(August 21, 2016)   -     New photographs just released from Bastak Reserve in the Russian Far East confirm that a feline Cinderella story continues to unfold. Brought into captivity as a nearly starved, 3-month old cub, the tigress that became known as Zolushka (Russian for Cinderella) flourished in a rehabilitation center designed to prepare her for life back in the wild. Without a mother (probably lost to poachers) Zolushka learned how to kill natural wild prey presented to her in the rehabilitation center, whe...

READ THE STORY

(March 30, 2016)   -     National Geographic video channel recently announced a new documentary on Amur tiger conservation issues made by Emmanuel Rondeau. We decided to accompany this with a short introduction by Dale Miquelle director of WCS Russia about his acquaintance with Emmanuel. We offer you to watch this short video and also find excerpts from an interview of Emmanuel taken by Rachel Link from National Geographic. Read more here.  

READ THE STORY

(February 01, 2016)   -     A training seminar titled "Using camera traps for monitoring and research of wildlife populations" took place over January 25-30 2016 in the Sikhote-Alin Reserve and at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s research center in Ternei. The seminar was attended by over 30 participants from different Nature Reserves, National Parks and Scientific Institutes from all over the Russia. Its goal was to provide background information for those wildlife practitioners who recently star...

READ THE STORY

(December 10, 2015)   -     Orphaned tiger cub, rehabilitated and released into the wilds of the Russian Far East, has cubs. WCS and partners report the news from Bastak Reserve, a 162 square mile (420 km2) protected area in the Pri-Amur region of the Russian Far East, where a tiger cub who lost her mother and nearly died, became a “Cinderella” and is now a mother. Anxious waiting by biologists in the area was rewarded on December 9, 2015, when Ivan Podkolnokov, the reserve inspector responsibl...

READ THE STORY

(June 05, 2015)   -     Breakthrough for safeguarding wildlife and natural resources in the southern Russian Far East. Ternei County in the Russian Province of Primorye represents some of the best Amur tiger habitat in the world, with dense forests of oak and pine teeming with deer, boar, and other tiger prey species. Except for protected areas (where the ban on logging has always been strictly enforced), the region has been targeted by logging companies over the last thirty years, with the development of a...

READ THE STORY

(July 22, 2014)   -     The process of immobilization and the trauma of the long trip to the Primamur (as described in Episodes 2 and 3) was really the easy part for our five young tigers just released into Amurskaya Oblast and the Jewish Autonomous Region. The real challenge for these tigers would come after release, and the questions were many. Will they acclimate to their new surroundings? Will they successfully learn to hunt in the wild? Where will they decide is “home” and how will they demark ...

READ THE STORY

(July 20, 2014)   -     Just as the three young tigers named Ilona, Boris, and Kuzma were realizing new-found freedom in Amurskaya Oblast, a second convoy with two more cubs was preparing to leave the Alekseevka facility in Primorskii Krai. Ustin and Svetlana, a male and female found separately as abandoned cubs in Primorskii Krai in the 2012-2013 winter, were now well prepared for their release in the Zhuravlinii (“Crane”) Wildlife Refuge in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (JAO).  Read more ...

READ THE STORY

(June 16, 2014)   -     In our last update we described how three tigers cubs, named Ilona, Boris, and Kuzya, had been immobilized at the Alekseevka Rehabilitation Center in Primorskii Krai and sent on the long journey to the Amurskaya Oblast, a region that had not seen resident tigers for decades. The tigers were transported through Primorskii Krai, Khabarovskii Krai, and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in custom-built cages on trailers.  Read more here  

READ THE STORY

(May 21, 2014)   -     On May 19th, the next step in returning tigers to the Pri-Amur Region of Russia began. Specialists from Wildlife Conservation Society, Special Tiger Inspection and Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution were able to dart the teenage tigress Ilona in her expansive enclosure at the Inspection Tiger’s Rehabilitation Center in Alekseevka, Primorskii Krai. Within an hour, after blood samples and measurements were taken, and a radiocollar was put on, she was placed in her trans...

READ THE STORY

(April 21, 2014)   -     Data in recent years has confirmed that infectious diseases can seriously impact the populations of rare animal species, including Amur tigers. As previously reported, Amur tigers were recently exposed to canine distemper virus, a disease common among wild and domestic animals (including dogs) that share habitat with tigers. Therefore, tiger population health depends on controlling the spread of infectious diseases in wild and domesticated animals. To elucidate the role tha...

READ THE STORY