Reintroduction of tigers in Kazakhstan, or water is the key to everything

In September 2024, Kuma and Bohdana, a pair of captive-born Siberian tigers, were allowed into the enclosure at the Ili-Balchash State Nature Reserve. This is one of the stages of the WWF’s Tigers Alive program, concerning, among other things, the reintroduction of tigers in Kazakhstan. The very establishment of the reserve six years earlier can be considered the first. This program was preceded by scientific analyses of the historical ecology of Kazakh tigers.

What does the Caspian tiger have to do with water?

The tiger is not an aquatic animal, but contrary to appearances, its reintroduction in Kazakhstan has a lot to do with water. If the country were to adopt the Water Framework Directive or an analogous act (which is not out of the question, given the examples of Turkey and Ukraine), the “Ili-Balkhash” reserve would be considered, to use water management jargon, water-dependent. Of course, without water there is no life, so every natural habitat is dependent on it. However, some are particularly strongly shaped by surface or groundwater, and Caspian tiger sites are among them.

The Caspian tiger is one of the historically separated subspecies of the Asian tiger. Its range spanned a belt from the Black Sea coast to western China. It became extinct in the 20th century. Genetic analyses, however, indicate that the tiger’s internal variation is so low that distinguishing it from the other continental subspecies has no strong basis, and it was not at all significantly different from the Bengal and Siberian tigers. It was distinguished by ecology rather than genetics, so the Siberian tiger may take its place.

Tugai, or mosaic floodplain riparian of the Amu-daria floodplain

Caspian tigers were a key component of the Central Asian tugai ecoregion (numbered 818 by One Earth, PA1311 by WWF). This ecoregion is not a homogeneous area, but is formed by strips running roughly northwest-southeast along the Amu-darya, Syr-darya, Ila and smaller rivers. Tugai forests are riparian. Nowadays, in Polish, riparian primarily means a riverside forest. In the past, the word had a broader application and simply referred to a river valley, and quite often it was more about riverside meadows. As late as the twentieth century meadow nomenclature distinguished different types of riparian, or wet meadows.

This, moreover, is evident in the linguistic affinity of meadows, riparian or archaic lye. These linguistic ambiguities correspond to the spatial and temporal mosaicism of riparian habitats, where floods did not allow for stability (phytosociologists would say – climax). In riparian habitats, old-growth forests rarely form. In modern phytosociology, a simplified rule for distinguishing riparian from alder forests is that water moves horizontally rather than vertically in them. Riparian forests are flooded, while alder forests are waterlogged. However, this is not always clear, if only in the spring zone.

Tugay is also characterized by a patchwork of riparian areas. Here strips of willows and poplars are interspersed with strips of reeds, brambles and various types of rushes. In drier areas, even oaks and elm trees can dominate, while tamarisks and saxifrages penetrate from neighboring deserts. Typical species among which Caspian tigers lived were low trees:euphratic poplar(Populus euphratica) and willow Salix songarica, accompanied by other species of poplars (e.g. Populus pruinosa) and willows (e.g. Salix alba), olives, buckthorns, barberries, yams, roses, elephantiasis, shupines, and honeysuckle, which clasps everything. Animals also had to cope with rushes built not only by tall reeds and brambles, but also by various low-growing species of poniquitoes, sagebrush, sedges and grasses.

It’s also a habitat for flowering herbs, such as hawkweed, whitlow, licorice and turnip. The latter produces spiky fruits, which, similar to turnips, attach themselves to the fur. This is how tigers spread them, which is called zoochoria. Turnip fruits float well, making it easy for various species of this genus to become invasive species. Such is the status in Poland of the bank (Italian) turnip, which has spread along the entire course of the Vistula, Bug and Warta rivers, and to a lesser extent the Oder.

Species typical of deserts, such as rutaceous heathen(Peganum harmala) and widespread water lilies, such as water lily(Nymphoides peltatum), northern water lily(Nymphaea candida) and nutmeg lotus(Nelumbo nucifera), can occur side by side. The sundew’s predatory relative, aldrowanda vesiculata, is also found in the water. Since water is only periodically present in some places, it is easy for the areas it occupies to become saline. Some species even by name indicate an adaptation of such a habitat: the eastern saltmarsh(Salsola orientalis), the Siberian slough(Nitraria sibirica) or the Schrenka potash(Kalidium schrenkianum).

Habitat drying causes extinction of Caspian tigers

The mosaic nature of the Caspian tiger’s habitat can be evidenced by the fact that the “Ili-Balkhash” reserve project lists 68 ecosystem types. Only a few of them are described as automorphic, i.e. shaped by climate, and the climate here is harsh – throughout the ecoregion the average annual temperature is about 11°C, but the range is from -13.5 to 38°C. The average annual precipitation for the ecoregion is 142 mm, which is less than in the nearby Kazakh semiarid ecoregion and similar to the conditions of neighboring desert ecoregions. It rarely exceeds 300 mm.

