The first stage of the 2014 Amur tiger monitoring programme has been completed in Russia's Primorye Territory. The procedure has been ongoing for 16 years and is conducted at 16 sites scattered across the tiger taiga habitat in the Khabarovsk and Primorye territories.

The tiger census has been taken for years at certain sampling sites, including an area measuring 100 hectares in the Kievka river basin. In one day, the census personnel have to cover 11 routes, skirting the spurs of the Sikhote Alin mountain range from west to east toward the Sea of Japan. Employees of the hunting oversight authority and game keepers from local hunting farms analyse each paw print on snow using specialised equipment. The paw prints are measured, and their coordinates are registered with the help of satellite navigation instruments. The next step is to photograph the paw prints and model the animal's behaviour.

The area is known to specialists as a tiger nursery. Its reputation comes from the salutary effects of environmental work pursued by the Lazo wildlife sanctuary and the Call of the Tiger National Park. Local hunting farms organise feeding sites for wild boar and dappled deer, too. Walking inconspicuously along forest paths, you can see the animals with your own eyes. The King of the Taiga himself, however, can be sighted only on rare occasions.

The monitoring is sponsored by the Primorye Hunting Oversight Department and the newly established Amur Tiger Centre, an umbrella organisation for all local environmental groups.

After the monitoring data are analysed and processed, experts will be able to judge the extent to which civilisation's influences have affected the Red Book cat's habitat and react accordingly. Preliminary data indicate that the tiger population numbers remain stable at this site in the Lazo District, census collectors say.

Based on Vesti Primorye