News Archive

(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...

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(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...

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(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 ...

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(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 ...

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(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  

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(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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