Amur (Siberian) tigers are the world's largest wild cats, surviving in the forests of the Russian Far East through intensive conservation effort after near-extinction in the 20th century.
Wild Amur tiger welfare is primarily threatened by habitat fragmentation, poaching, and human-tiger conflict. Snares set for ungulates entangle tigers, causing severe injury from wire cutting into tissue over days. Poaching for bones, skin, and organs involves cruel killing methods. Tigers that venture near villages in search of prey may prey on livestock, creating conflict that leads to retaliatory killing. Anti-poaching rangers and compensation schemes for livestock losses are essential welfare interventions. The psychological welfare of a wide-ranging solitary predator compressed into increasingly fragmented forest patches — with expanding roads, logging, and human presence — represents a chronic stress burden that is difficult to quantify but impossible to ignore.