News Archive

(June 09, 2014)   -   We recently collected images from camera traps placed in Bastak Nature Reserve in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, and were thrilled to see our old friend Zolushka (“Cinderella” in Russian). As was mentioned in previous updates, Zolushka was rescued as an orphaned cub in Primorye two years ago, and was released back into the wild in Bastak after a year-long rehabilitation period. Our colleagues and Bastak staff work monitor camera traps regularly—this involves installation and per...

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(May 25, 2014)   -   The Far-eastern musk deer is a species in decline, primarily due to poaching and unsustainable harvest of the valuable musk gland (used in the perfume industry) found only in males. Logging and forest fires increase the pressure on these tiny deer by degrading or destroying their habitat, which is mostly confined to coniferous forests. Our program to study and develop management recommendations for musk deer began in 2010 as a joint effort with the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve (where the st...

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(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...

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(May 05, 2014)   -     In the beginning of March Dale Miquelle, Director of Wildlife Conservation Society, and Yuri Petrunenko, scientist at the Pacific Institute of Geography, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, traveled to Bastak Reserve in the Jewish Autonomous Region to continue providing assistance in the monitoring of Zolushka, the tigress released in Bastak year ago (May 2013). All information that we have been able to obtain to date suggests that Zolushka appears to be in good...

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(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...

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(February 20, 2014)   -   It has been nine months since the tigress named Zolushka (Cinderella), saved from starvation in the Russian taiga, was returned to the wild by the Wildlife Conservation Society Russia and Russian partners. Now, halfway through her first harsh, Russian winter, Zolushka appears to be not only surviving, but actively courted by the single male tiger roaming her territory. Read more here

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(February 11, 2014)   -   The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Russia Program and the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Zapovednik (SABZ) have jointly surveyed Amur tigers on SABZ territory using camera traps since 2006. On a recent routine camera trap check, it was discovered that one of the resident females, Varvara, has a new neighbor. This previously-unseen female was first photographed in November 2013. The territory she settled was once occupied by Varvara, as two years ago the tiger population in the reserve crashed and...

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(February 02, 2014)   -   WCS Russia staff captured an incapacitated Amur tiger in the Amur region of the Russian Far East, but what ails the tiger is still a mystery. Sunday evening WCS staff members Nikolai and Alexander Rybin assisted in immobilizing the cat a second time to obtain x-rays and samples needed to determine whether diseases are affecting the tiger. Although 300-400 tigers live in Khabarovskii and Primorskii Provinces of the Russian Far East, tigers disappeared from the more western Amur Province more tha...

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(December 18, 2013)   -   In mid-November 2013, the Wildlife Conservation Society’s office in Vladivostok received a request from the Ministry of Natural Resources of Khabarovskii Province to assist in capturing a conflict tiger in the village of Sukpai. This tiger had been preying upon village dogs for weeks, and the locals there were too frightened to go outdoors at night. News of this tigers exploits were a regular feature on the local news in Khabarovskii Krai, raising concerns amongst many local people even be...

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(December 02, 2013)   -   In early September 2012, cubs were born to Varvara, one of the tigresses living in the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve (SABR). We knew this because Varvara had been tracked using a GPS collar since October 2011 under a joint monitoring program conducted by SABR and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Based on her GPS locations, it was clear that Varvara confined her cubs to a small area in a remote corner of the reserve during the first two months following birth. Only when the cubs became s...

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