For the first time, wolves have been spotted at the Call of the Tiger national park in Primorye Territory, which testifies to the shrinking Amur tiger population, park director Yury Bersenev said.

"We detected the wolves by their tracks in the mud, which we have found in abundance. Also, we have seen many photos of wolves from trail cameras. There is a small pack of wolves with a brood of wolf cubs. This speaks to the lack of tigers in this vast national park," Bersenev said.

Wolves are considered a kind of indicator of the declining number of Amur tiger in the region, Bersenev noted, as these two carnivores do not share the same territory because they hunt the same prey. In Primorye, the wolf population is considerably smaller than in other regions.

Unlike tigers, wolves pose a great threat for humans and more actively kill hoofed animals.

Commenting on the issue, Viktor Lukarevsky, senior researcher at the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, mentioned several possible causes of the declining tiger population in the park, including the park's configuration, which forces some animals to walk outside its territory, insufficient security in the park and nearby hunting grounds, which set up feeding sites and solonetzs to lure animals from their habitat.