"The operation was successful and the tiger is in stable condition," Sun Tiandong, keeper of the Siberian Tiger Park in the Changbai Mountains, told the Xinhua news agency.

Sun said the tiger's temperature was a little higher than normal but it appeared to be healthy.

The tiger returned to the park Tuesday after escaping on Saturday, using a pine tree to jump over a four-meter-high (13-foot) wire netting fence.

The animal attacked a farmer who was picking pine nuts outside the park, wounding his trachea and thigh, and fracturing to his cervical vertebra.

Dozens of policemen were called in to capture the animal and shot and wounded it after surrounding it in a forest near the park.

The Siberian tiger is among the world's 10 most endangered species, with only about 400 living in the wild in Russia's far east and China's northeast, a number far less than the giant pandas, which number about 1,000.

The Siberian Tiger Park, established in July 2002, is home to 12 adult tigers and four tiger cubs.

TERRA.WIRE