[dramatic music playing]
NARRATOR: Sobolonye Village, Russia, December 1997.
In the cold, unforgiving forests of Eastern Siberia,
a local hunter named Vladimir Markov
discovers the bloody carcass of a wild boar
lying half eaten in the snow.
He instantly realizes he's in great danger,
because he has just stumbled upon a fresh kill made
by one of Russia's most dangerous
predators, the Siberian Tiger.
NIALL MCCANN: At the point where Vladimir Markov realized
that he was coming upon the tiger's kill,
he knew that the tiger will still be there, because it'll
still feed upon that kill until there's
nothing left to feed on.
So, if he doesn't shoot that tiger first,
the tiger will kill him.
So it was a case for him of kill or be killed.
NARRATOR: As the tiger approached Markov to defend
its kill he fired his rifle.
[gun shooting]
But only wounded the angry cat.
Injured, the tiger retreated back into the forest.
But that's not the end of the story.
Because two days later, the local authorities
were informed that Markov had been attacked and killed
at his home by a vicious tiger.
But investigators arrived at Markov's log cabin,
they found a disturbing scene.
[speaking russian]
NIALL MCCANN: It's pretty remarkable seeing the images.
There was, obviously, quite a lot of blood.
Clothes are tattered everywhere.
Often when tigers kill people, it's not necessarily for food.
But in Markov's case, the tiger ate everything
it possibly could of him.
It wanted to leave no trace of the man.
The strangest part of the Vladimir Markov's story
is the fact that the tiger actively
destroyed everything around that lodge that
had Vladimir's scent on it.
Just destroyed it in seemingly a fit of anger.
NARRATOR: But even more unsettling
than the gruesome killing itself was the fact that investigators
later determined that Markov was eaten by the same tiger
he had shot with his rifle.
[dramatic music playing]
NIALL MCCANN: The tiger tracked Vladimir back to his hunting
lodge a distance of 11 kilometers, and then it waited.
That is what is remarkable.
It waited, we think, around 48 hours for him
to return to that lodge.
And then when Vladimir returned, it killed him.
NARRATOR: The story of Vladimir Markov's death
at the hands of a deadly tiger is frightening,
but it's also mysterious.
Because while animals will naturally defend themselves
from attack, this tiger tracked Markov down over an unusually
long distance.
But why?
DANIEL BLUMSTEIN: Big predators will kill smaller predators
with which they compete, and there's
a long history of human competition with predators.
So it's possible the tiger was viewing this as competition,
and I want to get rid of a competitor,
because this is a threat to my livelihood.
So don't steal food from tigers is the lesson that
stands out from Markov's story.
NARRATOR: Did the tiger kill Markov because it viewed him
as a threat to its survival?
Perhaps.
But there are those who believe that it was motivated
not by self-preservation, but rather by a desire
to exact revenge.
[dramatic music playing]
CORBIN MAXEY: You can't look at this story of Vladimir
and not think that this is a story of vengeance.
The tiger stalked Vladimir's cabin.
It waited for Vladimir to return home for the attack.
Everything here points to premeditation.
And you look at other instances.
You see attacks with tigers who will seek vengeance
on people they don't like.
These animals can feel these emotions.
DANIEL BLUMSTEIN: All animals have
neurochemical responses which are
remarkably similar across all sorts of species.
They feel.
Emotions are feelings that influence behavior.
It's exactly the same as we do.
NIALL MCCANN: Do not mess with a tiger.
If you do that, it's going to come after you.
Markov would have known that when he shot that tiger
and it didn't die, he knew that his time was up.
This tiger have the ability to hold a grudge
with a single individual for over 48 hours
and then take its revenge.
We have taken dominion over nature
in many ways because of our technological developments,
but we are still a part of nature.
And we are still occasionally on the menu of bigger and stronger
animals such as tigers.