The best way to maintain a robust population of wild tigers

Dr Goodrich with Morka, a tigress infected with the canine distemper disease virus, in 2003 in Siberia; the animal later died. Researchers estimated that at least 1% of the Siberian tiger population – numbering between 250 and 400 at the time – died of the disease between 2009 and 2013. — JOHN GOODRICH WCS/ panthera.org

Tiger expert Dr John Goodrich was researching Siberian tigers when he stumbled on an animal infected with the canine distemper virus (CDV) in Pokrovka, Russia, in 2003.

Like the tigers in Mersing and Dungun (see story here), the animal had – as recounted by Goodrich to National Geographic – “just walked into town and sat down”.