Historical tiger hunts in Azerbaijan refer to the practice of hunting the now-extinctCaspian (Turanian) tiger, which once inhabited parts of southern Azerbaijan from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. Accounts of these hunts were preserved in oral traditions and historical newspapers and were often conducted by local villagers, nobles, and later byRussian officials during theTsarist era.
Throughout antiquity, Caspian tigers were captured for use ingladiatorial games of theRoman Empire, which contributed to their decline inAnatolia and theCaucasus. Hunting continued for centuries, and during theSoviet period, tiger hunters in several republics received state rewards until the 1930s.[1]
Tiger hunting in Azerbaijan took place over an extended period. An 1846 issue of theQafqaz newspaper (No. 13) mentions hunts in theTalish forests. It noted that tigers in this area often lived in family groups, typically consisting of a male, a female, and their cubs.
One remarkable account tells of a woman who killed a tiger with an axe to rescue her husband. After striking the animal, she was attacked and severely wounded, but the tiger eventually died from its injuries. The woman later claimed the tiger had mistaken her for livestock.
The same event is also described inAlexandre Dumas’sJourney to the Caucasus, which reports that she was invited toTbilisi by Prince Vorontsov and awarded a medal for bravery. According to both theQafqaz newspaper and Dumas’s narrative, the event took place near Göytəpə,Privolnoye (Jalilabad) or Jangamiran (Lerik). Although Dumas met the woman personally, theQafqaz newspaper’s mention of Göytəpə as the site of the first report makes that location the most probable. The story appears to have spread among local communities and evolved over time.
Dumas also recounts encounters between merchants and a tiger on theLankaran–Astara road, as well as a case where a tiger reportedly played with a boy from Shanaka village for several minutes without harming him.[1]
In the Talish forests, tigers were usually hunted in groups, while individual hunts were rare. A common method involved part of the group driving the tiger toward a tree line to limit its movement, while others attacked from the front.[1]
Between 1832 and 1932, numerous tiger-related incidents were recorded in theTalish region,Lankaran, Göytəpə,Bilasuvar, theMugan plain, and Veng village inKarabakh. In the mid-19th century, 10–20 Turanian tigers were reportedly hunted each year around Lankaran.
In 1837, the pelt of a tiger hunted in the Talish region was presented to theSt. Petersburg Academy. At an unspecified date, a tiger skull was gifted to the Caucasus Museum. In 1844,Qafqaz reported a tiger hunt organized by Russian border officers and about 200 local residents near Göytəpə. In 1896, a Russian lieutenant killed two tigers with local hunters in the Talish region. The last documentedCaspian tiger hunt inAzerbaijan occurred in 1932 near Göytəpə, when both a male and a female tiger were killed.[1]
Historical records indicate that the most suitable tiger habitats in the Caucasus were concentrated in southeastern Azerbaijan, especially in the Talish region around Göytəpə and adjacent forests. Occasionally, tigers followed river systems into other parts of the Caucasus; for example, tigers reported in Karabakh (1846) and near Tiflis (1922) likely arrived via theAras andKura valleys.[1]
In 1912,Abdulla Shaig published the short storyTiger Hunting in the textbookGulzar, part of his collectionKoch. The story tells of a tiger that appeared in the forests ofBorchaly.