Abstract:
The isolated and fragmented habitat is one of the key limiting factors to recover Amur tiger (
Panthera tigris altaica) population in China. The protected areas are important carriers for the conservation and recovery of the tiger population, of which the effective connection through ecological corridors is the necessary precondition for the recovery of the tiger population. At present, the Amur tigers mainly live in four isolated and fragmented distribution areas: Southern Laoye Mountains, the eastern Wanda Mountains, the southern Zhang-Guangcai Mountains, and the eastern Lesser Khingan Mountains. Based on the landscape ecology theory of “patch-corridor-matrix” and the ecological corridor design concept of “node-net-block-corridor”, we planned the ecological corridors in the Amur tiger protected areas, including four Sino-Russian cross-border ecological corridors: Russia leopard Land Park-Laoye Mt.; Sihotalin Mt.-Wanda Mt.; Fenghuang Mt.-Russia-Niaoqing Mt.; Juwish State-Lesser Khingan Mt.; Four Domestic cross-regional ecological corridors: Eastern Wanda Mt.-Western Wanda Mt.; Western Wanda Mt.-Northern Laoye Mt.-Northern Zhang-Guangcai Mt.; Lesser Khingan Mt.-Northern Zhang-Guangcai Mt.; Southern Laoye Mt.-Southern Zhang-Guangcai Mt.. We also put forward five suggestions on ecological corridor construction in the future. According to the above results, the ecological corridor construction should comprehensively considere tiger spreading and breeding ecological requirements, and local social-economic development. To seek the balance between conservation and development, it is of great importance to build a well-running protected area network to promote the tiger population's steady growth and realize the harmonious coexistence of tigers and humans.