On the last of 9 lives: the Siberian tiger has almost vanished from the Russian Far East. To survive, it needs habitat--and that means trees

摘要

"Today we will see tiger tracks." It was the second of our six days in the Russian Far East touring the site of our most unique Global ReLeaf International project--reforesting habitat for endangered Siberian, or Amur, tiger. Our partner, Sergei Ganzei, deputy director of the Pacific Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said, "Wait. He will bring." And in walked a grinning forester with a plaster of Paris tiger track made by a one-and-a-half-year-old tiger. It wasn't the same as seeing actual paw prints in the wild, but it was still exhilarating. The paw was about the size of my hand, and I imagined that foot silently padding through the forest in search of a meal. And this tiger wasn't even full-grown. It was May and I was inthe city of Vladivostok with Rick Crouse, our senior vice president for marketing, and Zane Smith, a field representative for american forests with extensive experience working in Russia.