News from Bastak

More than three weeks ago tigress Cinderella was released in the Bastak Nature Reserve in Jewish Autonomous Province. These entire time specialists were closely watching its every step.

(c) Phoenix Fund

Although it is too early to declare that tiger’s rehabilitation and reintroduction back into the wild was a success we keep on receiving the good news from the reserve.

The coordinates received through a satellite from Cinderella’s collar allowed us to follow the movements of a tigress, and have even shown the sites of her first hunting. After the release from the enclosure where a regular food was provided by the keepers, animals might have troubles with finding prey by themselves. On this stage it was especially important to register the fact of Cinderella’s successful hunting in new conditions. The route of tigress’s movements in the reserve, with stops for 2-3 days, allowed specialists to track down some of her kills. Several badgers and a wild boar became the first prey of a tigress. The recent coordinates from her collar also confirmed the facts of successful hunting. Having verified that in natural conditions Cinderella behaves as a normal wild tiger, the employees of Inspection Tiger are going to leave their post in Bastak and delegate responsibilities for tiger tracking to reserve’s rangers.

In spite of a cruel destiny prepared for the small orphaned tiger cub, and thanks to aspiration of specialists to save and rehabilitate the rare animal, Cinderella got her chance for a normal life. In spite of pessimistic predictions of some experts claiming that the tigress should be placed in a zoo, she roams freely in the protected forest.

In the meantime we will keep on following the fate of the tigress, and support the rehabilitation of the three tiger cubs that still reside in PRNCO «Tiger Center».

It should be recalled that Cinderella’s story began in February 2012, when people found the young orphaned tigress in freezing conditions on the territory of Borisovskoye hunting lease. She was unable to survive for long on her own. The animal aged approximately 5-6 months was so exhausted that she could be easily handled. Her foreleg and tail were frostbitten. According to the vets, if the female tiger had not been rescued that day, she would have died the next. The cub weighed up to 16 kilograms (35 lbs). After a 3-week quarantine the young tigress was transported to Primorskii Regional Non-commercial Organization «The Centre for Rehabilitation and Reintroduction of Tigers and Other Rare Animals» (PRNCO «Tiger Centre») in Alekseevka village, Primorsky krai, which construction was made possible thanks to the financial support from Russian Geographical Society. At the Centre Cinderella was under constant control of veterinarians and specialists of Inspection Tiger and A.N Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution.