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Liu, Y.; Zhang, E.; Li, Z.; Chen, X.
Amur tiger predation on livestock in Hunchun Nature Reserve, Jilin, China
2006  Acta Theriologica Sinica (26): 213-220

We examined predation on livestock by the Amur tiger (_Panthera tigris altaica_) in Hunchun Nature Reserve, Jilin, China, through field surveys and studying claims made by local residents from May 2002 to October 2004. There were 38 claims and a total of 51 livestock were killed in these claims. Date, kills number, type, age and sex, tiger trails and the GPS data of the predation spots. We used Mann-Whitney _U_ to test the significance of difference. GIS analysis was employed to quantify these spots with 10 ecological variables. We use PCA to identify the principle components among the 10 variables. Results show that cattle and horses were the main species of livestock preyed on. Considering the ratio of total numbers, tigers showed no preference for cattle or horses. Tigers preferred prey adult animals, and most tiger predation claims involved single or two victims. Most predation claims occurred during the non-frozen season (March-November). Location of predation, in order of importance of the 10 ecological variables was: distance away from residence > elevation > distance away from road > land use type II > slope > aspect > distance away from river > vegetation type > road type > land use type I. Mean distance from residence was 3 666 ñ 2 308 m, which was highly significantly nearer than that of tiger bed, sphinx or scrape. Mean elevation was 280 ñ 114 m, which was highly significantly lower than that of tiger beds and significantly lower than that of sphinx or scrape. Mean distance from roads was 522 ñ 543 m, which was highly significantly nearer than that of tiger scrape, significantly nearer than that of bed and nearly significantly nearer than that of sphinx. Among the 26 predation locations, 14 were in less protected forests, 6 were in specially protected forest, 3 were in farmland, 2 were in shrubbery and 1 was near the residence area. In total, tigers preyed on a total of 11 851 kg of livestock, costing at least 116 126.00 RMB loss.

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