Welfare challenges for Amur tigers in their Russian Far East stronghold, including poaching, prey depletion, and forest loss.
Amur tiger recovery is one of conservation biology success stories, demonstrating that targeted protection can reverse even the most severe population decline. The recovery from approximately 40 individuals to over 500 in several decades resulted from Russian government commitment to anti-poaching enforcement and prey species restoration. Current welfare challenges include nutritional stress from prey depletion in areas with significant hunting pressure, increasing forest fire risk from climate change, and conflict management for individuals that encounter livestock. Each challenge has available interventions — better anti-poaching for prey, climate action for fire, and livestock compensation programs for conflict.