January 21, 2022

Tiger Toes Get Chilly, Too


Tiger Toes Get Chilly, Too
The tiger in question was just a little smaller than the one in this photo. Pexels, Pixabay. 

Not even Russia's tigers are immune from cold winters, as the recent case of a frostbitten kitten demonstrates.

The Amur tiger cub, also known as a Siberian tiger,  suffering from frostbite, was found by a local fisherman months ago in Russia's Primorye region. When found, the female tiger cub was estimated to be around 4 to 5 months old, and weighed in at only 20 kilograms, half the normal size for her age. 

The tiger cub was taken in by the Amur Tiger Center to be cared for. Upon examination, it was determined she had frostbite on her tail, necrosis in her jaw, as well as other injuries. It was clear she would need extensive surgery to stop the decay of her tissue and cells caused by the necrosis. 

To prepare the cub for surgery, she first had to gain around 10 kilograms and had the tip of her tail cut off where frostbite had damaged it beyond repair. She was then ready to undergo her two-and-a-half-hour surgery. According to the Amur Tiger Center, the surgery was a success. While Sergei Aramilev, head of the Amur Tiger Center, seems confident that the necrosis has been stopped from harming the cub any further, her recovery is still unpredictable. 

While this case may simply seem like one unlucky tiger cub, it has been seen before, and there is a vast significance behind it. According to International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List, the amur tiger is listed as endangered. There are only about 600 of these tigers left in Russia, with the remaining in China, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). President Putin has proclaimed efforts in the protection of the endangered species a decade ago while serving as the nation's prime minister, focused on doubling the population of the tiger by the year 2022. 

You Might Also Like

A Big Win for Big Cats
  • September 06, 2021

A Big Win for Big Cats

Big cats can rest easy knowing that both the Amur Tiger and the Amur Leopard have been declared safe from the possibility of extinction. 
Beastly Benefits
  • May 14, 2021

Beastly Benefits

When the show can no longer go on, animal members of the Russian State Circus will now be given the opportunity to retire in style in Crimea.
A Paw-some Recovery
  • March 17, 2021

A Paw-some Recovery

Rescuers at the Amur Tiger Center are always happy to lend a helping hand (or paw) to tigers in need.  
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955