A wild Siberian tiger population that stood at just 27 animals five years ago has climbed to 72, inside a national park built from scratch to bring the species back from the edge.

China's National Forestry and Grassland Administration reported the figures this month as part of a five-year progress review of the country's first five national parks, established in 2021. The numbers cover some of the rarest big cats and ungulates on Earth.

  • 72 wild Siberian (Amur) tigers in the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, up from 27 in 2021
  • 115 wild Amur leopards in the same park, up from 42
  • 70,000+ Tibetan antelope in Sanjiangyuan National Park, up from under 20,000 before the pilot program began in 2015
  • 50,000 local residents now employed as paid ecological rangers across the five parks

How the tiger numbers turned around

The Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park straddles the border with Russia, covering forest that is one of the last strongholds for both Siberian tigers and Amur leopards in the wild. Camera traps across the park have tracked the rebound year over year as habitat corridors reconnected fragmented forest patches.

The park's recovery didn't happen by accident. Administrators restricted human activity in core breeding zones, restored degraded forest, and built ecological corridors linking isolated habitat patches so big cats could roam and find mates across a wider range. The approach mirrors conservation playbooks that have worked elsewhere for apex predators recovering from near-extinction.

A water tower and a panda corridor

Sanjiangyuan National Park, high on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, plays a different role: it's the headwaters of China's three major rivers, earning it the nickname "the water tower of China." The park now channels an average of 80 billion cubic meters of high-quality water downstream every year, according to the forestry administration, while its Tibetan antelope population has more than tripled.

Elsewhere, the Giant Panda National Park opened 13 ecological corridors connecting previously isolated wild panda populations, directly addressing one of the biggest threats to the species: genetic isolation from habitat fragmentation.

The five parks together cover 230,000 square kilometers and fold in more than 120 existing nature reserves under one coordinated management system.

Conservation jobs for local communities

Nearly 50,000 local residents have been hired as ecological rangers, earning annual wages of 12,000 to 21,000 yuan (roughly $1,782 to $3,120) per person, according to China's National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

That detail matters because conservation programs often fail when they lock out the people living closest to the land. Pairing habitat protection with paid local employment gives nearby communities a direct financial stake in keeping tiger, leopard and antelope numbers climbing rather than competing with wildlife for resources.

China has also now implemented a formal national park law and revised nature reserve regulations, part of what officials describe as a new, more standardized stage for the park system. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period running through 2030, the government says it plans to designate additional national parks and continue expanding ecological corridors for tigers and leopards specifically.

For a species that numbered only in the dozens within living memory, a jump to 72 wild tigers in one park is a meaningful signal — not a finish line, but proof that the specific combination of corridor-building, patrol staffing and restricted human activity can move the needle for some of the world's most endangered big cats.

Full details on the five-year review are available from Xinhua and China Daily.