New Tricks. for Old Tiger Catchers. Terry J. Kreeger, DVM, PhD Supervisor, Veterinary Services Branch, Wyoming Game and Fish Department

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New Tricks for Old Tiger Catchers Above: In years past, catching a Siberian tiger was an up close and personal encounter. Artist and date unknown. Terry J.

1 New Tricks for Old Tiger Catchers Above: In years past, catching a Siberian tiger was an up close and personal encounter. Artist and date unknown. Terry J. Kreeger, DVM, PhD Supervisor, Veterinary Services Branch, Wyoming Game and Fish Department It was January 1998, and we were waiting in the Anchorage airport for our flight to Khabarovsk, Siberia. The first time that we tried this flight, it had been cancelled without explanation. This time, the Aeroflot Ilyushin 62 slowly emerged from the Alaskan mist more or less on time. When I boarded, I was unable to locate my assigned seat because the seat numbers had been obliterated by several coats of paint, a testimony to the aircraft s years of service. When I asked the stewardess where I should sit, she replied, sit anywhere, no problem (pronounced: nyeh proehblehm). This was to become the mantra of the Siberian trip: everything was no problem. So we found a couple of empty seats, kicked some boxes aside that were in the aisle, and buckled in. As the engines roared and the nose lifted, the seat back in front of me broke off of its hinges and fell into my lap. Then several overhead doors sprung open, spilling their contents on the heads of the passengers below. The stewardess kept saying, nyeh proehblehm, and began serving vodka even before the wheels were up. We were off to Siberia. I was going to Russia along with Jeff Buckner of the Max Negri Foundation (Rancho Palos Verdes, California) to train Russians in the chemical capture of Siberian tigers (Panthera tigris altaica). A few years previously, Dr. Max Negri, a physician, was in Russia helping with some medical matters. At a cocktail party in Moscow, Dr. Negri met a man with an obvious aura of power who said that if they really wanted to help the Russians, go to the Soviet far eastern provinces. Dr. Negri learned that this person was Yevgeny Primakov, a KGB spy, a director of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and the future prime minister of Russia. Dr. Negri went to the Khabarovsk Wild Cat News - 1

region near the Chinese border where he eventually met Igor Rimer, who asked the Foundation to help with Siberian tiger preservation, about which he was very keen.

2 region near the Chinese border where he eventually met Igor Rimer, who asked the Foundation to help with Siberian tiger preservation, about which he was very keen. At age 14, Igor was thrown into a gulag labor camp to mine gold. He survived the brutal conditions and learned placer mining in the process. This skill became invaluable to the Russians, as they needed gold and hard currency for the Cold War. When the Soviet empire collapsed, Igor was freed from the gulag and used this knowledge to become a multi-millionaire. He had economic and political power and attained vast holdings with mineral rights on lands the size of Alaska. Igor arranged a meeting with the governor of the region, who committed 500,000 acres of land for a tiger preserve. To protect the tigers within this preserve, roads were closed to keep out poachers. Local farmers, who like to hunt game such as deer and elk, were asked to stay away from the preserve to protect the tigers main prey base. At the time, there was some Siberian tiger research being conducted to the south of this preserve. Those tigers were often located through the use of Russian military helicopters, which were very expensive to operate and came with much bureaucratic baggage. These tigers were darted with ketamine and xylazine, a combination that required two or more darts to immobilize an adult. This often required extended pursuits in order to deliver the second dart. Once caught, these tigers were fitted with VHF radio collars, which required constant monitoring from the ground and air. Because it was difficult and expensive to catch tigers in this manner, Dr. Negri and Jeff Buckner searched for a better way. In this search, they became aware of the development of a new radio collar tracking system that utilized Above: Dr. Max Negri with the first GPS collar placed on a free-ranging Siberian tiger. Wild Cat News -

a global positioning system (GPS). They contacted Stan Tomkiewicz of Telonics, Inc., Mesa, Arizona, who was intrigued by the prospect of putting the first GPS collar on a freeranging tiger.

5 pounds, and there was concern that the collar s bulk would interfere with a tiger s ability to catch prey.

