This year was extremely difficult due to the catastrophic shortage of the main ungulate fats. The hunting users came to the aid of the animals together with the autonomous non-commercial organization Amur Tiger Center with the assistance of the Department of Hunting Supervision of the Primorsky Krai.
Reducing the death of wild ungulates during the period of starvation and multi-snow is one of the strategic tasks associated with both maintaining the number of game animals in general and preserving the main food supply of large cats in the Far East of Russia: the Amur tiger and the Amur leopard.
“Nature of Primorsky Krai has retained to our time the rich fauna of large mammals, the well-being and enhancement which is the focus of our joint efforts, - says Alexey Stern, Deputy Director of the Department of hunting supervision of Primorsky Krai.- Last year was lean on pine nuts and acorns. A bit ugly the Manchurian walnut and hazel. Main food resource that enables ungulates, primarily, boar, survive the winter, steel crops remaining in the fields after harvest. In the taiga area the boar "stood up" to horsetail almost at the end of November, although in the normal crop year of the boar and uses this type of feed in February-March. Understanding the problem of preserving wild boar, the administration of Primorsky Krai made a decision on the mobilisation of the efforts of some of the hunting to feed the animals and vaccination against classical swine fever”.
The Amur Tiger Center was actively involved in feeding wild boars in the territories of model hunting farms, regional reserves and hunting estates interested in the conservation of hunting resources. As a result, in the winter season 2013-2014 in total, more than 200 tons of feed was laid out on the territory of hunting farms. At the same time, vaccination was carried out in parallel with fertilizing: 20 kg of the vaccine was fed to animals. Control of the work was provided by the staff of the Department of Hunting Supervision of the Primorsky Krai.
“Over winter, the most difficult stage in the life of wild animals. In my estimation, in artificial feeding of wild boar on the territory of Primorsky Krai in the last season it was involved about 4,000 animals. Only in the territory of one of the model game reserves "Tiger" was made 25 feeding grounds, which during one day were fed to forty animals. The main objective was to reduce the density of animals per unit area to minimize the risk of epizootics. To this end, the hunters were given recommendations for creation of special infrastructure feeding grounds”, - says Pavel Fomenko.
“The increase in the number of wild boars observed in recent years in the Primorsky Krai is the most important condition for the preservation of rare cats. To put it simply, the boar is the “yeast”, on which the “dough” rises - the number of the Amur tiger. If the boar disappears or it becomes small, then it will be almost impossible to talk about the fulfillment of the obligations assumed by our country at the International Forum on the Problems of Tiger Conservation on Earth, held in St. Petersburg in 2010. Only reasonable measures of rational use and protection of resources can preserve the existing dynamics of boar population growth - a type extremely important for the social well-being of the local population and the development of the hunting economy of the Russian Far East”- says Sergey Aramilev, director of the Primorsky branch of the Amur tiger Center.