Scientists Are Releasing Tigers to Bring Back an Extinct Species

[00:00:00]In Kazakhstan, heard of it?

[00:00:04]They are doing a large release of tiger wild tigers being reintroduced into the wild in the southern Balkhash region along the Eli River.

[00:00:17]So tigers used to live there it's part of their historic range. Um Over the last 10 years they've set up a 3 million acre protected area to be ready for this and over the last decade rebuilt the prey population needed to support the tigers and yeah so they've they've released 119 wild asses protected the wild boar population a couple different species of deer and let's see how many tigers are they going to release?

[00:00:48]There's what is this an Amur tiger? Is that what it's called? Amur tiger yeah. Yeah that's very cool Amur leopards are only 750 left in the wild and they'll be reintroduced into one of their natural habitats. Doesn't say how many though.

[00:01:02]>> It's really really cool and what's cool most importantly I think this is something that goes unrealized by the masses which is that if you're going to reintroduce an apex predator you have to set up the Let me start that over. If you're going to reintroduce an apex predator the ecosystem has to be supportive of that.

[00:01:24]Any of these keystone predators that sit at the top of a food chain have to have an entire intact food web below them.

[00:01:30]You can easily reintroduce a rabbit anywhere and it'll do just fine. It's like eats eats vegetables you know digs a hole in the dirt makes more rabbits done.

[00:01:38]You put a tiger in if it doesn't have a whole I'm just going to simplify this deer population that is reproducing readily so that the deer are making enough babies that they can continue to support the tiger so that the tiger can pick off the sick ones and pick off the babies. If you don't build this entire ecosystem Kyle you're killing me.

[00:01:58]>> Four Amur tigers have been released in Kazakhstan.

[00:02:02]If you don't build this entire food chain, >> the tiger population just collapses completely. It takes When you're reintroducing apex predators, it takes so much like environmental understanding and food web knowledge before you can bring an apex predator back into a system. You can't just dump them out there and be like, "Oh, they'll be fine." And then it sounds like Kazakhstan has done a phenomenal job of actually process before just bringing the tigers in. Which countries haven't?

[00:02:26]Many countries have just >> a decade-long project, right?

[00:02:29]>> That's awesome.

[00:02:30]>> I feel like that for like whatever Kazakh you know, biologist like got the job being in charge of that.

[00:02:38]>> Yeah. Where they're like not one like not only is this cool, but it's 10 years of work.

[00:02:44]>> Yeah.

[00:02:45]>> Like what a [ __ ] dream job. But it's crazy cuz you say that cuz like you know, it's so precarious, right?

[00:02:52]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:02:52]>> Like if you're going to go in and [ __ ] with how the deer are being treated, >> Yep.

[00:02:57]>> that has potential to [ __ ] up the plants.

[00:02:59]>> Exactly.

[00:03:00]>> Right? And then suddenly now it can't the there's not enough plants to support the deer.

[00:03:04]>> Yep. The trickle-down effect is crazy.

[00:03:06]Yeah.

[00:03:07]>> Yeah, it's a very delicate process.

[00:03:08]>> Very delicate. And you And how many tigers can an ecosystem support? Because like rabbits, back to that example, you can be like, "Well, that ecosystem could support one rabbit, 10 rabbits, 100 rabbits, 1,000 rabbits. It'll be fine."

[00:03:20]And that's probably true.

[00:03:22]Cuz who cares if the ecosystem can't support 1,000 rabbits and you only have 100 rabbits? Who cares?

[00:03:26]>> Nobody.

[00:03:27]>> Nobody. But guess what happens if you go, "Oh, that ecosystem could support 100 tigers, Amur tigers, of which there's only 750." And guess what? It can only support 500. You've just lost a third of the population.

[00:03:38]>> Right.

[00:03:39]>> Because you thought that it was fine and you dumped the tigers in and the ecosystem collapsed and it it only supported a fraction of them. You know what I mean?

[00:03:47]Yeah.

[00:03:48]>> Imagine if you're someone who like that's like your area that you like to go hike. And like you just don't don't read the news.

[00:03:54]>> Yeah. You're an anti-news guy.

[00:03:56]>> You've been hiking it for 25 years.

[00:03:58]>> And all of a sudden there's tigers everywhere.

[00:04:01]>> Is that a [ __ ] tiger?

[00:04:03]>> [laughter] >> Is it stalking me? Like deep [ __ ] here.

[00:04:06]>> That's That's really cool. I I good for you, Kazakhstan.

[00:04:09]>> Does Kazakhstan I think Kazakhstan Are they uh >> That's a big ass tiger. Is that tiger like bigger than a normal tiger?

[00:04:18]>> No, it's a juvenile and an adult next to each other.

[00:04:20]>> Yeah, but that >> Oh, so that's just like a regular ass tiger to the ones that are found >> Amur tiger Amur tigers also known as the Siberian tiger.

[00:04:27]>> That's right.

[00:04:28]>> That's what I always called it growing up.

[00:04:29]>> It's a lot girthier, a lot bigger it looks like.

[00:04:31]>> Well, that's a big fat one, but >> a fatso.

[00:04:33]>> But [laughter] But the It is a fatso, but the point is uh they're trying to recreate Caspian tigers, right? Is that right, Kyle?

[00:04:40]>> Yes.

[00:04:41]>> Yeah, so that's the point.

[00:04:43]>> and we're in home in that region. But like many things, try to think how to explain this. The Caspian tiger was just a regional tiger.

[00:04:51]>> Yeah.

[00:04:51]>> If that makes sense. So, it wasn't necessarily It was its own subspecies, but it was regionally speciated.

[00:04:57]>> Uh-huh.

[00:04:57]>> So, if you put these tigers back after 100 years, 200 years, whatever, probably much longer, that is now a Caspian tiger. Does that make sense? Like it fills the same niche. It will eventually occupy that same place, probably stay geographically isolated long enough to become its own thing.

[00:05:14]>> Yeah.

[00:05:15]>> Does that make sense? So, >> Yeah, it does.

[00:05:16]>> It's really that distinction between like regional subspecies, which have almost no like morphological difference.

[00:05:25]>> That's right. That's right. Yeah.