Research overview: conservation genetics of the Amur tiger

The Amur or Siberian tiger of the Russian Far East recovered from perhaps a few dozen animals in the mid-twentieth century to several hundred today, making it a natural experiment in bottleneck and recovery. This overview surveys genetic studies showing that the Amur tiger has notably low diversity and a small effective population size relative to its census number, reflecting the historical crash. It discusses concerns about inbreeding, the genetic monitoring of the recovering population, the role of connectivity with Chinese populations, and how the Amur tiger's genetic depletion shapes its long-term resilience to disease and environmental change.