Alaskan Tiger – Another Great Beast of the North?

Siberian TigerFerociousCryptozoology reports of a huge tiger living in the frozen wilderness of Alaska have been around for years. Is it really a tiger, or some other cryptid, unknown to science? CryptoVille investigates this monster-sized mystery and grabs this cryptid tiger by the tale, I mean tail!

The Siberian Tiger (panther tigris altaica), also known as the Amur tiger, is well known to science. It’s the largest tiger species in the world. Unfortunately, these beautiful stately animals are critically endangered.

The Siberian tigers live primarily in Eastern Russia with some making their way into China and North Korea. One of the interesting things about these tigers is that they live in harsh Northern climates. They are adapted to put up with cold temperatures and lots of snow. So does that mean they could survive in Alaska? Let’s see.

Science Says

Science tells us that these creatures can be fierce but they also tend to avoid humans. Living in such harsh and cold conditions helps them to avoid humanity who tend to visit those areas far less frequently than other places. There have been some cases when tigers turned into maneaters, but if memory serves, I think that was in India.

SiberianBearFightOne report I read stated that their favorite prey were red deer. Another said that they also eat elk and wild boar. (Taxidermy exhibit left between Siberian tiger and brown bear from Vladivostok Museum.)

In the early 90s, scientists were able to tag and monitor eleven tigers for a year and a half. What they found was the tigers far and away preferred to follow the red deer around, and didn’t pay much attention to wild pigs, elk, moose, or bear. That said, another study, per Wiki, found that when all sizes of prey animals are in the area, the tigers will go after the largest among them. Tigers have been known to kill and eat adult moose as well as bears weighing in excess of 990 lbs (450 kg).

So what does this mean for an Alaska tiger, if one exists? Well, the problem is red deer no longer live in Alaska. In fact no deer live in Alaska with the exception of a few along the Southern region, south of Juneau. So if they are the primary food source for Siberian/Amur tigers, we’ve got a problem.

Another interesting fact that science tells us: where tigers are present, wolf numbers drop dramatically. Now if it’s one thing that Alaska does have, it is wolves. So their presence would indicate the absence of tigers.

SiberianChallengeAppearance

Siberian/Amur tigers grow between 8 and 10.5 feet long. They used to grow bigger but hunters have killed off the really big ones. Nowadays tigers are lucky to survive into adulthood for very long because hunters are still trying to kill them.

Anyway, the male can weigh between 450 – 675 pounds while the females weigh between 200 – 350 pounds. In the wild they generally live to be 10 – 15 years old. But in captivity, they can live up to 22 years and beyond.

The color of these tigers ranges from reddish-orange to a reddish-brown color. As you would expect, they have long vertical stripes on their sides.

These animals have a winter coat and a summer coat, so there are color variations according to season. I’ve read where they “lighten up” in winter, presumably to blend in better with the snow.

WhiteSiberianFolklore

In a book review called Tiger Tales, Eric Morrison quotes author Alexander Dolitsky as saying, “The significance of the tiger to the cultures of the Russian Far East is comparable to the importance that many animals have in the cultures of the indigenous people of Alaska and the Arctic regions. It is a courageous character, so you will find the tiger character in the mythology and the legends and folktales of these people that see the tiger with admiration. It’s the same as some Native people see the wolf, for example, with admiration as well.”

If you ever take a cruise along the Inside Passage of Alaska, you may be surprised to see how much of a Russian influence is in the area. I visited there years ago and was quite surprised by it. So it leaves me wondering if this admiration for the tiger has just overflowed into the psyche of the Alaskan people via the Russian influence.

I wonder if knowing about a tiger that lives in the snowbound forests of Siberia may make one think that it probably lives in Alaska as well. As we all know, many creatures crossed the land bridge from Russia to Alaska a long time ago. Could the tigers have come through as well?

SizeComparisonTiger Migration

One source I read (adventure-tigers.com) said outright that Siberian tigers were present in America in the state of Alaska about 100,000 years ago. They make this claim by pointing to the fossil record. (Picture right shows size differential between a Siberian tiger and a man.)

