THE SURVIVABILITY OF INDIVIDUALS WITHIN A TIGER (PANTHERA TIGRIS) SUBPOPULATION IN THE LAZOVSKY NATURE RESERVE AND ZOV TIGRA NATIONAL PARK, RUSSIAN FAR EAST

From 2011 to 2020, tigers were recorded using camera traps in the Lazovsky Nature Reserve and Zov Tigra National Park, Southeast of the Sikhote-Alin Mountains. Sixty-seven adult or subadult individuals were identified. On average each year, 14 individuals were photographed in the Nature Reserve, and 8 were photographed in the National Park. The number of tigers recorded in the Nature Reserve appears to be declining, but there are no significant trends of this sort observed in the National Park. The tigers' survival rate was calculated for 10 one-year intervals. The analysis included 32 males and 27 females from the group of adults and subadults, whose disappearances were unlikely to be connected with natural dispersal. The vast majority were detected for just 1-2 years. The survival rate for tigers of both sexes decreased across the 10 time intervals, particularly sharply between the first and second. In years 4-6, the survival rate for the females was lower, with a sharp decline observed at the start of the fourth year. During the observation period, at least seven deaths of tigers have been reported on the research site and in the vicinity (Lazovsky district in the Primorsky Krai region), six of which were killed by poachers. This unnatural turnover of adult and subadult tigers within this group in protected areas can be explained by poaching in the neighboring, unprotected areas. The creation of an extensive buffer zone with a ban on hunting around the Nature Reserve and National Park has been proposed to address threats from poaching.