The Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) has recovered from a low of around 40 individuals to over 500 through intensive protection in Russia, but habitat fragmentation and prey depletion continue to create welfare challenges.
Amur tigers with insufficient prey range face nutritional stress from inadequate caloric intake — a tiger requiring 5-7 kg of prey per day across vast territory must hunt successfully or lose body condition. Prey-depleted landscapes force tigers into suboptimal hunting situations and closer proximity to human settlements where livestock depredation and retaliatory killing risk increases. Individuals killed through poaching die through trapping and poisoning methods that cause prolonged suffering. The recovery of this subspecies demonstrates the direct welfare benefit of conservation success — from 40 critically stressed individuals to 500+ in a larger, better-protected range with healthier population dynamics. Continued habitat protection and prey base management are essential to sustaining individual welfare across the recovering population.