Alexey Khaideyev, a resident in the outskirts of the Russian village of Solonetsovy, simply wanted to get out of his house to visit his yard one fine morning. However, he found himself locked inside his own house when a Siberian tiger was pressing the door from the outside.
The badly injured Siberian tiger somehow sought shelter on the man’s porch to get away from the freezing winter. Resident Galina Tsimarino told the Siberian Times about how Khaideyev received a surprise visit from the mammal, which happens to be one of the only 500 remaining in the wild.
According to the report, Khaideyev was pushing the door as he wanted to go out. However, he heard a growl. He immediately got back in the house and contacted emergency services. All the while, the tiger laid on the porch, appearing exhausted, starving and worn out. Tsimarino added that the big cat remained there until the emergency team arrived.
The tiger was later on sedated and taken to Amur Tiger Center, an animal rehabilitation facility located in Alekseevka village in the Primorsky region. It was then that vets assessed the tiger to be about 10 years old. She also has serious oral health problems. The tiger’s condition was so bad that she had severe gum problems and all the teeth in her upper jaw had gone missing.
Amur Tiger Center’s Sergey Aramilev said that there were no visible injuries from a gunshot. Nevertheless, the tiger needed medical attention because of the problems in her oral cavity. It is believed that the animal’s exhaustion is due to hunger. She couldn’t eat or hunt because of her condition and she may have ended up on a human’s property to ask for help. According to Aramilev, the injured tiger wasn’t aggressive at all.
Aramilev also shared the dilemma of providing medical care to the tiger. In her physical state, it’s dangerous to give her anesthetics, but at the same time, the drug is needed for vets to provide her active treatment.
Currently, the tiger is being fed with meat and treated with antibiotics to improve her condition. But even then, vets give the animal’s injections remotely as she doesn’t want anyone to get close to her.
The Siberian tiger, also called Amur tiger, is now under severe threat as only 500 of them exist in eastern Russia, their natural habitat. The species is facing a threat of extinction due to an epidemic of a mysterious disease.