Help Tiger Rehabilitation Center in Russia

Dear supporters,

We are glad to announce that thanks to you our project is fully funded! Every donation made during this 8 years helped to save, nurse, rehabilitate, release and monitor conflict Amur tigers that got a chance to join the wild population.

When Centre for Rehabilitation and Reintroduction of Tigers and Other Rare Animals was at the design stage in 2011, its ex-director addressed to the Phoenix Fund requesting financial support for its construction. Soon after the first enclosure was ready its first patient tigress Cinderella was rescued. Our call for help at GlobalGiving platform allowed us collecting funds much needed for maintenance of the rehab centre and care for orphaned and sick tigers.

Since 2011 thanks to your donations TRNGO “Tiger Centre” has been provided with funds to purchase food and medical supplies for rehabilitated animals, to pay veterinarian’s services, to modify enclosures for animals, to install video monitoring system, to refit KAMAZ (track) and modify it into a mobile veterinary laboratory, to buy a drone for air observation of tigers kept at the Centre and monitor their movements after release into the wild, to cover field expenditures and fuel during trips to release sites.

Reintroduction of big predators such as tigers is a very complicated risky process and the Centre for Rehabilitation and Reintroduction of Tigers and Other Rare Animals became a pioneer in this field. Along with our supporters we want to give our thanks to the highly professional and passionate people who rescue cubs, work in the Rehab, monitor released tigers, run fundraising campaigns. Cinderella, Boris, Kuzya, Ustin, Ilona, Svetlaya, Filippa, Vladik, Pavlik, Elena, Saikhan, Lazovka and the cubs that were born in the wild from the rehabilitated tigers prove that this project is a big success! We can’t be happier for our first rehabilitated tigress Cinderella that over six years in the Bastak Nature Reserve has given birth to four cubs! For the first time in thirty years there are 13 to 15 Amur tigers currently residing in the Jewish Autonomous Region. The tiger population grew as a result of efforts to reintroduce tigers in the region so that they could form a stable group on the border of their historical range.

Now there are no tigers in the Rehabilitation Centre as the last residents were successfully released. Phoenix Fund has accumulated funds ($3,832.96) raised at GlobalGiving crowdfunding platform for future potential emergencies. We hope that you will further help us in our mission to conserve the rare Amur tigers and leopards supporting our other projects. Thank you!

According to the Amur Tiger Programme the tigers Pavlik and Yelena, who were released in the Amur taiga on 23 May 2019, have been successfully adapting to their new home and hunting actively, as experts of the Amur Tiger Centre, the Khingan Nature Reserve and the Amur Region’s wildlife protection directorate concluded after the first field check of the reintroduced tigers’ location. The data were received from the animals’ GPS collars.

It was confirmed that both tigers had successful hunts, Yelena killed a wild boar and a badger and Pavlik caught two badgers, a roe deer and probably a moose deer.

Deputy director for research at the Khingan Nature Reserve, Vyacheslav, said that both tigers are still in the Amur Region, where they were released into the wild. Yelena is at the heart of the reserve, and Pavlik is currently moving along its southwestern border.

“Yelena now lives in nearly the same area where the tigress Ilona resided for a long time: a high-altitude part of the reserve, with good prey. In addition, an adult male tiger has been visiting this area regularly for several years, so the young tigress has a chance to mate and give birth to her first cubs, thus increasing the population in the reserve. It is a good question whether Pavlik remains in the reserve, because all the tigers before him didn’t spend much time in the area and left for other places. Time will tell if Pavlik will follow their example. We hope not,” Vyacheslav said.

Head of the preservation department at the Amur Region’s wildlife protection directorate Valery, noted that tigers do not roam very far from the place where they were released. He believes this means that the reintroduction place was chosen well.
“This district has a dense boar population, and predators noticed this, as well as the good climate and landscape conditions. The release was also well-organised; the tigers felt almost no stress. When the boars begin to migrate, the tigers will follow. Now they have no such need,” Valery believes.

The Amur tigers Yelena and Pavlik, that were captured in 2018 together with their mother and were staying at the Rehabilitation Centre, have been transferred to their release site in the southern Amur Region. Unfortunately, their mother was not able to return to the wild, but the cubs received a chance for independent life in the wild after a year-long adaptation program.

According to the experts that were overseeing the animals’ transfer to the Amur Region, the tigers handled the trip well and feel great. Upon arrival, the tigers were immobilized and put in a special temporary open-air enclosure. The animals will spend about a week recovering from the trip and adapting. Then the gate will be opened and the tigers will be released into the wild.

