By Rhishja Larson •
September 27, 2009
International Tiger Day - a global event to raise awareness for tiger conservation - is celebrated around the world on the last Sunday in September.
It was in Russia that International Tiger Day was started nine years ago by The Phoenix Fund, a non-governmental organization founded by Russian and U.S. conservationists.
The first International Tiger Day began as a modest parade in Vladivostok, consisting of a few dozen school children and parents with faces painted like tigers.
Since then, the celebration has grown to become an annual city holiday with over 3,000 participants!
By Rhishja Larson •
September 16, 2009
A 14-month old endangered Amur tiger has been released into the Ussuriisky Nature Reserve.
After six months of care and rehabilitation, a critically endangered Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) has been returned to the wild in the Ussuriisky Nature Reserve.
The orphaned tiger was found in March, weak and emaciated at just 17 kg, when it showed up in the village of Avangard.
By Gavin Hudson •
November 24, 2008
“Long ago, when tigers smoked long pipes… ” begin folk tales in South Korea. The stories recall a time at the farthest reaches of living memory when Korean tigers, the world’s largest cats, still prowled the Korean peninsula.
Korea’s national creation myth also tells of a tiger and a bear who asked the son of the ruler of Heaven if he would make them human. He agreed, but only if they could endure 100 days in a cave eating nothing but garlic and mugwort. The steadfast bear endured and became a beautiful woman, who gave birth to Tangun, the legendary father of Korea in 2333 BCE. But the tiger grew hungry and impatient. He left the cave early, unable cope with the hunger and waiting, and has been slinking through the Korean mountains ever since.
That is, until the last century when hunting and habitat loss pushed the Korean tiger over the brink of extinction in the wild in South Korea. With it went an important symbol of Korea’s identity.
