News Archive

(January 22, 2013)   -   Dasha Maksimova, a graduate student at the Pacific Institute of Geography in Vladivostok, recently received a prestigious 2012 WCS Research Fellowship for her project “Threats to musk deer population persistence in the Russian Far East”, with work focused in the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Zapovednik, where our Siberian Tiger Project is based. Musk deer, which are famous for having fangs and a musk gland highly prized on black markets, are found throughout much of the higher elevations of...

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(December 10, 2012)   -   Last fall, in the frigid, snowy forests of the Russian Far East, three wild tiger cubs lost their most important ally: their mother. For us, the story began on Nov. 29 with a phone call to me at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) office in Vladivostok from Vladimir Vasiliev, the head of the regional wildlife department, Okhotnazor. He requested our assistance in capturing the four-month-old cubs, which had created a stir near a small village by attempting to make a meal out of a farmer&rsqu...

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(May 10, 2012)   -   Recently, one of our camera traps in southwest Primorye captured a Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx). This might seem like nothing particularly unusual, but this is noteworthy because this is the first time in the ten years of camera trapping in southwest Primorye that this species has been documented. And not just by us—our colleagues who have also been working with camera traps in other parts of southern Primorye, have confirmed that this is the first lynx photograph they’ve seen as well. ...

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(December 16, 2011)   -   At the end of November 2011, a one day training workshop took place at Sikhote-Alin State Nature Biosphere Reserve in Primorski Krai (Russian Far East),  to train inspectors in judicial procedure. The training will hopefully increase the rate of successful prosecutions that can be made against poachers who are apprehended inside the protected area. The training forms part of a collaboration between four important protected areas in Primorski Krai, the WCS,  USAID, Phoenix Fund and Zool...

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(October 03, 2011)   -   Health experts from Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo, Primorskaya State Agricultural Academy, and Moscow Zoo uncover how distemper may be affecting Siberian (Amur) tigers. A team of Russian veterinary colleagues and health experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo are collaborating to understand how distemper – a virus afflicting domestic dogs and many wildlife species – may be a growing threat to Siberian (Amur) tigers.

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(June 30, 2011)   -    On June 8-10th a three-day training workshop on the MIST program took place at Sikhote-Alin State Nature Biosphere Reserve in Primorsky Krai (Russian Far East), to train inspectors in the use of the latest techniques in wildlife protection. The training forms part of a collaboration between four State Nature Reserves/National Parks containing important tiger habitat - Lazovsky, Kedrovaya Pad, Sikhote-Alin and Zov Tigra - the WCS,  USAID, Phoenix Fund and Zoological Society o...

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(June 07, 2011)   -   The use of digital Panthera camera traps, new to us this year, has opened new possibilities for our work studying tigers and leopards in SW Primorye. Since using these new cameras we have documented tiger and leopard cubs, and recorded the continued survival of a known leopard. Furthermore, with sensitive motion detectors and fast camera speeds we have fantastic photos of a variety of fast-moving animals rarely captured before; such as the Siberian weasel, Far-Eastern wildcat, Manchurian hare...

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(March 28, 2011)   -   WCS’s Far Eastern leopard project has documented what is likely the newest addition to the highly endangered population of Far Eastern leopards inhabiting Southwest Primorsky Krai: a small leopard cub, thought to have been born at the end of December. Using digital Panthera camera traps, in February WCS specialists obtained a photograph of the two-month old and its mother leaving and re-entering a cave, where the cub would have spent its early days protected from the harsh winter weather ...

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(March 28, 2011)   -   Since 2002 WCS has been using camera trap monitoring in an attempt to understand the dynamics of the world’s last remaining Far Eastern leopards, which are hanging on only in Southwest Primorye, a sliver of land on the Russian-Chinese border. Just as interesting as what is happening to the leopard population in this region, however, is another question – What is going on with tigers??

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(February 27, 2011)   -   The Year of the Tiger – 2010 – was far from the most fortunate for Siberian tigers, at least for some. Within the first 5 months of the year, the Siberian Tiger Project lost 3 of our collared individuals, and then at the end of May, we tragically lost the last one – the tigress Galya. This death shocked the Project’s entire team – all these events were too sudden and unexpected. We had followed Galya for 9 years, practically from birth. Collecting information about ...

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