An orphaned Siberian tiger who was rehabilitated and released back into the wild has given birth two cubs, conservationists in Russia said on Thursday.
It is believed to be the first time a released tiger has gone onto become a mother and raises hope for the survival of Siberian tigers. Also known as Amur tigersjust 500 individuals remain in the wild following decades of illegal poaching and deforestation.
The tigress, named Zolushka (Russian for Cinderella), was found in February 2012 as a starving four-month-old cub. Her mother is thought to have been killed by poachers. She was nursed back to health at the Alekseyevka Rehabilitation Centre, having had the tip of her tail removed following severe frostbite.
Zolushka was kept away from humans, so as not to become acclimatised to them, and slowly learned how to hunt live prey. At 20-months-old, the usual age that young tigers leave their mothers, she was released in the Bastak reserve in the Pri-Amur region of far-eastern Russia.
Zolushka was fitted with a satellite and radio collar and tracked by rangers and motion-sensing remote cameras and quickly began hunting badgers, wild boar, and red deer.
The birth of her cubs was a surprise because tigers disappeared from the forests of Bastak reserve 40 years ago. But a lone wild male arrived, apparently trekking 124 miles west from the northernmost parts of the current Amur tiger range in Russia.
The videos and photos revealing the existence of the two cubs playing with their mother were returned from the field on Wednesday. “This is a great day for Bastak reserve,” said Aleksandr Yuryevich Kalinin , director of the protected area. “This demonstrates that there is still suitable habitat for tigers in the Pri-Amur region, and there is a place for tigers here.”
Masha Vorontsova, director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in Russia, which took part in the project, said: “This is what we’ve all been hoping for since her release in 2013. This shows that she has fully adapted to a life in the wild and is able to successfully hunt, breed and now raise a new generation of Amur tigers.”
“This is a watershed event not just for Zolushka, but for the entire population of Amur tigers,” said Dale Miquelle, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society in Russia, which was also part of the project. “These births mark the beginnings of a recovery and expansion of the last remaining Amur tiger population into habitat lost years ago.” He said he cubs were proof that conservation on the ground can work.
In 2014, IFAW and its partners released another five Amur tigers back to the wild, the largest tiger release in history. Some the tigers were reported to have crossed into China and may have killed goats and chickens.
