On the edge of a lush forest
in Coastal Siberia,
a hunter is on the prowl.
Terney,
A small town in Far East Russia.
This is no longer a place of exile,
but today's Siberians
must eke out a hard living,
trapping, fishing, and logging.
They live on
one of the last frontiers -
surrounded by a vast
and largely untamed wilderness.
And still, out there somewhere,
a legend lives.
A creature of fearful power
and stunning beauty.
It is the biggest cat on earth...
the Siberian tiger.
Today wildlife biologists
seek to study the tiger
and perhaps to save it.
About three hundred Siberian tigers
survive in the wild.
And they are perilously
close to extinction.
These Russian and American scientists
must get close to one of the most
dangerous animals in the world.
But while some seek
the elusive tigers in the wild...
one Russian scientist
is studying them in captivity:
mating and hunting.
Made for Siberia,
this splendid cat can sprint across
the snows at fifty miles an hour.
Magnificent. Mysterious.
Highly dangerous and
highly endangered.
This is the great Siberian -
The Tiger of the Snow.
A vast stretch of forest
blankets Russia
with a fourth of the world's
timber reserves.
Until recently the Siberian Tiger
thrived here in secure isolation.
Under the strict dictates
of the old Soviet system,
the tiger was protected.
But today, enforcement is lax.
Rampant poaching
has dramatically reduced
the population of tigers in the wild.
In the Asian medicine market,
everything from the eyes
to the tail is valued
for its legendary curative powers.
The magnificent coat alone
might fetch ten thousand dollars.
But poachers aren't the only threat.
The tiger's habitat,
part of the largest natural forest
in the world,
is rapidly disappearing.
It's being cut at a rate of
ten million acres a year.
When authorities confiscate a pelt
from the poachers
it must be destroyed so it will
never find its way to market.
Recalling a poet's famous words...
"Tiger, Tiger burning bright
in the forests of the night..."
The coast of Eastern Siberia.
The Siberian tiger once ranged
across much of the Asian continent.
Once they numbered in the thousands.
Now, only some three hundred survive
in a narrow band of mountains
on the Sea of Japan.
The Siberia of legend
is a frozen wasteland.
In fact, parts of the forest
are temperate - even subtropical.
Here,
Russian and American scientists
are seeking to study
wild Siberian tigers
in a last-ditch effort to save them.
Dr. Maurice Hornocker,
an American big cat authority,
has brought desperately needed
technology to this crucial effort.
"Yeah, that's good, too."
In the past, Russian scientists
could study the tigers only in winter,
when their tracks
could be followed in the snow.
Now, with radio tracking devices,
the elusive cats can be studied
sight-unseen - and year-round.
"My first work with cats,
with the mountain lions
in North America, in Idaho,
everyone said it couldn't be done -
and I've always liked a challenge.
We've used the tiger population
as target species
but we've studied the entire
ecosystem.
Because of the immense area
that the tiger needs to exist
defines entire watersheds,
entire systems
that the prey must also utilize.
So you can literally define
an entire ecosystem
by studying a big cat."
The scientists pick up
a radio signal from a tiger
somewhere in the thick forest below.
In fact, it's a number of tigers.
And incredibly,
they're out in the open.
Siberian tigers are so rare and elusive
that even a fleeting glimpse
like this
is a landmark event
for the scientists.
"When we saw that female and
those cubs
on its lakeshore - wide open view - first time
that a female Siberian tiger and
her cubs had ever been observed
and photographed from the air -
it was one of the most thrilling
events in my professional career."
Hornocker's team has tracked
some dozen tigers by radio,
trying to determine such
essential facts
as their range and distribution.
At the field lab of the Hornocker
Wildlife Institute,
Maurice is briefed by Dale Miquelle,
who's been coordinating the field
study for the past three years.
"...we've got five females
that we've got good information
on their home ranges.
Um, we've got Olga, the four,
first female we captured
who's now in a home range
that only includes a little piece
of the reserve, actually,
um, and then we've got..."
Together with their Russian colleagues,
they need to quickly establish
a management plan for the tigers.
"The, one of the things that's interesting about all of this
is that all these animals travel
outside the boundaries of the reserve
so, even though the reserve is vast,
it's not large enough
to maintain these females
in their entire home range."
Time is running out.
Even now,
logging roads skirt the reserve,
where only some twenty tigers
roam over 1300 square miles.
The researchers receive word
that a tiger has been caught
in one of their snares...
a chance to add a new animal
to their study group.
