From a ravaged taiga to a degraded steppe: the tragedy of an Amur tiger

The publication of my article about the release in Kazakhstan of an Amur tiger that was presented as a gift within the framework of “high-level politics” caused dissatisfaction among many people. They say that I am wrong: that it is better for tigers to live in the steppes of Kazakhstan than in the Russian Far East—their historical natural habitat.

It is worth noting that tigers did indeed once live in Kazakhstan, but humans completely exterminated them. The Amur tiger is a close relative, but genetically it is an entirely different species. Its habitat in the Russian Far East has been devastated, there is no adequate prey base, and the forests are being ruthlessly exploited. And now people are writing to me claiming that Kazakhstan, where the tiger was released, has rich lands and more forests than the Russian Far East! They also claim that prey is extraordinarily abundant there.

I am currently studying Central Asia, and I am familiar with the lands where the tiger was released. In my previous article, I explained why using an endangered, Red Book-listed animal as a “political symbol” is a tragedy. I strongly recommend reading it.

Now I want to explain exactly where the tiger, deprived of its natural habitat, was transported. Let me remind you that only one tigress has been released: she had been approaching populated areas in the Russian Far East because of hunger. She was captured and presented to Kazakhstan as a gift, together with another adult tiger and two tiger cubs from different litters that had been left without their mothers.

The tigress was released in the Ile-Balkhash State Nature Reserve in the Balkhash District of the Almaty Region—in the Ili River Delta and along the southern shore of Lake Balkhash. This does not include the entire delta or the entire Southern Balkhash region: the reserve originally covered 415,164.2 hectares, and another 35,088.47 hectares were added to it in 2026.

Accordingly, a simple calculation shows that the territory covers approximately 450,000 hectares, or 4,503 km². Meanwhile, the scientifically modeled potential habitat area for a tiger, an animal that requires long-distance migration, is approximately 7,000 km². Therefore, even a single tigress released there will now depend not only on the reserve itself, but also on the condition of the surrounding hunting grounds, wetlands, and lands used for industrial agriculture. This means that the tigress will constantly encounter human activity, and the protection provided by the reserve alone will not be enough!

Moreover, because the tigress had already approached people in the Russian Far East in search of food, she is most likely synanthropic—living near humans and depending on them. Encounters with her will be virtually inevitable—unless, of course, poachers simply shoot her somewhere in the Kazakh steppes.

Now let us turn to the territory itself. I want to present specific scientific assessments of the scale of degradation affecting the area where the tigress was released. In essence, the unfortunate animal was transported from the degrading and ruthlessly exploited lands of the Russian Far East into a completely unfamiliar landscape characterized by extreme aridity and an equally severe level of environmental degradation.

The area of open water in the Ili Delta declined from 1,209 km² in 1974 to 354 km² in 1985. Approximately 855 km² of open water disappeared, representing 70.7% of the 1974 level. And as human economic activity continues to expand, people are taking more and more water. This problem will continue and become even worse in the near future! A 70