An interregional centre for the reintroduction of snow leopards will open at the Sviyazhsk game reserve in the Zelenodolsk Region where Siberian red deer, roe deer, pheasants and rabbits are bred. Plans are in place to care for snow leopard cubs until the age of eight months and then release them into the Sayano-Shushensky Biosphere Reserve in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the conservation centre for the snow leopards. Enclosures are now ready to accommodate snow leopard cubs from Tatarstan, where mature snow leopards will also undergo rehabilitation and then released into the wild as part of the project.

An agreement on cooperation between the two regions was signed in April by the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources. The details of setting up the interregional centre were discussed at a meeting of the federal environmental council in Kazan in June. Experts are now working on the concept of the project.

Tatarstan’s Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Farid Abdulganiyev said a cryobank would be set up  in addition to the interregional reintroduction centre, and also temporary housing  will be provided for the reproduction of breeding stock. The authorities in Tatarstan are also considering the creation of a special team of gamekeepers whose job will be to stop poaching.