Siberian Tiger Tracking in Russian Far East

2/2/2020 -- 2/9/2020

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Tigers are the largest members of the cat family (Felidae) and the Siberian tigers are the largest of the tiger subspecies.  The Siberian tigers once ranged throughout the Korean Peninsula, north China, Russian Far East, and eastern Mongolia. Today, this population inhabits mainly the Sikhote Alin mountain region in Khabarovsk and Primorye Krais in the Russian Far East.   An initial census held in 2015 indicated that the Siberian tiger population was about 480–540 individuals in the Russian Far East, including 100 cubs, and may be only about 20-30 in China along the Russian border.  The Siberian tiger was also called "Amur tiger", "Manchurian tiger", "Ussurian tiger", or 東北虎.
Although traditionally considered part of Siberia, the Russian Far East is categorized separately from Siberia in Russian regional schemes.  Khabarovsk and Primorye Krais are influenced by cold, dry continental air in the winter. Temperatures at this time of year are well below freezing even on the coast.  Our main destination, Durminskoye forest reserve, is the only reserve in the large Khabarovsk krai that combines two factors: 1) preserving flora and fauna of the unique Ussuri taiga and 2) supervising restricted hunting for selected ungulates (hoofed animals) as per local legislation.  The reserve’s recent progression into eco-tourism not only allows visitors to enjoy this beautiful taiga forest and its wildlife, but also helps sustain some of the local community with employment on the reserve. 

 

Getting there ...

We had a late night flight on 1/31 from SFO (US) via ICN (Korea) and NRT (Japan), and finally arrived at KHV (Russia) in the evening on 2/2 with more than 24 hours of traveling time.  Due to the outbreak of coronavirus, most people wore masks on the airplane even for flight attendants.  On the route from ICN to NRT, there were only a few passengers in our cabin section in the huge A380 airplane.  When we got to NRT, we were the only passengers going through the transfer from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2.   We booked this wildlife tour from Royle Safaris.  It was a customized private tour with two parts:  1) this Siberian tiger tracking and 2) Japan (Hokkaido and Nagano) wildlife.

 

 

2/3 (Day 2) ...

 

 

 

 

2/4 (Day 3) ...

   

 

 

 

 

2/5 (Day 4) ...

 

 

 

 


 

 

2/6 (Day 5) ...

 

 

   


 

 

 

 

 

2/7 (Day 6) ...

   

 

 

 

 

2/8 (Day 7) ...

 

 

 

 

 

   


   

 

 

 

2/9 (Day 8) Going Next ...

We had an early morning flight from Khabarovsk via Vladivostok to our next destination Narita, Tokyo for our second part of tour:  Japan (Hokkaido and Nagano) wildlife.  When we were ready to take off, I was excited to see some rare Russian airplanes (An-30 and Mi-8) although I was supposed to see wildlife, not airplanes, for this trip :-)

 

 


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