Bart Schleyer and Dr. Hornocker
prepare to sedate the tiger.
"I don't see her."
There is no way of knowing
how securely the tiger is trapped.
He could suddenly pull free
and then they would have only
a few seconds to save themselves.
A tranquilizer dart should quiet the tiger down.
Still, the dosage required
is always in doubt.
Too much endangers the tigers.
Too little, the researchers.
It's a three-year-old male.
When fully grown, at about age six,
he'll weigh six hundred pounds
or more.
But even now he's an armful.
"This is about all we can do, guys.
He's just too heavy. This is good."
They carry the tiger
to better ground.
"Gonna lubricate his eyes."
His eyes must be
artificially lubricated
since the blink response is sedated.
"Let's get this snare off."
These massive jaws can crack
the spine of a wild boar
with a single bite.
"Young male tiger."
Its feet are like thickly padded
snowshoes... with retractable claws!
"Boy, he's a beautiful animal."
"Yeah, gorgeous."
The radio collar allows them
to track the tiger
and help answer some
crucial questions:
How much territory
do the tigers require?
How many elk and deer and boar?
How do they react
to human encroachment?
Suddenly, the tiger is having
trouble breathing.
They desperately try to revive him.
"I'm gonna give him something."
"And someone should keep..."
"His eyes are moving."
"Yeah, but his breaths are real low."
"Give it to him."
"That collar's cut, Maurice?
That collar's cut?
'Cause we might have a cat
that comes up real quick."
The tiger must be given a stimulant.
Slowly he resumes
his normal breathing rate.
"Yeah, he's breathing.
"Yeah, he's breathing.
I think the danger's passed.
Whew, man, that was...
"Yeah."
The biologists must now
take their samples hastily...
before the great beast fully awakens.
They're reluctant
to lose sight of him
before he's safely on his feet -
but also eager not to be in his way.
Now at a safe distance,
the team receives a signal
from the radio collar.
The tiger is up and about...
and on the prowl again.
In another part of the reserve,
the team is concerned about the
signal from a tigress named Olga.
She was the very first
collared with a radio.
Olga, it appears, has remained in
the same area for a long time,
a sign that she may be dead -
or that she has found a den
and given birth.
Dr. Evgeny Smirnov,
Russian tiger specialist,
determines that Olga is, in fact,
moving about her den site.
The researchers decide
they'll attempt to enter the den
to earmark the cubs.
They'll need to wait until night
when the tigress should be
out hunting.
Hopefully, far from home.
"I asked if he thought, uh, it would be dangerous
or we'd, we'd be in trouble if we went there and he said,
'Of course, it'd be dangerous,
there's only one variation there,
to approach when she's not there,
because it's simply too dangerous
to make an approach
with the, the mother present."'
He said, "Thank God",
we have the telemetry equipment to
check on whether or not Olga is there
and so we know, exactly,
when she's left the den site.
Without that it, it'd simply be a,
a suicide mission to walk in there.'
The fading radio signal indicates
that Olga has left her den.
But if she returns
she would probably attack instantly.
They test flares
they hope would drive Olga off.
Protecting a den is one
of the rare circumstances
when a Siberian will turn man-killer.
Night is the time when tigers
are most alert and aggressive.
Their night vision is far superior
to humans.
The signal from Olga - once faint -
is getting louder.
The team must quickly
be in and out of the den.
"Yeah this is it. This is it, Bart."
"Yeah, yeah, we've got the spot.
"Do you see a cat?"
"Yeah."
Gloves soaked with tiger urine
are worn
so the mother will not detect
their intrusion and reject her cubs.
"Get away."
It's a healthy male.
Two months old, the cub already
weighs about 13 pounds.
"Dale, I'm still getting a signal
and it's really not that weak
right now,
we're probably going to
have to hurry, if you can."
Unlike other cats, tiger kittens
never learn to purr.
An ear tag is inserted
for future identification.
They christen the cub Sasha.
"I'm getting a signal,
we're going to have to hurry,
she's back,
she's come back over the ridge."
Their daring has set a new precedent.
For the first time ever,
scientists have examined and
returned a cub to a den in the wild.
In towns and villages throughout
coastal Siberia,
people have learned to live
with the idea of tigers.
But attacks have happened
and some are afraid.
In the village of Guyvaron,
however, one man is happy to
have tigers in his own backyard.
Maurice Hornocker and Howard Quigley
are working with a Russian biologist
who has two orphaned cubs
in captivity.
"That's a big male tiger."
Victor Yudin has raised the cubs
from infancy.
