A final post-mortem has concluded that an Amur tiger found in a bay in the south of the Primorye Territory drowned, said staff from the Kedrovaya Pad Nature Reserve.

Fishermen found the dead Amur tiger in Melkovodnaya Bay on the Peschany Peninsula in the Primorye Territory on April 21, 2012. The collar it was wearing helped specialists to identify the tiger's name, Gryaznulya. The animal belonged to the Kedrovaya Pad Nature Reserve. It was known to have repeatedly attacked livestock.

After the first post-mortem failed to uncover any injuries on the animal's body, specialists decided to do an autopsy. A gunshot wound was found on the back of the tiger's neck, but the cause of death was still unclear.

"The results of the final post-mortem showed that the tiger drowned. There was a bullet or buckshot hole on the back of the tiger's neck, which was beginning to heal, so the wound was not the cause of death," staff from the Kedrovaya Pad Nature Reserve said. Something or somebody probably forced the tiger to step out onto the ice. It was spring and the ice was melting. The ice broke, the animal fell into the water and could not get out.