The Beautiful Children in a Beautiful World charity foundation is helping the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve carry out the Stripped Neighbour project. Established in 2013, the Foundation supports and promotes, among other things, environmental protection initiatives in Russia with a focus on nature reserves and national parks.

The project is aimed at preserving and studying the Amur tiger population, which is viewed as one of the symbols of Russia. In April, the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve has already received funding from the Foundation for 2014.

This joint project consists of installing trail cameras across the reserve’s territory.

Until recently, following tiger tracks was one of the main methods for studying tigers, as well as one of the most challenging, as researchers had to travel large distances on foot through deep snow in order to learn something about the life of this species.

Automatic cameras are now used to provide images of tigers in their natural habitat. Researchers can compare stripe patterns to identify every animal, since such patterns are unique for each tiger. This method is much more accurate compared to winter trailing techniques. Furthermore, trail cameras also generate great images and video footage of the animals in a natural setting.

The project is scheduled to end in November 2014, which means there is not much time remaining. With this in mind, nature reserve employees are working hard to complete all the planned initiatives in order to obtain tangible results by the time the project is completed.