The True Story of a Man-Eating Tiger's Vengeance



Tigers that populate Russia’s Far East are commonly referred to as Siberian tigers, but they’re more accurately known as the Amur tiger. Imagine a creature that has the agility and appetite of a cat and the mass of an industrial refrigerator. The Amur tiger can weigh over 500 pounds and can be more than 10 feet long nose to tail. These majestic tigers can jump as far as 25 feet, and vertically can jump over a basketball hoop. An Amur tiger is at the story of Vladimir Markov, a poacher who met a grisly end in the winter of 1997 after he shot and wounded a tiger and then stole part of its skull. The injured tiger hunted Markov down in a way that’s chillingly premeditated. The tiger staked out Markov’s cabin, systematically destroying anything that had Markov’s scent on it, and then waited by the front door for him to come home. It wasn’t an impulsive act — the tiger waited nearly 48 hours for his target to appear. When Markov finally returned to his cabin, the tiger killed him, dragged him into the bush, and ate him. Some people say the animal was just a tiger being a tiger, but the precise stalking he did makes it more about vengeance than nature.