China: Harbin – Siberian Tiger Park

The Siberian Tiger Park was established in 1996 with a critical ecological mandate: to rescue the Amur aka Siberian tiger from the absolute brink of extinction. What began as a modest sanctuary with just 8 purebred tigers has expanded into a massive 1.44 million sq m facility of today!. Now, it’s the world’s largest sanctuary, research facility, and genetic bank for the critically endangered apex predator with a thriving population of over 1,000 purebred Siberian tigers, dwarfing the estimated 500 individuals currently remaining in the wild. It’s not really a zoo – the tigers roams around free and the tourists come in special buses and are allowed to feed the tigers with raw meat. It’s a totally insane experience. The tigers are everywhere and are super healthy and playful. It’s a massive animal, much bigger then tropical tigers and with a much longer fur coat and much bigger pause (to survive the Siberian winters and tread in snow). A single tiger in the wild controls territory of around 400 sq km. The Siberian Tiger was brought to near extinction in the 1950s, with only 50 remaining, before the Soviet Union protected the animal and stabilized the population. Later China joined in the efforts.