In late July 2013, the Rare and Vanishing Species of Large Mammals: Study Strategy and Conservation research seminar was held in Khakassia at lake Itkul. Dina Matyukhina, a research fellow of the Land of the Leopard Institution and a participant in the seminar, spoke about ways of registering Amur tigers and leopards on the territory of Specially Protected Natural Areas (SPNA).

Question: Dina, how are Amur tigers and leopards counted?

Dina Matyukhina: First, we draft a system of routes that should be no less than six km long and should evenly cover the entire territory under study. Researchers walk, drive, or ride snowmobiles along these routes, registering leopard and tiger tracks. They also count the tracks of hoofed animals such as spotted, roe or musk deer and wild boars. We want to know the condition of the fodder because this is important for preserving large cats on our territory.

There is a uniform system for collecting and analysing information on registering large cats that is provided by our experts. I’m referring to winter registration by tracks only. When a researcher sees a track on a route, he estimates when it was left and measures the width of the metacarpal pad at the widest point.  For the time being, this is the main indicator of the predator’s gender. It is natural that males’ and females’ pads differ in size. Sometimes it is difficult to identify the gender because young males may have the same size pad as females. If the tracks were made at the same time and have an equal size, we consider the distance between them. We calculate this distance based on the individual section and the length of the distance that the animal covered in one day.

For instance, if the habitat of the Far Eastern female leopard is 25 square km, the diameter is about six km. If we see a fresh track of a certain size at one place and a similar track six km away, we qualify them as having been made by one and the same animal. If the distance is larger, we conclude that the tracks were left by different animals.

When counting predators, we take into account natural obstacles such as high ridges and vast forestless spaces that may prevent the movement of animals. There have been studies regarding the distance leopards and tigers can cover in a day. This depends on the weather – animals cannot cover long distances in deep snow. Thus, snow depth is a factor to be considered when analysing the counting results.

Question: What other criteria do you use when interpreting the obtained information?

Dina Matyukhina: We are using uniform methods based on a number of criteria, such as the size of the habitat, the social structure of the population, the distance covered in one day, the presence of natural obstacles, the weather and the snow depth that I’ve mentioned before.

There is also a notion that exists in Russia only – an expert estimate made by a person in charge of a certain section. When we do the counting, we divide the territory into several sections, each of which is handled by one person called the coordinator. This person is in charge of a team of population monitoring technicians who collect information in the field and bring it to the coordinator. who does the counting in his own section. Coordinators largely rely on personal field experience. In their analysis, they consider the time, the size of the tracks and the time when they were made, as well as other criteria. They then estimate the strength of the wild cat population in their sections based on their knowledge and personal experience.

Question: Do you use photo traps?

Dina Matyukhina: Of course. I think that they can help us have a better idea about the animal population. The Land of the Leopard Institution has bought about 200 photo traps or 100 pairs. We plan to cover the entire area with photo traps on an even basis. This will help us to count wild cats and get acquainted with each of them “personally”, so to speak. We are also cooperating with other research and public organisations that have photo traps on our territory. During the many years of research, we have accumulated numerous images of tigers and leopards in the Primorye Territory.

Question: How often do you check photo traps?

Dina Matyukhina: We used photo traps with regular 36 shot film. Each had a point-and-shoot camera, a movement sensor and batteries. We had to check them every 10 to 14 days because the batteries ran out of power and the film ended. Using these photo traps, we sometimes lost information.

Now we are using modern digital photo traps. Naturally, they work longer – some cameras last for a month and a half. The cameras that we are installing now may operate up to half a year. They may be checked every two or three months. This saves us a lot of time and effort.

Question: So, what are you getting now?

Dina Matyukhina: Modern cameras help us to get more images of wild cats because old photo traps sometimes failed to operate in a timely manner. Digital photo traps are very sensitive because of the upgraded movement sensors and we have many more chances to “catch” our animals. Old photo traps never took pictures of bats and now we have lots of them.

Incidentally, even before the formation of our institution, our partners achieved excellent results – they counted about 26 leopards and some eight tigers.

Question: If you check a photo trap once a month, how many pictures can it have?

Dina Matyukhina: Maybe none, but this happens rarely. If we check several pairs of photo traps along a river valley, they will have pictures of at least one animal but usually more.

Question: What pictures do you see more often –leopards or tigers?

Dina Matyukhina: We see leopards more often because their strength and density in the national park and adjacent territories are higher than those of tigers. We also install photo traps in places that are more common for leopards, so naturally we get their pictures more often.