Tiger family photo surprises scientists
by Jeremy Hance
In a frigid Russian forest, a camera trap snapped 21 family photos over two minutes. This wasn’t a usual family, though, this was a tiger family, more specifically an Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) family. And this wasn’t even a usual tiger family: the cameras showed a dad leading the way. Generally, tiger male are not known for being paternal and are almost always loners. Indeed, this is the first time scientists have ever documented a father Amur tiger hanging out with the mother and kids. “Although…George Schaller documented sporadic familial groups of Bengal tigers as early as the 1960s, this is the first time such behavior has been photographed for Amur tigers in the wild. These photos provide a small vignette of social interactions of Amur tigers, and provide an evocative snapshot of life in the wild for these magnificent animals,” said Dale Miquelle, the Russia Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). (read more: MongaBay)
photographs: WCS, Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve, and Udegeiskaya Legenda National Park