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Article History

Received: 15 April 2020

Accepted: 11 November 2020

First Online: 2 January 2021

Compliance with ethical standards

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: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

: For this study, we obtained data from 10 radio-collared wild Amur female tigers captured between February 1992 and December 2011 within the boundaries of Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Zapovednik. Tigers were captured in leg-hold snares or darted from a helicopter, anesthetized with ketamine mixed with xylazine or medetomidine (Goodrich et al. CitationRef removed), or with Zoletil (Lewis and Goodrich CitationRef removed), and fitted with standard very high frequency (VHF) radio-collars (Telonics, Mesa, AZ, USA). The leg-hold snares were checked at least once a day, and where possible, transmitters were placed on snares to activate upon capture. Animals were monitored (respiration rate, body temperature, and pulse) throughout the handling process, as body measurements were taken, blood collected, and radio-collars attached. After the procedure was completed, an animal a received reversing agent (if medetomidine was used) and released. Capture teams were commonly assisted by licensed veterinarians. No animals were transported or otherwise removed from their natural environment. Research on wild tigers followed American Society of Mammalogist Guidelines and was approved by the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Animal Care and Use Committee.

: All data analyses were performed using open source R and QGIS software, custom cods available for sharing upon reasonable request.