Living amongst apex predators

On July 17, 2020, in Hunchun, Jilin province, a taxi driver encountered an Amur tiger “blocking the road” while passing by a highway near Hadamen township Sandaogou village. The driver stopped and waited for 20 minutes before the tiger left. 

On September 19, 2020, two employees of Hunchun Zijin Mining met a tiger jogging on the road and appeared in the bushes beside the road.

Caught on camera in Hunchun in 2020 © WCS

How to prevent an encounter with tigers

• First of all, when we find someone in our territory, we will hide in the dark and observe our human friends. If we take the initiative to show up infront of people (or yell at them) but do not directly attack, it means that we do not regard people as prey. We are warning human friends that there are cubs or prey nearby. Of course, sometimes we will treat people as unwelcome competitors and warn human friends that we are the masters here. At this time, what you have to do is: leave this dangerous area as soon as possible, don’t panic, don’t turn your back to our tiger, let alone run away from the scene quickly.
• When human friends did not understand the demonstration correctly, and moved on, leading to too close to us, or cubs or prey. We will be forced to take further self-defence actions and even launch attacks. In fact, when human friends suddenly appear in front of us, we often suddenly freeze and become nervous, so we yell at demonstrations and pretend to attack. At this point, you can: as much as possible make noise to scare us away. Human friends can try shouting, banging metal, shaking trees to make noise, or use flames, flares or firecrackers.  Remember, be careful not to cause forest fires.
• If we really intend to attack human friends, we usually knock people down first. If we did not kill human friends in the first place (maybe just out of curiosity to learn about human beings), then humans still have a chance to survive. In this case, you’d better to lie down and don’t make any fierce resistance. If the enemy does not move, I will not move, because defenceless resistance is useless, but it will irritate us and cause unnecessary harm.
• If we throw our human friends down and continue to attack, we will start from the neck at this time, so what you have to do at this time is to protect your neck first to avoid being bitten by us. At the same time use any weapons within reach to counterattack, such as fire flare, wooden sticks, stones, etc.
• It is absolutely forbidden to hunt any wild animals such as roe deer and wild boar because they are our prey, and the reduction of prey will increase the probability that we will prey on domestic animals. If hunting traps and hunting traps cause us to be injured, and we are angry and hungry, we will threaten the safety of people and livestock more seriously.
• It is necessary to maintain the sanitary conditions in residential areas and nearby houses. It is forbidden to pile up rubbish that will attract big beasts like us, especially animal carcasses and fur.
• In our tiger habitat, it is best not to keep dogs. As mentioned earlier, dogs are prone to attack from tigers. Not only are they hard to protect themselves, but they can also harm human friends.
• Relevant departments should put up warning signs in areas where we and leopard brothers live “tigers and leopards live here, pay attention to safety” to avoid harm to nearby people.
• Before entering our tiger habitat, you should fully understand our activities on this site. If we have attacked domestic animals and dogs, or someone has seen us, it is recommended not to enter this forest.