Brett Murray was our September 2022 speaker.

Brett gave an interesting account of his eco-tourism trip to Siberia, to see Siberian Tigers. Brett and his son Andrew and two others spent 14 days learning about Siberian tigers as they traversed their territories in a remote Siberian Forest, a 4 1/2 hour 4-wheel drive from Khabarovsk the major city in northern Siberia. Each day, guided by a world-renowned Siberian tiger scientist, Alexander Batalov, the four tourists set camera traps and each night viewed the findings.

The Siberian tigers all have their own route, which they traverse continually taking 8-10 days to do a full circuit. They are very elusive and stay out of sight of humans. They are also very large, with an explosive speed which they use for catching deer and bear prey. The tigers have a 13 ft reach up trees, which they scratch as part of marking their territory.

The eco-tourist group were hosted by 11 Russians in a camp in the forest, and also visited a local indigenous village, where the women and children put on a dance performance for them. They also visited a tiger rehabilitation camp, where they saw a tiger which had received surgery after a fight with another tiger. The Siberian tigers have been rescued from near extinction. Only 40 tigers remained when efforts to save them got under way. There are now 380, thanks largely to the efforts of Alexander Batalov, the tiger scientist who guided Brett and his eco-tour.

Brett’s talk sparked many questions from the fascinated audience.