This year started with heartbreaking news about Amur tigers.
On January 27, a large shipment of wildlife derivatives was seized in Primorye, near the border between China and Russia. Officers of the Far Eastern Operative Customs and border guards stopped two vans and a cross-country vehicle and found a group of Chinese and Russian nationals in possession of a large number of wildlife products. The arrested people were planning to smuggle derivatives by crossing the frozen Lake Khanka. The shipment included a skin and bones belonging at least to four Amur tigers, 870 bear paws, bear claws, and gall bladders, red deer tales and genitals, and other animal parts. “We would like to thank and applaud the officers for intercepting this large shipment and catching the wildlife smugglers, and hope they will be charged and prosecuted for the crime they have committed”, comments Sergei Bereznuk, Director of the Phoenix Fund.
Another bad news is about a tragedy that occurred on January 28 when an Amur tiger attacked two hunters. As a result, a tiger was killed and one of the hunters got serious injuries. Investigators are now trying to reconstruct what happened and identify whether the hunters provoked tiger attack.
“In the light of these recent cases, the Amur tiger population has lost five individuals. Could it be a rise in tiger poaching and trade, or do these cases indicate that local law enforcement agencies are working more efficiently than in previous years? Time will show”, says Sergei Bereznuk.
Luckily, we have also wonderful news to share with you. Cinderella the tigress has become a mother for the second time! As you may remember, in 2012 a 6-month-old orphaned tigress was rescued in Primorye and successfully released back into the wild in Bastak Nature Reserve after a long rehabilitation period. In 2015, Cinderella gave birth to her first litter, the two male cubs. On February 7, 2018, specialists from ANO “Amur Tiger Center” informed that in early 2018 a 6 or 7-month-old cub was caught on the camera traps installed in and around Bastak Nature Reserve. The video from the camera also shows how Cinderella and the young are walking together through their hunting grounds.
You can watch the video from a camera trap here (credits: ANO “Amur Tiger Center”
Rehabilitation and successful release of Cinderella was possible thanks to joint efforts by the specialists from the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Phoenix Fund, Centre for Rehabilitation and Reintroduction of Tigers and Other Rare Animals (PRNCO “Tiger Centre”), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Hunting Management Department and Bastak Nature Reserve. We also would like to thank everyone who helped rehabilitate the tigress (all concerned Russian and foreign people and foreign organizations, namely David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, Rewilding Foundation, Amur Leopard and Tiger Alliance, and Global Giving).