“For now, the tigers are recuperating from the immobilizing drug that was injected before their transfer to the enclosure. We gave them enough water and food, including the carcass of an adult Manchurian wapiti and 10 live rabbits. So they will not starve during the adaptation period. Our group will stay here, along with the staff of the Directorate for the Protection and Use of Wildlife and Protected Areas of the Amur Region, and we will closely monitor the tigers. When the time is right, we will let them go,” said Viktor, director of the rehabilitation centre.

We also have some news from Bastak. According to the "Amur Tiger Programme" a regular check of the camera traps in the Bastak Nature Reserve allowed researchers to accurately determine the gender of the cubs from Zolushka’s second litter. One of the cubs is a male and the other one is a female. Experts noted that the birth of another female tiger in the nature reserve is very important because female tigers are not competitive and Zolushka is likely to give away part of her home range to her daughter. This will increase the chances of the young tigress leading a comfortable life and successfully reproducing, as she will not have to look for a new home and take extra risks. Zoologists estimate that there are three or four females in the nature reserve; therefore, the probability of the young female tiger staying there is very high.

Over six years in the Bastak Nature Reserve, Zolushka has given birth to four cubs, including three males. Two males from the first litter, Prince and Vostok, left the nature reserve to look for their own homes. The third cub, who has already reached the age of adulthood, still lives in his natal (birth) area, but he will probably have to move outside the nature reserve soon because most of the habitable territory belongs to another male tiger, Bastak.

Thank you for your contribution to Amur tigers’ rehabilitation!

Lately the specialists from the Centre for the Rehabilitation and Reintroduction of Tigers and Other Rare Animals and their colleagues summarised the results of their expedition to the Jewish Autonomous Area. They got images of Boris, Svetlaya and their two cubs in the Zhuravliny Wildlife Refuge, which show that the tiger family is comfortable and live well in the protected area.

“The cameras captured Boris and Svetlaya as well as two tiger cubs from their first litter. The cubs stayed within their parents’ habitat and are extensively marking the territory while their parents are following the marks and leaving their own, as a means of communication. This means that the tiger family is enjoying harmony and mutual understanding. Based on the retrieved data, the tigers feel great. They look well-fed, which means they are successful hunters and get enough fodder,” Rehab Centre Director Viktor said.

One of the two cubs that were captured near the village of Alexei-Nikolskoye in Primorsky krai last spring has finally got a name - Pavlik. Pavlik the tiger is slightly over one year old. He has learned to hunt the animals that are released into his enclosure and reacts to human presence as a predator should: he lies low or runs away. If the rehabilitation process goes as expected, Pavlik and his sister will be released soon - in spring 2019.

We thank our supporters who contributed to the project as well as outstanding specialists form the rehab centre and Amur Tiger Centre for their efforts to rehabilitate and monitor Amur tigers released into the wild! 

Dear supporters, some great news brought the end of 2018!

The monitoring at Bastak nature reserve lately showed that the reserve staff was wrong believing that in the second litter tigress Cinderella had only one cub. New footages from a camera traps surprised everyone: Cinderella was captured with two cubs! Currently, the cubs are about one and a half year old. According to photo and video materials, one of them is a male, and the second, with high probability, is a female. During this winter, the cubs will stay with their mother, and in spring will begin an independent life.

Other news came from the Jewish Autonomous Region where the Hunting Management Department and the Rehab Centre specialists have finished monitoring the Amur tiger population. The results showed that Borya and Svetlaya, two tigers released in 2014, still share the same grounds and are doing well.

“The tigers are well nourished; they hunt regularly and productively, which is obvious. The results of the tiger cluster checks prove this,” said Viktor, director of the Tiger Rehabilitation Centre.

Experts also believe that Svetlaya now has at least two female rivals: Filippa and Lazovka, the tigress from Lazo.

Another tiger, Saikhan, who was released in May 2018, in November 2018 travelled to China for one week and then returned to the Far Eastern taiga.

In addition, the tiger survey provided experts with the first photos of Filippa from camera traps. She is now about three years old and in perfect shape, which proves that she has successfully adapted to living in the wild.

And the latest news from the Rehabilitation Centre is that the tiger cubs captured near Aleksei-Nikolskoye turn out to be different genders! Experts from the Centre have recently conducted a routine examination of the cubs. That is when they learned that one of the cubs, both of which had been previously identified as females, was, in fact, a male. The check proved the animals to be perfectly healthy. Now the cubs are about one year old. The young tigers hunt animals on their own, and properly react to humans by instantly taking cover and getting out of sight upon spotting or hearing people nearby. If the rehabilitation process continues to go smoothly for the cubs, they will be released in the wild in spring 2019.

Information provided by MRNCO "Tiger Centre" and The Amur Tiger Programme