January 21, 2022

Tiger Toes Get Chilly, Too


Tiger Toes Get Chilly, Too
The tiger in question was just a little smaller than the one in this photo. Pexels, Pixabay. 

Not even Russia's tigers are immune from cold winters, as the recent case of a frostbitten kitten demonstrates.

The Amur tiger cub, also known as a Siberian tiger,  suffering from frostbite, was found by a local fisherman months ago in Russia's Primorye region. When found, the female tiger cub was estimated to be around 4 to 5 months old, and weighed in at only 20 kilograms, half the normal size for her age. 

The tiger cub was taken in by the Amur Tiger Center to be cared for. Upon examination, it was determined she had frostbite on her tail, necrosis in her jaw, as well as other injuries. It was clear she would need extensive surgery to stop the decay of her tissue and cells caused by the necrosis. 

To prepare the cub for surgery, she first had to gain around 10 kilograms and had the tip of her tail cut off where frostbite had damaged it beyond repair. She was then ready to undergo her two-and-a-half-hour surgery. According to the Amur Tiger Center, the surgery was a success. While Sergei Aramilev, head of the Amur Tiger Center, seems confident that the necrosis has been stopped from harming the cub any further, her recovery is still unpredictable. 

While this case may simply seem like one unlucky tiger cub, it has been seen before, and there is a vast significance behind it. According to International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List, the amur tiger is listed as endangered. There are only about 600 of these tigers left in Russia, with the remaining in China, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). President Putin has proclaimed efforts in the protection of the endangered species a decade ago while serving as the nation's prime minister, focused on doubling the population of the tiger by the year 2022. 

You Might Also Like

A Big Win for Big Cats
  • September 06, 2021

A Big Win for Big Cats

Big cats can rest easy knowing that both the Amur Tiger and the Amur Leopard have been declared safe from the possibility of extinction. 
Beastly Benefits
  • May 14, 2021

Beastly Benefits

When the show can no longer go on, animal members of the Russian State Circus will now be given the opportunity to retire in style in Crimea.
A Paw-some Recovery
  • March 17, 2021

A Paw-some Recovery

Rescuers at the Amur Tiger Center are always happy to lend a helping hand (or paw) to tigers in need.  
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

Survival Russian
February 01, 2009

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.

How Russia Got That Way
September 20, 2025

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.

Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

White Magic
June 01, 2021

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

Moscow and Muscovites
November 26, 2013

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

The Samovar Murders
November 01, 2019

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.

A Taste of Russia
November 01, 2012

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955