Victor is the author of a definitive
natural history of the Russian wolf.
But he soon learned that Kuchur, the tiger...
...and Niurka, the tigress,
are different animals indeed.
"To study tigers in captivity
is absolutely necessary,
because many of their biological
traits cannot be learned in the wild.
Comparing the results
of the tiger studies
that were done in captivity
and in the wild
helps us to develop the methods
of how to preserve the tiger
as a species in reserves
like Sikhote-Alin."
The young tigers have
outgrown their cages,
and so, with the support of the
Hornocker Wildlife Institute
an enclosure is built
in the adjacent woods.
Though a far cry from the hundreds
of square miles
a tiger in the wild would roam,
these six acres will provide
the young captives
with the opportunity to run
and hunt
- and hopefully -
even mate and have cubs.
But there are neighbors
in the area.
Victor knows the importance
of keeping them well informed.
Especially now,
when the tigers will soon be turned
loose into the enclosure.
So he brings local school children
to the compound.
"Villagers often come to see
the tigers.
They often ask me:
why keep tigers in this enclosure
since it's so different
from life in the wild?"
"I explain to them
that there are limitations
to what we can and cannot learn
from observing tigers the way we do
in the wild,
by simply following tracks
through the snow.
Afterwards, when people realize
that it's not just for fun,
that it's serious work
they look at me in admiration,
as if I were a superman, I guess."
The day has come
when - for the first time -
the tigers will step into the natural
world they were intended to rule.
No one knows how they will react
to their new enclosure.
For Victor, it's an especially
anxious moment,
for he hopes the enclosure
will be home to these tigers
for the rest of their lives.
The male, Kuchur, steps boldly out.
For the first time...
the light through the trees,
the smell of grass and leaf,
the feel of the soft earth.
Niurka, the female,
is unsure of all this -
and even tries to close the gate.
But soon,
curiosity overcomes caution.
To Yudin's surprise,
Kuchur begins to feel a little frisky
and tries to mate.
But Niurka will have no part of it.
For her, the time has not yet come.
Exhilarated by their freedom,
they soon vanish into
their little private forest.
To feed his feline charges,
Dr. Yudin collects road kill.
Victor feels he knows the mood
of his tigers so well
he can risk entering the enclosure.
In the wild, most attacks
on humans occur
when they invade a tiger's territory
or when cubs are threatened.
Unlike Bengal tigers, Siberians
have never been known to hunt man.
As the tigers settle into
their enclosure,
Dr. Yudin begins his observations
and controlled experiments.
He hopes to learn
which behaviors are innate
and which would need to be taught
to captive tigers
before they could be released
into the wild.
Tigers live in a world of feast
or famine.
Still, Kuchur must wait his turn.
Dr. Yudin notices it's the female
who feeds first.
With the coming of fall,
the first brisk winds blow in
from the Siberian Arctic.
As if designed
for these autumn colors,
the tigers blend with the landscape.
In the wild,
their coloration becomes lighter
as winter approaches,
anticipating snow.
Dr. Yudin confronts one more problem
that makes the study
of tiger behavior so difficult.
The tiger is largely
a creature of the dark.
With their extraordinary
night vision,
Kuchur and Niurka come fully alive
only after sunset.
Recently, they've begun to roam
restlessly in the dark.
Victor wonders if night has
awakened an instinctive urge to hunt.
When he releases a small rabbit
in the enclosure,
he quickly learns the answer.
After several weeks,
the tigers have established
their territory in the enclosure.
How would they react to another
of their own species?
Yudin and Hornocker set up
an experiment
involving a full-sized model tiger.
"Okay. A little more."
"I'm interested to see
what you think of this, Victor.
Is that as big as Kuchur?"
"Yes..."
"These will match right up
on the right side.
You got that back there?"
"Yeah, it's good."
"Yeah, that's a good fit.
Okay, let's see what it looks like
standing up."
Victor's dogs are convinced.
They immediately recognize
an arch enemy.
Tigers in the wild are solitary
animals and fiercely territorial.
Is this behavior innate or learned?
And, if innate,
how soon does it develop?
The reaction to an intruder
by the captive-raised tigers
may help provide an answer.
The scale model is covered
with tiger urine,
the scent that establishes territory.
Recordings of tiger calls will be
played into the enclosure.
The stage is set.
Kuchur, the male, is curious.
He spends hours observing
this strange creature.
But by light of day,
Kuchur keeps his distance.
It's only overnight
that the researchers discover
the tigers' real attitude
towards the intruder.
