Primorye is the last stronghold of the Amur (or Siberian) tiger (Panthera tigris altaica). The present population in Russia is estimated at 450 tigers. Its former range included Manchuria in China and the Korean peninsula. Very few animals remain in China and Korea. Tigers occur in Russia up to the Korean border, and it is very likely that they occasionaly cross it.

There are also indications that tigers and leopards may still occur in and around the de-militarised zone between the two Koreas. Tigris has received a message from a US soldier who told us that he and his collegues had spotted a tiger during a patrol near the border zone. The range of the Amur tiger in the Russian Far East is much larger than that of the Amur leopard. It extents north into Khabarovsky Krai (province). The Amur tiger used to occur further west up to Lake Baikal and recently a male tiger was found not very far from this lake.