Not surprisingly, almost all plant richness is based on groundwater and post-melt flooding. Most ecosystems are described as hydromorphic or semi-hydromorphic, that is, shaped by water. Included in the draft for the establishment of the reserve is the call for the creation of a plan to release water from the Kapshagay Reservoir, located in Mount Ili, so that its hydrological regime resembles the natural one.

Kazakhstan’s tigers disappeared more than 70 years ago. This was brought about not only by hunting, but also largely by the disappearance of tugayas, which were converted into farmland, especially cotton plantations. A tragic consequence of such water management and the short-sighted prioritization of temporary economic success over sustainability is the fate of the Aral Lake. However, the cultural role of tigers has remained an important part of Kazakh identity. That’s why the reintroduction project won the approval of both politicians and the population. The establishment of the reserve became a prestigious issue for the Kazakh authorities. A marathon run was organized for its opening.

The comprehensive reserve serves multiple purposes

The estuarial section of the Ila and the Balchash coast northeast of it were protected as a nature reserve (zakaznik) in 1986. In independent Kazakhstan, its status as a comprehensive (botanical-zoological) reserve was confirmed. The targets of protection are the curlew and roseate pelican and the warbler, i.e. waterfowl. They require the preservation of wetland habitats, hence the comprehensive nature of the site. Currently, the Karaoj State Nature Reserve covers more than 295,000. ha. In 2012. Ila delta and southern Balchash have been included in the list of areas of the Ramsar Convention. That’s nearly 977,000. ha.

Created in 2018, the Ili-Balkhash Reserve, on the other hand, covers just over 415,000 hectares, consisting of two areas. The first is called the Ili River Delta, and the second, lying to the northeast, the Balchash River. The Karaojsky and Ili-Balkhash Reserves largely overlap. They have a slightly different status, and the system of protection in the former Soviet Union is not compatible with the Polish one. In Polish, both forms are referred to as a reserve, but in Russian and Kazakh, a reserve is for tigers, and a comprehensive one is zakaznik/corykhash.

Public involvement in tiger habitat restoration

It is a sparsely populated area. At the border of the reserve is the village of Karaoj. It lies not on the Ili, but on another, smaller tributary of the Balchash, the Naryn River (this is the name of many rivers in Central Asia). WWF activists have launched an educational campaign, as the tiger can be a conflict species. Villagers have been recruited to serve as conservation officers for the reserve. It is also assumed that it will be a tourist attraction. The area is already a sanctuary for waterfowl – the reserve’s ornithofauna numbers 284 species, with flocks numbering in the tens of thousands. Local people have also been involved in preparing the environment for tigers.

The tugas along the Ili and Naryn rivers were degraded during the tsarist and Soviet eras, and the existing form of protection is insufficient for full, spontaneous restoration. Residents have taken part in planting riparian tree species. An attempt was also made to combat poaching of wild boar, which was one of the main victims of the Caspian tiger. Today, wild boar and Siberian roe deer are the primary ungulates found in the region. Analyses indicate that one tiger needs about fifty such victims per year.

For the population to be stable, these losses should be within about ten percent. Therefore, before tigers were reintroduced into the newly created reserve, another locally extinct species – the Buchara deer – was first introduced there. After a few years, its population grew so that it should be a suitable food base for the next occupants. Wild donkeys – kulans – have also been reintroduced. They are not the mainstay of the tigers’ diet, but they can supplement it and, above all, are part of the puzzle that is the tugay ecosystem.

The tigers to be reintroduced were raised in the Netherlands, and it was the WWF branch there that took care of them. On the other hand, the Russian branch of the WWF was involved in the action of preparing the reserve, such as the reintroduction of deer. Unfortunately, by a decision of the Russian authorities, the organization was first recognized as an agent of foreign interests, which significantly restricted its activities, and in 2023 it was finally banned from Russia. Besides, Kuma was originally supposed to go there, not to Kazakhstan. However, the current geopolitical situation forced a change of plans.

It took six years from the establishment of the tiger reserve to the introduction of the first pair into it. Before that, a scientific analysis of the former density of predators and their prey in a specific habitat was made. The photos of the founding pair will probably end up on the covers of tourist brochures. Of course, the individuals should be healthy and must be able to cope with semi-open conditions. Selecting them was a key stage of the undertaking. However, the fundamental stages were done earlier, preparing the local environment – both natural and social. And all this is made possible by the water carried by Ili.