The scientist who discovered this data is Sandra J. Herrington who is/was associated with the Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, Overland Park. Here’s what she found out.

I think we all know that when the Bering Land Bridge formed during various ice ages, it allowed animals from Asia to migrate over to the area now known as Alaska.  This bridge was made up of what scientists call “steppe tundra habitat.”  These kinds of areas have little to no places to hide.

That’s our first problem. Tigers only live in areas where they can be hidden at all times. They abhor being out in plain sight. Ms. Herrington quotes another scientist (Hopkins from a report issued in 1982) who thought the tundra may have included some areas that were wooded. The question then remains, was it wooded enough to satisfy the tigers’ need to hide?

SiberianSnowMs. Herrington says that they have fossil remains of lions (Panthera atrox) from that area. Could some of them be tiger fossils mistaken for lion fossils? The question arises because apparently it’s hard to tell the difference between a modern lion skeleton and that of a tiger, much less those of ancient fossilized lions and tigers.

Ms. Herrington figured out a reliable way to distinguish between the two. This wonderful discovery led to the knowledge that tigers at least got as far as the Eastern Bering land bridge (Beringia as science calls it) during the Wisconsin glacial period (85,000 – 11,000 years ago).

She writes, “These results suggest that other large fossil Panthera may have been misidentified, and additional evaluation may further increase the range of fossil tigers.”

Interestingly, the fossil tigers found in Beringia were the same size as modern day tigers.

siberian-tigerrelaxedAnother Monster for Alaska?

Based on my research, it seems unlikely that there are surviving tigers in Alaska today mainly because their favorite food source is missing (red deer) and the presence of wolves who tend to avoid areas with tigers.

That said, Alaska is so huge, vast, and unexplored, who can really say what’s lurking in all the hidden places of that landscape? I’d like to give the tigers a fighting chance. So I’ll say:

“However unlikely it is, there may be a chance that some tigers exist in Alaska.”

What do you think?

Please be sure to come back and visit CryptoVille any time. We’ve got lots of articles about all sorts of things that should interest lovers of strange and mysterious creatures, as well as strange phenomena. The Search bar (near the top right corner of the home page) works very well.  There is also a list of categories further below that, which you can browse.

Please also stop by our Facebook page, CryptoVille, where we share all manner of strange, beautiful, and sometimes silly things related to all things cryptid! Please Like our page while you’re there.

References

http://www.alaskazoo.org/amur-tiger

http://www.adventure-tigers.com/tigers-pdf/save-america-tigers.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_tiger

http://www.pittsburghzoo.org/animal.aspx?id=36

http://bigcatrescue.org/tiger-facts/

http://www.hanskrause.de/HKHPE/hkhpe_22_01.htm

28 comments

    • Maybe Lawrence, but scientists feel pretty sure those beasties went extinct. Plus I think their bone structure is different in some way, not the least of which is the absence of those fangs. I think only time will tell.

      Thanks for visiting CryptoVille!

      … Susan (CryptoVille)

    • I read that a fossil skeleton of a saber tooth tiger was found a few years ago in what is now Las Vegas Nevada they said through carbon dating it is about 8000 years old it’s possible they just haven’t found any newer skeletons they could have been around for thousands of more years who knows

      • That’s interesting Christopher, thanks for sharing that! Yes, it seems we have a lot more to learn about these animals and where they lived, and how long they lived. Fascinating!

        Thank you for visiting CryptoVille! … Susan (CryptoVille)

  1. 1) The Amur leopard shares a region with the Siberian tiger in Northeast Asia (around the Russia-China-Korea border) today. Since the tiger was able to cross over into Alaska, do you think that the leopard may have also lived alongside it in Alaska?

    2) There is possible “footage” of a big cat captured in Alaska called the “White Death”, which looks like a stripeless white tiger. You can search ‘alaska white death’ on YouTube, they show a clear video of it. Do you think that its possible that this cat from Alaska wasn’t a tiger at all, but a closely related cat species instead?

