Amur tiger recovery depends critically on restoring red deer, wild boar, and sika deer populations depleted by poaching and habitat degradation.
Tigers experiencing prey scarcity face exhausting hunts, failed attempts, and starvation risk. When natural prey is scarce, tigers turn to livestock and risk retaliatory killing. Prey restoration reduces all these welfare concerns simultaneously: well-fed tigers are healthy, reproduce successfully, and have reduced conflict with humans. The welfare of the world's largest cat depends on food web integrity - conservation without prey base restoration treats symptoms rather than causes.