“Tigers disappeared from the Amurskaya Oblast and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast 30-50 years ago, so the return of these young tigers marks an important milestone in recolonizing tiger habitat in the Russian Far East” writes WVI’s partners in Russia; Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS Russia).

Five young Amur tigers orphaned in the 2012-13 winter represented an opportunity to recolonise lost tiger habitat in the Russian Far East. Recent assessments indicated that prey numbers were sufficient and the habitat good enough to support tigers.

The cubs had been kept in huge enclosures at the Inspection Tiger’s Rehabilitation Centre where WVI vet John Lewis visited in 2012 (see report for details). Here the cubs were kept isolated from humans and given the opportunity to hunt live prey.

In 2013 an orphaned female (Cinderella) was released into Bastak Zapovednik. A year on, she has flourished and was seen consorting with a male that apparently had dispersed from Khabarovskii Krai. Her success has spurred the team on to release five orphans this summer.

The challenges to the tigers once released are huge. Will they acclimatise to their new surroundings? Will they be able to hunt sufficiently in the wild? Will those kept together in the Rehabilitation Centre stick together once released?

Where will they make their home range, will males and females overlap? Will they avoid humans and their villages and dogs? Would they respect the brown bears and wolves that share the habitat?

Prior to release the tigers were well fed, not wanting hunger to add to their trials post release. All tigers are given health checks and fitted with a radio collar before being loaded into crates and driven for 24hours to their release site.

On 22 May Illona, Boris and Kuzya were released in Amurskaya Oblast under the watchful eye of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On 05 June Ustin and Svetlana were released into a Wildlife Refuge in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (JAO).

Staff from WCS Russia, Inspection Tiger and Amurskaya Oblast Wildlife Department monitored Ilona, Kuzya and Boris’s first movements. By the end of the first week all three tigers were more than 11km from the release site but it would be a few more weeks before the team would know whether the tigers had successfully fed themselves and avoided trouble in the form of people or brown bears.

Staff from WCS Russia, Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Special Inspection Tiger and the JAO Wildlife Department monitored Svetlana and Ustin in JAO. Again both tigers immediately started putting distance between themselves and the release site and each other.

The latest update from WCS Russia describes the exhausting and tense search for evidence that these tigers are adapting well to their new homes – not helped by their all-terrain vehicle breaking down in the bug infested swamps of JAO.

To read the diaries of these five tigers please see the Wildlife Conservation Society Russia’s news archive.

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WVI in the Russian Far East

WVI has been working in the Russian Far East providing veterinary advice on the conservation of Amur leopards and tigers since 2006.

WVI is one part of the conservation ‘toolbox’ and works as part of a multidisciplinary team under the banner of Amur Leopard and Tiger Alliance (ALTA). WCS Russia is another member and one which WVI has worked closely with over the years.

WVI’s big cat and anaesthesia specialist has spent a number of trapping seasons as part of multiorganisation team, trapping tigers and leopards to fit radio collars and to gather as much information about a wild tiger or leopard as is possible.

John therefore has been training and supporting Russian wildlife vet Michael (Misha) Goncharuk and has trained many Russian field biologists in safe immobilisation of big cats in the field, correct sample taking and storage and the role disease plays in the conservation of these endangered big cats.

The latest

Over the past few years it has not been possible to obtain trapping permits and John’s trips to Russia have become more infrequent.

However, John continues to provide support from the UK and it has given time for John to look at the data that has been collected over the years.

As part of the Reintroduction Plan, WVI is writing an analysis of the diseases that pose a risk to the current population of Amur leopards and how they might be mitigated. In addition, there is a risk to and from the proposed second, reintroduced, Amur leopard population that will come from captive stock in Eurasia.

Data collected by John and the Russian biologists and vets from the tigers, leopards and other carnivores in the area have been analysed by epidemiologist Dr Alex Thomlinson. Phase 1 has been completed and is currently being translated into Russian.

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