by UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge, UK. www.speciesplus.net
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Siberian tiger”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 Mar. 2025. https://www.britannica.com/animal/Siberian-tiger
EAZA 2024. EAZA Ex-situ Programme Overview. 2024_10_EEP_overview_12de46f9a4.pdf
Liu, Y.C., Sun, X., Driscoll, C., Miquelle, D.G., Xu, X., Martelli, P., Uphyrkina, O., Smith, J.L.D., O’Brien, S.J. and Luo, S.J. 2018. Genome-wide evolutionary analysis of natural history and adaptation in the world’s tigers. Current Biology 28(23): 3840–3849
Raul A., Valvert L. Morphology of the wild Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica). https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-size-and-weight-siberian-tiger#google_vignette
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