An Amur tiger’s journey back into the wild
Published by the World Wildlife Fund
In mid-October of 2016, a sighting of an Amur tiger in the city of Vladivostok caused a sensation. Pictures and videos of the tiger, lost in the concrete jungle of the city, appeared in the headlines of local news and even got international attention. Despite efforts from the police, ranger squad, and staff of WWF-Russia to find the young tiger, he proved elusive.
Finally, on the night of October 20th, the police received a tip that the tiger was seen around Shamora Bay. A team of wildlife rangers used a thermal camera to find him in the forest and fired a sedative shot to sedate the tiger.
Vladik was taken to a rehabilitation center and was found to be a young Amur tiger of about 3 years old, approximately 309 lbs., and free of injuries. Thanks to the quick, collaborative work of the Hunting Department of Primorsky Province, the police, staff of the Amur Tiger Center, veterinarians of the Agricultural Academy, and the Rehabilitation Center, a possible human-wildlife conflict had been avoided.
As Vladik underwent rehabilitation, a new home was chosen for him: Bikin National Park. “This place was not chosen accidentally. It is not the territory of other male tigers or large predators, but there are a lot of ungulates and it is far from human settlements,” said Park Director Alexey Kudryavtsev.
Amur tigers have made a comeback since the 1940s, when hunting drove them to the brink of extinction—with no more than 40 individuals remaining in the wild. The subspecies was saved when Russia became the first country in the world to grant the tiger full protection. Now, Vladik will join the rest of the 480-540 Amur tigers in the wilderness of Russia’s Far East.
Vladik was named after the village he was found in, Vladivostok. His name in Russian means ‘peaceful’ or ‘attaining glory.’
On May 15th, 2017, Vladik was released into the wilderness and ran free into the upper part of Bikin River.
In the last 100 years, tiger populations have declined dramatically, from 100,000 to as few as 3,200 in the wild today. Through Tx2—the global commitment to double the world’s tigers by 2022—WWF is driving innovative efforts with tiger-range governments to safeguard this endangered species.
Read the full article at: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WWFStories/~3/7N2HPFJiAFk/an-amur-tiger-s-journey-back-into-the-wild
