"The attacks seemed to come from nowhere. At first, the tigers snatched guard dogs on the edge of villages in Russia's far east, emerging from the forest at night to prey. Others went for livestock, going after horses and cattle. Then the attacks on people began. In January, an ice fisher was mauled at night and dragged away by a big cat, just weeks after a forester had been killed. In March, another man was attacked and partly eaten by a tiger."
"African swine fever, a disease that is almost always fatal to most pig species, has swept through the region. The disease has been described by scientists as an ecological disaster, driving a number of wild pig species toward extinction, with enormous knock-on effects for ecosystems and other species. It has killed vast numbers of wild boar, a main food source for the tigers and particularly popular with females with cubs."
Amur tigers have moved out of remote taiga and into human areas, initially preying on guard dogs and livestock and later attacking people during a deadly winter. Only a few hundred Amur tigers remain across a fragment of the Siberian taiga and the Russian–Chinese border. Since 2020 many tigers have left forests in unprecedented numbers. African swine fever has devastated wild boar populations, removing a main food source, especially for females with cubs. Unrestricted poaching of deer and increased logging have reduced prey and habitat, pushing tigers to seek food near villages and escalating human–wildlife conflict.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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