Three tiger cubs are expected to be released in the Amur Region under the Russian Geographical Society’s Programme for the Study and Conservation of the Amur Tiger. Given the importance of the event, representatives of the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Rehabilitation and Reintroduction Centre for Tigers and Other Rare Animals and the Phoenix Fund educated hunters and other game reserve users about the planned release and gave a series of lectures about the tiger’s place in commercial hunting as well as relations between tigers and wolves and tigers and people.

Big cats have already been transferred from the Primorye Territory to the Jewish Autonomous Region under the programme. Currently, there are two tigers living in the region – the rehabilitated tigress Zolushka and a local male tiger that has taken an interest in her. Tracking collars will be put on the tiger cubs before their release in the Amur Region in order to monitor their movements and prevent encounters with people. Government institutions as well as scientific and public organisations participate in efforts to protect this magnificent feline and its habitat, and they are constantly on the lookout for qualified new employees. Toward this end, on 29 April, Pyotr Sonin of the Severstov Institute of the Tiger Centre and Alexander Vrishch, educational programmes coordinator at the Phoenix Fund, gave lectures on relations between tigers and wolves, conflicts between people and tigers, and the rehabilitation of orphaned tiger cubs at the Tiger Centre and the Faculty of Natural Resources Management of the Far Eastern State Agrarian University. A video on preparing tiger cubs for release into the wild was also shown.

After the lectures, the students invited the experts to visit the university’s Forest Museum. The experts enjoyed the tour and promised to consider providing the museum with new exhibits.