Amur tigers represent one of conservation's greatest success stories, recovering from fewer than 40 individuals to over 500 today, yet individual tigers still face welfare threats from snaring, prey depletion, and habitat fragmentation.
Despite the remarkable population recovery, individual Amur tigers face ongoing welfare challenges. Snare injuries cause acute pain, infection, and limb loss, often resulting in tigers that can no longer hunt effectively and eventually starve or enter conflict with humans seeking easier prey. Tigers with depleted prey bases must range farther into human-dominated landscapes, increasing stress and conflict mortality risk. Conservation success at the population level must be accompanied by attention to individual animal welfare outcomes to be considered truly successful.