The Amur Tiger Center helped the Bastak Reserve to provide individual protection for the Cinderella tigress with two tigers, the first tiger brood that appeared this year on the left bank of the Amur River.
The Amur tigress Cinderella, like the heroine of the fairy tale of the same name, has a difficult fate. In February 2012, in the south-west of Primorye, a six-month-old tiger cub in an extremely emaciated condition was discovered by hunters. They immediately reported to the Okhodnadzor of the Primorsky Krai, and the arriving officers of the special group on conflict resolution saved the animal from imminent death.
According to experts, the bill then went literally to the clock: one more night in the forest, an orphaned hungry tiger cub, with frost-bitten paws and tail, would simply not have survived. To leave the tigress named Cinderella, the specialists of the regional Department of Hunting and the veterinarians of the Primorye State Agricultural Academy took a lot of effort and patience. Fortunately, the treatment was completed safely and after overexposure, Cinderella was placed in the Rehabilitation Center for Amur tigers and other rare animals in the seaside village of Alekseyevka. In May 2013, the tigress was released into the wild in the reserve "Bastak" (Jewish Autonomous Region), where an adult, lonely male Zavetny already lived. After graduation, reserve staff and scientists were constantly observing Cinderella.
And now, after 2.5 years, in early December 2015, in the reserve "Bastak" received documentary evidence that Cinderella brought the first offspring: the automatic camera recorded it with two tiger cubs!
“Since the tigress Cinderella has found her home in our reserve, we have been watching her first with the help of a GPS collar, then with traces in the snow, and over the past year and a half also with photo traps. In total, over a thousand photographs of Cinderella and the Tiger of the Covenant were taken, with which, as we thought, a tigress could create a pair. And so it happened. Looking through the frames for September-October of this year, we assumed that recently Cinderella became a mother, and on December 7, received the first shots of a tigress with two tiger cubs! Now the most important thing for us is to ensure their reliable protection. To this end, we are intensifying patrols in the northern part of the reserve,” comments Alexander Kalinin, director of the reserve Bastak.
For patrolling the reserve and providing protection for the tiger brood, the Amur Tiger Center acquired and in the run-up to New, in 2016, transferred to the Bastak Nature Reserve a cross-country vehicle and snowmobile.
Winter tent and satellite phone necessary for monitoring Amur tigers in the northern part of the reserve, where there are no residential buildings and cellular communications was acquired.
“With the advent of offspring in the Cinderella tigress, it is possible to speak with confidence about the return of the Jewish Autonomous Region to the range of the Amur tiger. Indeed, according to generally accepted standards, the detection of individual animals can be attributed to “visits”, which are not of a systemic nature, and at any time animals can leave this area, where they even lived for several years. Another thing is when animals form a habitat and begin to multiply, then they are already full owners of it. Now on the territory of autonomy six striped cats - Cinderella with the Covenant and two cubs, as well as the tigers Boria and Svetlaya, released in 2014, reliably inhabit. Perhaps there is a tiger Kuzya, who last winter returned from China to the basin of the river Pompeevka, but it requires clarification. Boria and Svetlaya are the next candidates for offspring. Accelerated creation of the Pompeevsky national park can be a good prospect for creating a stable grouping on the left bank of the Amur River, which is a key element in the implementation of the Action Plan to the Strategy for the Conservation of the Amur Tiger in the Russian Federation,” says Sergey Aramilev, Director of the Amur Tiger Center Primorsky branch.
“Individual hatching of rare large cats is a common practice. This is exactly what we did in the south-west of Primorye when broods of the Far Eastern leopard rescued from poachers, the same algorithm is being used now to ensure tranquility of the family tiger in the Bastak reserve,” says Pavel Fomenko. “I very much hope that the joy of the appearance of the first tiger brood this year on the left bank of the Amur is shared not only by environmental organizations, but also by all residents of the Jewish Autonomous Region. Because tigers are not guarded by technology, but by people, and only with the understanding of local residents, the main task now is to give tiger children the opportunity to grow safely and, most importantly, continue to live in this territory isolated from the main source.”
