This February, scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences conducted a short-term expedition to the Ussuriyskiy Forest Reserve.

Gathering data from the excrement of tigers (the primary subjects of the research) and sables (the reserve's most numerous predator) was the primary goal of the expedition. The droppings were collected with the purpose of detecting the antigens of two infectious diseases: adenoviruses and parvoviruses (also known as tiger panleukopenia).

Adenoviruses lead to diseases affecting respiratory function and the gastrointestinal tract, which can cause serious complications and even the death of infected animals. The parvovirus enteritis (which is extremely similar to feline panleukopenia in cats) damages the gastrointestinal tract and leads to death, especially in younger animals. Analysis is conducted on the antibodies present in the blood of all captured animals, and the antigen's presence can also be detected without capture.

Over the course of their field work, scientists also managed to obtain samples from three new tigers for molecular genetic research – these included a young male that appeared in the reserve in September 2010 and two new cubs belonging to a female named Serga.

The tigers' movement in the reserve was tracked and plotted using radio transmitters. Serga and her cubs spent most of their time in the reserve's western and southern areas. Meanwhile, an adult male called Professor kept to the north of the reserve, and the adult male Luke and the female Princess stayed to the east. Serga's male cub, born in 2008, was moving along the south of the reserve heading towards the town of Zavodskoy.