A tigress named Zolushka (Cinderella), which was caught as a cub in the Primorye Territory in 2012 and placed for rehabilitation at the Bastak Nature Reserve in the Far Eastern Jewish Autonomous Region, seems to have found her mate/ prince and is expected to have cubs this year. Trail cameras have recorded the happy couple’s movements.

An inspector at the reserve said the tigress moved across the central part of the protected area and was followed by a bear and a male tiger. 

A female Amur tiger cub was very weak when it was caught in 2012 in the territory of the Borisovskoye hunting farm. The cub was named Zolushka and placed in a special rehabilitation centre built in the Primorye Territory in 2011 by the Tiger Special Inspectorate and the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In May 2013, the tigress was released in the Bastak reserve. It has adapted to her environment very well, staying away from humans and killing the necessary amount of prey in and outside the reserve, including wild boar and badger.

Since an adult male tiger also lives in that area, scientists expect Zolushka to mate with it and give a start to a new population of Amur tigers in the region. 

The movement of Amur tigers in the Bastak reserve is tracked by scientists from the Severtsov Institute, the Tiger Special Inspectorate and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).