The department of a hunting control of Primorsky Krai, the Lazovsky reserve and national park "Call of a tiger" with assistance of the Amur Tiger Center have started aviaaccounting of hoofed animals in the Southeast of Sikhote-Alin.
In the winter from air animals are visible clearly therefore aviaaccount is considered one of the most reliable methods of assessment of number of wild hoofed animals.
"The most authentic data on spatial distribution of hoofed animals, their number received during aviaaccounts have paramount importance for adoption of administrative decisions for protection, reproduction and rational use of objects of fauna", - Vladimir Vasilyev, the director of the department of a hunting control of Primorsky Krai has commented.
For the first time such accounts in the Southern Sikhote-Alin - the territory of Primorye, priority for preservation of the Amur tiger and his food supply, were carried out in 2004, then in 2009. Now the group of accountants in 4 days of flights should survey about 60 registration platforms from a board of the MI-2 helicopter. The task is important more than ever – this year in the Southern Sikhote-Alin the program for reintroduction of Far East leopard – the most rare cat of the planet, at the beginning of the last century living in these parts starts.
"Aviaaccount is one of the most reliable methods of assessment of number of hoofed animals. We for the third time will already carry out this work in the model territory including key for preservation of a tiger of OOPT of east macroslope of Sikhote-Alin and adjacent hunting farms. Our joint nature protection actions have already now created good prerequisites for successful implementation of the project for reintroduction of an Amur leopard in this territory. According to the last aviaaccount which was taking place 7 years ago we noted the high number of all types of the hoofed animals living here. It is an undoubted merit of departments of protection of OOPT and a hunting control of Primorsky Krai. Very much I hope that from air we will see the good number of hoofed animals sufficient in order that in one territory also large predators, and the correct hunters got on", - Pavel Fomenko, the Honorary worker of conservation of the Russian Federation says.
Youzhny Sikhote-Alin is the house for 1/6 parts of population of the Amur tiger. Here in one knot not only original landscapes, a peculiar fauna and abundance of wild animals, but also the special protected natural territories (SPNT) which are responsible for their saving - the Lazovsky national park, national park "Call of a tiger" and the regional state wildlife area Vasilkovsky are collected. In the territory of about 15 years located in the neighbourhood with OOPT of model hunting farms "Bear", "the Southern Valley", "Velvet" already the systematic work on increase in number of hoofed animals and fight against poaching in many respects built and thanks to the reliable data about distribution of wild mammals obtained by means of aviaaccounts is conducted.
"It should be noted that knowledge, about what happens to population of hoofed animals not less important, than knowledge of a condition of population of the Amur tiger. Unfortunately, the traditional method of accounting of hoofed animals – ZMU - is inefficient in the conditions of the mountain area, and actually his data don't reflect the valid situation. Collected data during full-scale accounting of the Amur tiger about hoofed animals have given last winter only a relative prestavleniye about tendencies which happen to hoofed animals. Therefore this work is logical continuation of last year's tigerish accounts, and will complement them with important data on a food supply. In a tiger area reliable data about population density of hoofed animals can be obtained only by a vulgar method of account, but he demands a lot of efforts as he in comparison with aviaaccount demands much bigger efforts: for example, now we will process 60 platforms in 4-5 days, and so we would need 60 days. At the same time the total cost of works differs not strongly, - Sergey Aramilev, director of Primorsky Amur Tiger Center Department, comments. - The number of hoofed animals fluctuates from year to year. Nevertheless, there are three-year cycles, and the latest reliable data from this region at our disposal only of seven-year prescription therefore the relevance of the current aviaaccounts is available".
The big rarity to see and record from the helicopter of the Amur tiger. Participants of aviaaccounts managed it on February 27 during inspection of one of registration platforms. At first experts have seen three tigers at once: a female with 1,5 one-year-old tiger cubs. Have decided to photograph on completion of work, but by this moment on the place there was one individual from this family (on a photo, presumably, a male).
