Genetic Diversity of the Amur Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica): Are There Differences between the 20th and the Early 21st Centuries?

Polymorphism of nine microsatellite loci in the Sikhote-Alin tiger population was analyzed in the modern and recent historical periods, using blood, excrement, and museum bone samples. Tests for excess heterozygosity to determine whether the population went through a period of low abundance and a low value of the Garza-Williamson coefficient indicated that such events were highly probable to occur in both recent and earlier history. The mean effective population size Ne of a current sample was 34.

Spatial Ecology of Siberian Forest Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus valentinae Flerov, 1932) of Kuznetsk Alatau.

For the first time, information is provided on the size of the home range of Siberian forest reindeer (Rangifer tarandus valentinae) of the Altai-Sayan population of Kuznetsk Alatau, the minimum distance that the deer passes per day, their changes, and changes of habitats during the annual cycle. Possible reasons for the cyclical use of the habitat by forest reindeer are discussed.

Assurance of the existence of a trans-boundary population of the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) at Tsagaanshuvuut - Tsagan-Shibetu SPA at the Mongolia-Russia border.

The existence of a trans-boundary population of the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) that inhabits the massifs of Tsagaanshuvuut (Mongolia) - Tsagan-Shibetu (Russia) was determined through non-invasive genetic analysis of scat samples and by studying the structure of territory use by a collared female individual. The genetic analysis included species identification of samples through sequencing of a fragment of the cytochrome b gene and individual identification using a panel of 8 microsatellites. The home range of a female snow leopard marked with a satellite Global Positioning System (GPS) collar was represented by the minimum convex polygon method (MCP) 100, the MCP 95 method and the fixed kernel 95 method.

Social structure and space use of Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) in Southern Russian Far East based on GPS telemetry data.

To better understand the spatial structure of Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) at the southern edge of their range we fitted 14 tigers (6♀♀ and 8♂♂) with 15 GPS-Argos collars between 2008 and 2011 in 2 study sites: the Ussuriskii Reserve of southern Sikhote-Alin and the Land of the Leopard National Park in southwest Primorye, Russian Far East. Fixed kernel estimates of male home ranges were larger than those of female home ranges (P < 0.05 [mean 95% fixed kernel(♀) = 401 ± 205 km(2) ; mean 95% fixed kernel(♂) = 778 ± 267 km(2)]).