A Siberian tiger devouring a dead horse was photographed in Northeast China on Friday night using long-range infrared photographic technology.

Since the beginning of this year, the tracks of rare Siberian tigers have appeared frequently in the Huichun Nature Reserve in Jilin Province.

On January 22, farmer Yang Jianjun found his pregnant horse dead in a cornfield 1 kilometer from the village where he lives. There were distinct tiger footprints around the dead horse.

Yang, who did not dare touch the horse's carcass, reported his discovery to the nature reserve's administrative bureau.

The next morning, bureau staff went to the scene but found only a pool of blood left on the ground, the horse's carcass having been dragged into the woods about 50 meters away.

Judging from the tracks, the staff believed the killer might be an adult wild Siberian tiger.

The hindquarters of the horse had been partially torn up and eaten. They predicted that the killer would very likely return and continue feeding on the horse. They therefore fixed a long-range-infrared camera on a tree about 8 meters away.

On the morning of January 25 when the staff returned to the scene, they discovered the carcass had been moved again and they found more tiger tracks.

They retrieved the camera and returned to the bureau where processing revealed four vivid photos of a tiger eating the carcass. This is the first time in China that an endangered wild tiger devouring its quarry has been caught on film.

The wild Siberian tiger, mainly found in Russia's Far East, China's northeastern provinces and on the Korea Peninsula, is listed as one of the world's top-10 endangered wildlife species, with no more than 400 thought to be left alive in the wild.

The number of wild Siberian tigers left in China is thought to be less than 20. They are mainly distributed in the Less Hingan Mountains in Heilongjiang Province and the Changbai Mountains in Jilin, both in Northeast China.

(China Daily January 27, 2003)