3 a global positioning system (GPS). They contacted Stan Tomkiewicz of Telonics, Inc., Mesa, Arizona, who was intrigued by the prospect of putting the first GPS collar on a freeranging tiger. The GPS collar was in its infancy at this time; the very first GPS collar was put on an Alaskan grizzly in The first-generation collars were heavy, weighing approximately 3.5 pounds, and there was concern that the collar s bulk would interfere with a tiger s ability to catch prey. Stan strongly advised the Negri Foundation to seek experienced biologists and veterinarians to assist with this project. That is where I came into the picture. Not only was GPS the dawn of a new era for radio tracking, it was a new era in chemical immobilization where ketamine was being combined with a potent European sedative called medetomidine. This combination required less drug volume, and recoveries were much quicker than Anesthetized Siberian tiger being monitored with a pulse oximeter and fitted with a GPS collar. ketamine-xylazine. Having used this combination on mountain lions (Felis concolor), I believed that I could successfully immobilize adult tigers with a single dart containing these drugs. I was asked to travel to Siberia to see if this drug combination would be effective on tigers, to train Russians in its use, and to help Above: Left to right: Igor Rimer, Vladimir Kruglov, Dr. Terry Kreeger. evaluate the tiger s ability to hunt with the new GPS collar. We landed in Khabarovsk and were picked up by Igor and his chauffeur/bodyguard. In Russia, they drive on the right side of the road as we do here in the United States, but many of vehicles come from Japan, where vehicles are equipped with right-hand steering. Life gets very interesting when it comes to passing slower vehicles, because the driver is on the right side and is essentially blinded until he gets into the passing lane. Even though we experienced many close calls driving at 80 to 90 mph, it was always nyeh proehblehm. We drove to a compound near the village of Kutuzovka, where I was introduced to a gray-haired, barrelchested man by the name of Vladimir Kruglov. It was thought that Kruglov was the last of the bare-handed Siberian tiger catchers. Before there were drugs, darts, and helicopters, Russians used to capture tigers by chasing them in deep snow with dogs. Although extremely strong, tigers have limited endurance and chases in deep snow were generally short. Once surrounded by the dogs, three or four Russians would each try to secure one of the tiger s legs, and the 3

Below: Home range estimates of tiger movement from April 1 to June 26, 1998. tiger catcher jumped on the tiger and secured the head.

Had I not seen an ancient tapestry depicting such a capture in a Khabarovsk museum, I would have thought the Russians were playing a good joke on the Americans!

Between my mediocre Russian and their mediocre English, I taught the Russians how to load darts, deliver them via a new Dan-Inject adjustable CO 2 dart rifle, and how to reverse the medetomidine with

4 Below: Home range estimates of tiger movement from April 1 to June 26, tiger catcher jumped on the tiger and secured the head. Once overcome, the limbs and jaws were tied, and the tiger was captured. Had I not seen an ancient tapestry depicting such a capture in a Khabarovsk museum, I would have thought the Russians were playing a good joke on the Americans! We sat down in Kruglov s cabin with the darts and drugs and the ubiquitous bottle of vodka. Between my mediocre Russian and their mediocre English, I taught the Russians how to load darts, deliver them via a new Dan-Inject adjustable CO 2 dart rifle, and how to reverse the medetomidine with atipamezole. Kruglov had a couple of captive tigers on which I could demonstrate the efficacy of a single dart, which resulted in quick and efficient immobilization. We fitted one of the GPS collars on a male tiger, which was released into a large enclosure containing Sika deer (Cervus nippon). As it happened, a Japanese film crew was also visiting Kruglov to do a story on tigers, and they were able to document the tiger s ability to pursue and catch the deer, unimpaired by the bulky GPS collar. After that, we were convinced that a wild tiger could Wild Cat News - 4

5 Above: Dr. Terry Kreeger and Igor Rimer with tiger fitted with a GPS collar. survive with the new collar. Subsequently, the Russians trapped and immobilized a wild female tiger using the ketaminemedetomidine mixture. She was transported to a release site in the tiger preserve area, again immobilized, fitted with the GPS collar, the drugs antagonized, and the cage door opened. She slowly and nonchalantly exited the cage and paused to eat some snow. The tiger hung around the release site for several days, as some food was left to hold her over until she learned her new environment. The GPS collar recorded a location every 13 hours and downloaded locations every four days via satellite to the Argos data collection system. She traveled as much as 30 miles from the release site, often pausing for several days at one location, presumably over a kill. Location data suggested four to five kills were made between April 1 and June 26, She traveled to the Northeast, farther and farther away from human habitation and activity. After three months, the signal was lost. It is not known whether the collar failed or the tiger was poached and the collar destroyed. Stan Tomkiewicz thought that perhaps the antenna broke off, a known weak spot in the original collars. Although Igor Rimer was rich and powerful, he apparently made enemies in the process. He had survived two previous assassination attempts, but his past finally caught up with him in May 1999 when he was trapped in his apartment staircase, shot, and killed. He was just 41. With his death, the life behind this tiger project was extinguished, and work in this area ended. Vladimir Kruglov died in a woodcutting accident in 2005, but his legacy lives on through his son in what became the Utyos Rehabilitation Center for Wild Animals. The above is just a small footnote in the history of tiger conservation. It was a fascinating juxtaposition of old world skills and cuttingedge technology. At the time, the amateurs in this episode were way ahead of more renowned tiger researchers. Their roles should not be forgotten because they were truly pioneers of Siberian tiger preservation. Acknowledgments We thank Jessica Jennings, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, for creating the tiger movement maps and Adam Barlow, Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota. Wild Cat News - 5

Third Annual Conference on Animals and the Law

Pace Environmental Law Review Volume 15 Issue 2 Summer 1998 Article 1 June 1998 Third Annual Conference on Animals and the Law Ed Bangs Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr