The Irkutsk Babr is the city's heraldic animal — a black, beaver-tailed tiger holding a sable in its jaws. It appears on the official city coat of arms, on signage, on souvenirs, and in a bronze statue near the Regional Museum. The creature's origins lie in a 17th-century cartographic error that transformed a Siberian tiger into a taxonomically impossible hybrid.
Look for babr statues and the emblem around the central area. Souvenir shops sell babr figures in every material. The story of how a scribal error became a civic identity is one of the better pieces of local lore, and Irkutsk residents recount it with obvious affection.