Russian prime minister
Vladimir Putin tags a Siberian tiger whilst visiting the Barabash tiger
reserve in the Amur Region of eastern Siberia in the Russian Federation.
(File photo/ CFP)
"We captured images of the tiger yesterday," Chen Zhigang, head of the Taipinggou nature reserve said excitedly to the press. The reserve is located in Heilongjiang province in the far northeastern corner of China, along its border with Russia,
The female Amur tiger named Kuzya was one of the three Putin released back in May. It was believed to have swam across the Amur river, entering Chinese territory in early October due to the fact it had proper habitat characteristics and abundant food sources.
Meanwhile, another Amur tiger named Ustin is also believed to have followed in Kuzya's footstep and entered China for the winter, reported Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po, Nov. 13.
Thanks to the GPS collar attached to the tigers, wildlife experts in Russia are able to track the tigers. Hair, feces and tracks possibly belonging to Kuzya have also been discovered in areas where the tiger was suspected to have traveled in the vast forest area of the Lesser Hinggan Mountains in Heilongjiang.
Russian media has been concerned about the safety of the big cats, worrying that the tigers might get hurt by local farmers who do not know the tigers' unique identity as "the president's tigers".
According to Chen, an animal protection expert in Russia had called them hoping that the Chinese could help protect Kuzya after they found out she had crossed over into China. Vitaliy Timchenko, head of the Russian Ministry of Environment, also said on Nov. 6 that they wish that the Chinese experts could care for her within an international cooperation framework.
Chen said there is plenty of food for Kuzya and that authorities would even release herds of cattle for her to feed on if necessary.
The Amur tiger, also known as the Siberian tiger, used to have a range stretching over Siberia, North Korea and northeast China. Yet by the mid-20th century the big cat teetered on the brink of extinction. Beginning in the late 1990s with efforts from Russia and later China, that number has gradually increased. Currently there are about 500 Amur tigers in the wild.
Poachers can sell parts of the tiger for as much as US$10,000 on the black market, according to the New York Times, Nov. 13.
Jiang Zhi, a wildlife expert at a zoo in Hangzhou, said however, that the possibility that the Amur tigers would be killed by Chinese poachers is zero. Killing a wild tiger, if caught, would lead to over 10 years in prison. No one is willing to take that kind of risk now, said Jiang.
The authorities in the Lesser Hinggan Mountain have launched a mechanism that informs farmers of the presence of the tigers, detecting and tracing where they are, and protecting them.
References:
Chen Zhigang 陳志剛
Taipinggou 太平溝
Jiang Zhi 江志
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