Every shred of color has been ripped
from the model's skin.
Only when the model
no longer looked like a tiger,
did Kuchur leave it alone.
The defense of his territory
is already a powerful instinct.
It was the long Siberian winter
that created the tigers of the snow,
demanding robust size,
padded paws and thick fur.
But it is also winter
when they are hunted,
when they are most easily seen...
this time by a scientist.
"We've had to develop and
evolve all our techniques here.
No one had ever worked
with Siberian tigers before.
So, we utilized foot-snaring
to capture the tiger
and it's worked very successfully.
But, some of them are becoming
very trap-shy,
some of them have become very,
uh, difficult to capture...
So in order to maintain the
continuity of our data collection,
in order to keep track
of certain individuals
we've had to utilize helicopters."
The hunt begins to re-collar
certain tigers.
The information the collars provide
is critical
to understanding the boundaries
required for the tiger's survival.
Their territories are extensive.
Females may range up to
two hundred square miles,
males perhaps five hundred.
Losing contact with a study animal
is their greatest fear.
Each one is precious
to the scientists.
"The collars we put on animals last
about two to two-and-a-half years
and then the batteries,
lithium batteries run out,
so they simply need to be replaced.
Once we've invested two years in
an animal gathering information,
that animal becomes very valuable
to us because it has a history.
And the longer we can maintain
contact with an animal,
the more we learn about
its life-history patterns:
how often it has young,
how long they live,
its whole life history."
The pilot spots something below.
It's a wild boar
running for its life.
And in pursuit a tiger.
Tigers miss most of their prey.
This time the helicopter provides
a distraction, saving the boar.
The tiger is not amused.
Eventually they pick up the strong
signal of another familiar tiger.
It is Olga, mother of the cub
found in the den.
The helicopter quickly searches the
area hoping to spot her cub, Sasha.
And Sasha is there - no longer
a small cub, but thriving well.
The young are raised
by the mother alone.
Sasha will stay with her
for eighteen to twenty months
until it's time to establish
his own home range.
The search continues for Kouza
a young male who has outgrown
his radio collar.
Kouza is just beginning
to mark off his territory
and it's difficult to know
the extent of his range.
Tranquilizing a Siberian tiger
is not an exact science.
The size of the tiger, its mood -
and the placement of the dart can
influence the drug's effectiveness.
Always, out of concern for the tiger,
the team tries to inject
a minimal amount.
After long hours
and much precious fuel,
the tiger is spotted.
In pursuit, the helicopter must fly
very low over dense forest -
a dangerous maneuver.
It's a far cry from hunting
on foot for Bart Schleyer.
"There's usually just a real
narrow opportunity to dart
and sometimes there's a limb
in the way
and there's been a number of times
when I probably could have gotten
a dart into an animal,
but I'm too worried about
a deflection of the dart
and having the, the dart deflect into
a improper placement in the animal
which would injure it,
which we don't want.
So, I'm real, real stressed by trying
to get a proper hit on an animal."
As the tiger moves deeper
into the forest,
the helicopter follows so closely
it almost touches the tree tops.
"The pilots we're using,
I'm real confident in the pilots
because you are operating
real close to tree level
and you just hope that the pilots
can see what's going on,
around behind them particularly
with their back rotor
and particularly the other day when
we were in close on one of the tigers,
there was a conifer tree
that was actually almost butted
right up against the helicopter."
The first shot is a clean hit.
They hover patiently waiting for
the tranquilizer to take effect.
But they can't wait too long -
for they're running low on fuel.
Bart fires another dart
into the tiger.
Most big cats need two doses.
And the second one appears to
take effect.
Bart and Rybin Nikolai
must quickly be landed.
This too is a dangerous maneuver.
But they can't leave the tiger
sedated for long.
The pilot is very concerned now.
They must refuel.
He radios Bart to abort the mission.
But Bart insists -
for the tiger's well being -
they must remain below
and finish the job now.
The helicopter races back to refuel.
As they slowly approach the tiger,
their worst fears are realized.
The tiger is up and moving.
The dosage was insufficient.
Still, they must get a closer look
to make sure he's all right.
They proceed with caution
knowing they are intruding
in a fierce young tiger's newly
claimed territory.
Kouza appears groggy
but otherwise all right.
But he's much too dangerous
to follow.
Now they can only await
the helicopter's return.
And hope the young tiger has seen
enough of them.
For now, the tiger has eluded them,
but at least they know
where he can be found.
