During his working visit to the Amur River region last Thursday, President Vladimir Putin released Siberian tiger cubs into the wild after their time at a special centre for the rehabilitation and reintroduction of Siberian tigers and other rare animals in the Primorye Territory. The centre was established by the Severtsov Institute of Environment and Evolution (Russian Academy of Sciences) and the Tiger special inspection, with the support of the Russian Geographical Society. Vladimir Putin visited the centre last September when the orphaned tiger cubs had just arrived.

Three animals were brought to the Zhelundinsky nature reserve on the eve of Putin’s visit. Two males and one female are about 20 months old and are ready for life in the wild. The animals have been provided with satellite collars to track their movements. After three years, the collars will automatically fall off the animals.

Last Thursday night, Vladimir Putin landed in the taiga to open the containers with the cubs and let them go.

Tiger cub Kuzya was the first to reenter nature. He ran out of the cage as soon as the President pulled the rope and opened the door.

Another cub, Borya, hesitated for a few seconds but then came out and, as it turned out later, joined his brother Kuzya.

The female cub, Ilona, was very reluctant to leave the cage. She waited half an hour to leave and responded to any attempts of persuasion with a roar. She left the cage about 30 minutes after the helicopter left.

Soon after the tiger cubs were released into their natural habitat, data on their location started coming in. This data is extremely important to scientists that are trying to restore the population of Siberian tigers in the north-west of their habitat where the animal was almost exterminated by people by the 1950s.