The Siberian, or Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) is celebrated as a national animal of Korea. It is also widely considered to be extinct on the peninsula.

Where at the beginning of the twentieth century the animal’s range encompassed the endless forests of what is now the Russian Far East, Manchuria, and Korea, now it is largely confined to a handful of reserves dotted throughout Primorsky Krai, Khabarovsk Krai, and northern China.

Only around five hundred Siberian tigers remain in the wild, stalking wild boar or roe deer through the woods, or else stalked themselves by avid