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The Siberian tiger (also known as the Manchurian tiger) is seriously endangered with only an estimated several hundred surviving in eastern Russia, northern China and North Korea. A significant percentage of these are located at the Manchurian Tiger Park about 10 km north of Haerbin. The stated aim of this sanctuary is to breed and ultimately release tigers back into the wild. No doubt in several respects the practices at this sanctuary might not conform with western ideals of endangered wild species management. Some of the animals are housed in concrete-floored cages with little space to exercise, or apparent opportunity ever to roam more freely. More unsettling to western sensibilities and, one would think, counter to the objective of ultimately releasing animals back into the wild, is the fact that visitors can purchase meat and poke it through the cages to feed the big cats.
On the positive side, a large part of the sanctuary is free-range with many tigers roaming amongst the trees and bushes. We joined a safari in a truck with steel mesh sides to ride through the park and see the big cats up close. And I mean UP CLOSE. Again, visitors were encouraged to buy chunks of meat and poke them through the mesh. The tigers were well-conditioned and leapt and lunged at the truck to take the offerings. They were enormous creatures – standing vertical, their paws could reach on to the roof of the truck. Anyone concentrating too carefully on their photographs, and not enough on the approaching paws, claws and teeth, could easily have lost fingers, and I wondered whether the occasional human hand might end up blended in with the meal. There’s no way we’d ever be allowed to see such animals at such close quarters in an Australian zoo or sanctuary, and while conscious of the undesirable conservation implications of some of what we were seeing, we had to admit that it was a thrilling experience. The tigers’ raw power and feeding vigour left no-one in any doubt that if they were stupid enough to get out of the truck, they’d only have a few seconds left to live. Fortunately, no-one on board did, or for that matter, took up the option of purchasing a live animal and seeing it released into the big cats’ domain. The price of a sheep for this purpose was 600 Yuan, a cow 2,000.
The tigers roamed freely around the sides of the truck and in the surrounding bush, providing great photo opportunities. The setting was a bit Jurassic Park like, with high fences and electrically-operated sliding gates that opened and shut as we toured the park amongst the tigers. There must have been about 200 of them.
Back at park headquarters, we admired the other species of big cats on display here. There were cheetahs, white tigers, leopards, jaguars, and even a few rare ligers, a cross between a male lion and female tiger. It’s a fascinating place, despite its undesirable features.
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