Life of Pi without CGI, in NE China

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Scarily reminiscent of the movie Life of Pi, a fisherman recorded his encounter with a wild Siberian tiger in the Sino-Russian border region in Northeast China's (HAY-LONG-GEE-ANG) Heilongjiang province.

Zhang Mingyu, from Fuyuan County, saw something swimming in the Wusuli River on the morning on June 11, when he was making a delivery to the Sanjiang Nature Reserve.

"At first, I thought it was a deer, then it suddenly turned round, roared at me and tried to grab the side of my boat," the 32-year-old said. He was so scared and jumped from the bow to the stern.

"Black and yellow stripes on its head were very clear. It was a tiger!" Zhang struggled to fend off the tiger and stop it climbing aboard, but also tried to avoid harming it, as the tiger is one of China's most protected animals.

Zhang recorded a 10-minute video on his mobile of the tiger swimming in the river until it went ashore, leaving clear footprints in the sand.

His experience was uncannily similar to scenes in the Life of Pi by Oscar-winning director Ang Lee.

According to Sanjiang Nature Reserve's press officer Wu Zhifu, the video was sent to the Feline Research Center of the State Forestry Administration. The reserve also sent a team into the field who found many signs of tiger in the vicinity. The video and footprints indicated a healthy wild Siberian tiger.

Wild tigers roam across an extremely large range, using the thick forest in bordering Russia as the "bedroom" and the wetland in China as the "dining room".

Sanjiang works closely with the three Russian reserves on wild Siberian tigers, Amur leopards and other rare wild animals.

Siberian tigers, one of the world's rarest mammals, live in eastern Russia, northeast China, and northern parts of the Korean Peninsula. Fewer than 500 remain in the wild.

China puts its own number of wild Siberian tigers at between 18 and 22.

About the broadcaster:

Anne Ruisi is an editor at China Daily online with more than 30 years of experience as a newspaper editor and reporter. She has worked at newspapers in the U.S., including The Birmingham News in Alabama and City Newspaper of Rochester, N.Y.