Animals of Siberia: From Tigers to Taimen in the Taiga

Siberia—13 million km² stretching from the Urals to the Pacific, Arctic Ocean to Central Asia—hosts one of Earth's last great wildernesses. Its fauna spans boreal forest (taiga), tundra, steppe, and mountain ecosystems.

Mammals: The Charismatic & The Keystone

Apex Predators

• Siberian (Amur) Tiger: ~500-600 left; Primorsky Krai; largest cat
• Brown Bear: Ubiquitous; Kamchatka giants to 600 kg
• Polar Bear: Arctic coast, Wrangel Island, drifting ice
• Wolf: Widespread; pack territories 1,000+ km²
• Wolverine: Boreal forest; fierce, wide-ranging
• Lynx: Eurasian lynx; snowshoe hare specialist

Mesopredators & Mustelids

• Red fox, Arctic fox, sable, ermine, stoat, weasel — fur trade targets historically

Ungulates

• Moose (elk), red deer, roe deer, wild boar (expanding north)
• Reindeer (domestic/semi-wild), Siberian ibex, argali, snow sheep
• Saiga antelope (steppe zones — critically endangered)
• Musk deer (moschus — scent glands)
• Bison (reintroduced: Pleistocene Park, Yakutia)

Birds: Raptors, Owls & Boreal Specialists

Raptors

• Golden eagle, white-tailed eagle, Steller's sea eagle (coastal)
• Gyrfalcon, peregrine, saker, merlin, kestrel
• Goshawk, sparrowhawk

Owls

• Great gray, snowy, northern hawk, Ural, boreal, Tengmalm's, pygmy

Corvids & Passerines

• Ravens (common, northern), crows (hooded, carrion)
• Siberian jay, gray jay, Steller's jay
• Crossbills (common, parrot, white-winged, two-barred) — conifer specialists
• Rosefinches, redpolls (common, hoary, Arctic, Coues's)
• Longspurs, snow buntings, reed/chestnut-eared buntings

Reptiles & Amphibians: Few, Hardy

• Siberian salamander (freeze-tolerant — survives -40°C frozen solid)
• Siberian newt, viviparous lizard, common lizard, sand lizard
• Grass snake, Siberian viper, common adder (only venomous)

Fish: Rivers & Lakes of Superlatives

• Lake Baikal endemics: Baikal omul, Baikal sturgeon, golomyanka (live-bearing, translucent)
• Salmonids: Siberian taimen (world's largest trout, 2m+), lenok, grayling, Arctic char, Dolly Varden
• Northern rivers: Pike, perch, burbot, nelma (Siberian whitefish), Arctic/polar cod
• Anadromous: Herring, capelin, smelt, flounder, halibut (Pacific/Arctic)

Conservation Status

• Tiger, saiga, sturgeon, taimen — critically threatened
• Climate change: permafrost thaw, treeline advance, phenology mismatch
• Resource extraction: oil, gas, mining, logging fragment habitat
• Protected areas: Great Arctic, Putorana, Lena Pillars, Baikal, Sikhote-Alin (UNESCO)

Siberia's fauna is a Pleistocene relict community—mammoths gone, but the ecosystem logic remains. Its future depends on carbon choices made far away.