Eventually, he'll be located
and fitted with a new collar.
At last, they are brought aboard -
to the relative safety of a
helicopter hovering in the tree-tops.
Not long after, they spot a tigress
named Marivana.
She is very aggressive -
and even climbs a tree
to attack the helicopter.
She only provides a better target
for Bart Schleyer.
Unlike the larger male, a single dose
sedates the tigress quickly.
"Let's take blood
and that's about it..."
The old collar is measured
against the new one -
which is given an extra notch
for growth.
They carefully monitor
her heart rate and respiration.
"Where's that? 10?"
"That's right..."
Mission accomplished.
The new collar will provide crucial
data for at least another two years.
Not far from the cold,
forbidding wild,
the success of the venture
is celebrated - Russian style!
It's also Bart Schleyer's birthday.
For American and Russian alike
it's a camaraderie born of years of
shared dangers and shared dreams.
At Victor Yudin's compound winter
has transformed the enclosure.
The Siberian winter seems to
invigorate the captive tigers.
This is truly the season of
the Tigers of the Snow.
As Victor Yudin observes,
Kuchur, the male, continues to
stake out his territory,
spraying the trees with his scent.
In what is called a 'flehmen' the
female tests the air for his scent.
Then it's Kuchur's turn to
detect if his mate is in heat...
And she is.
Niurka, the female,
initiates the coupling.
And so the mating period begins.
"If we succeed in getting young cubs
it would be great,
because then we can develop
the best methods
for returning the young tigers
back into the wild.
We'll try to bring them up
in natural conditions
so they will more easily adapt to
joining the wild tiger population
here in the reserve."
As for a successful mating,
all Dr. Yudin can do
is hope for results.
Victor's wife, Lena, has a special
relationship with the tigers.
She's nurtured them
since they were cubs.
When they must be brought in
at night
because of the dangers of poaching,
only their Babushka
can lure them home.
Over the next few days,
the tigers breed often.
Sometimes dozens of times a day.
At last, the breeding ends,
and Niurka moves into her den.
She should give birth
in about a hundred days.
Springtime in Siberia.
Dr. Hornocker receives word from
Victor Yudin
that Niurka has given birth.
But something's wrong.
Victor's observed that the mother
is not taking care of her cubs.
This is not uncommon when
big cats give birth in captivity.
"Does Victor think
she's fed them at all?"
"Probably not."
"Then we better go in and look, Victor."
They isolate the mother, Niurka,
so they can safely approach the den.
One of the cubs is up and about
but looks hungry and unkempt.
The other cub is barely moving and
Victor is clearly concerned.
"How is he?"
"Yeah, oh yeah, the poor little guy."
Suddenly, the cub stops breathing.
Victor rushes it inside
where he will try to revive it.
It appears the mother has neither
groomed nor nursed her cubs
and this one is near death.
With infinite patience,
Victor massages the heart.
Hoping - against all odds -
to bring the cub back to life.
The mortality rate of Siberian tiger
cubs can be up to thirty percent.
With so few born in the wild,
the survival of captive cub
is critical to the species.
One cub is lost,
but her brother - under Victor's
tender nursing - recuperates quickly.
He's named the cub Globus -
for a world that cares about him,
even if his own mother
hasn't learned to.
Eventually Globus will be brought
to the United States
as part of a captive
breeding program.
When he is, he'll be following
other cubs,
orphaned in Siberia and
sent by Dr. Hornocker
to the snows of Omaha, Nebraska.
They're now part of the world's most
successful breeding program
for large predators.
The tigers are bred here
with the goal of returning the cubs
back to the wild.
But what kind of environment
will await them?
Back in Russia,
Dr. Hornocker strives to educate
Siberia's future caretakers.
"If we're to save these big carnivores
as the world population increases,
we must convince
the younger generation
that it's worthwhile
conserving them.
It's always so rewarding to me
and gratifying to see how
children accept this.
They really love these big animals.
They want to save them.
And if we can convince them
that it's in their best interest then
it's to their advantage and to ours."
Soon, much of this magnificent
forest -
the Siberian tiger's last domain -
may be cut down for a world
hungry for lumber.
But the years of difficult and
dangerous study have given birth
to a plan to save the forest...
by saving the tiger in the wild.
Selecting the tiger as the
umbrella species to be saved
means that the forest surrounding
the reserve must also be protected.
But in a land of political
uncertainty,
there are no guarantees.
Poised on the edge of extinction,
the tiger of the snow evokes
an old Russian proverb:
Hope is the last to die.