    Thanks,
    Haider

    • Thank you for your questions, Haider. They are very good ones. Give me a little time to look into it and I’ll get back to you, or perhaps write another post about it.

      … Susan (CryptoVille)

      • Through further investigation I have determined that the story is probably made up, I can find no reference to the white death other than the show Alaska monsters. The show itself has been exposed as an over the top docudrama with actors portraying the main characters.

        • Yeah, it seems the white death is a complete hoax. I hadn’t done my research properly before making that post :/ Although I still wonder the possibility of those cat skeletons in Alaska being of a different, but closely related species, to the tiger.

            • There have been tigers in north America, saber tooth was one; there was even an American lion. Only they’ve been extinct since the end of the ice age. I’m interested in stories of dire wolves, I have a theory they interbred with regular wolves when around. I believe modern wolves still carry recessive genes of dire wolves, occasionally one is born with those genes dominate.

              • I’m open to all possibilities like this Lawrence because we’re basing any new wolf/tiger/leopard species on animals that we know existed in the past. Then factor in the little we know of the Alaskan wilderness and the whole topic is fraught with possibilities, at least in my mind. It’s exciting!

  2. could there be some animals tiger,leopord ect that humans couldn’t keep as a pet any
    longer and released into the wild?

  3. Just because the Red Deer doesnt live in Ak doesnt mean they wouldnt eat anything else. I live in Alaska and ive heard alot of stories from elder Tlingits and Athabaskins about tigers in our woods. Granted i have heard they do not hang around wolves but still.

  4. Well until the 1900s or beginning of 1900 the siberian tiger was found all over Siberia until the arctic ocean shorelines. During winter months they may have crossed into Alaska through the frozen Bering strait.

  5. Whether or not panthera should be reintroduced to Alaska is a topic for Pleistocine rewilding discussions. As to whether or not Siberian tigers are in Alaska right now in any number, I think it is a possibility. I know that cougars have been found thousands of kilometres outside their genetic range. I live in Canada, and I remember a news article a few years ago about a cougar that was found somewhere in eastern Canada, maybe as far east as New Brunswick, and they determined from genetic analysis that the puma had been born in western Canada (I think, I don’t remember exactly, it’s been a few years). Cougars also prefer to be under cover, but it’s believed that they have travelled along rivers, where there is foliage to hide them, out into the east, after having been extirpated from the region centuries ago. There is no consensus right now as to whether or not they should be allowed to roam free there now, since the people there are not used to living alongside cougars the way people are in the Pacific Northwest. But if the Siberian tiger population gets too dense, they will start to spread out to look for more food sources the way cougars are now in North America. It would take a Siberian tiger a couple of months to reach the Bering Strait if it kept up its pace, but that’s a lot of open frozen sea to cross. Perhaps a young, fit male tiger that had learned to adapt its food sources to the Arctic, would be brave enough to cross over into Alaska, but you’d think all the U.S. and Russian military surveillance in the area would notice this orange-and-black animal on the snow. Even if it did successfully cross into Alaska, it would be so anomalous that there would be no chance of reproducing a feral population of Siberian tigers in Alaska on its own.
    So there’s my long paragraph of thoughts on the subject. I must say that I am more interested in the idea of cloning American lions and reintroducing them to Alaska and the Canadian territories.

    • Thanks for your thoughts, Luther. There are some who swear the American lions are already there in the Pacific NW region, particularly northern California.

      Thanks for visiting CryptoVille! … Susan (CryptoVille)

  6. I do think it’s highly possibly tigers may live in Alaska’s harsh lands due to how much is unexplored. I think they could be feeding off moose calf’s and cows.

  7. There’s a picture of one in togiak eating an elk, also known as a red deer. I think it’s plausible, during the winter months, for a tiger to cross from Russia to alaska. Anything is possible, I guess.

    • Yes, Codie, I agree. Especially when it comes to wild animals – you just never know what’s going to show up where and what it’s going to be doing.

      Thank you for visiting CryptoVille! … Susan (CryptoVille)

Leave a Reply to CryptoVilleCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.