A recent "observe and report" documentary about the incredibly rare Siberian tiger quickly became an all-out rescue mission after a team of conservationists and their camera crew stumbled upon three orphaned cubs.
Sep 16, 2014
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| Green Photo Archive |
"Last Tiger Standing" is set
to air Sept. 27 through the Discovery Channel and BBC Natural
History. According to a brief summary provided by
documentarian Jeanine Butler, who wrote and produced the show, Butler
Films and a team of conservationists headed by Liz Bonnin initially
set out to simply film Siberian tigers - also called Amur tigers - in
the frozen forest of Russia.
This alone would have been an
impressive feat, as according to The Hollywood Reporter, this
was the first time in BBC Natural History's 50-year existence that
they managed to get the giant cat on film.
However, not only did the team find
what they were looking for, but they also stumbled upon three Amur
cubs that had just been orphaned.
Many may doubt this, but most
scientists and even documentarians stand by a strict
"observation-only" and "let nature take its course"
mind-frame when it comes to this kind of work. But according to
the World Wildlife Fund, there are only up to about 450 of these
majestic, but endangered cats left in the world. Worse, the Amur
tiger's habitat is now restricted to two provinces in the Russian Far
East and small plots along the border areas of China, and possibly
North Korea. And while the animal is a protected one, illegal logging
and poaching are thinning their habitats and numbers by a little more
every year.
To have left these freshly orphaned
cubs to die in the cold would not have only seemed cruel, but it
would have been a waste of an already dwindling animal.
It hasn't been revealed how well the
ensuing rescue efforts (which occurred back in 2013) went, but you
can just watch the film and find out for yourself.
(source: NWN)
