The active phase of a coordinated effort to count the Amur tiger population in Russia’s Primorye Territory is nearing completion. More than 80 percent of the selected trails have been explored, and specialists are already combing through the data to make sure no areas (or tigers) were overlooked.

Director of the Primorye branch of the Amur Tiger Centre, Sergei Aramilev, is not certain that all of the tigers spotted in the region this season will be accounted for during the “census”. Some will be detected on other routes being investigated. But other cases – for example, a tigress and her cubs – present additional challenges, as deep snow makes it hard even for male tigers to cover long distances. Therefore, special tigress tracking routes have been mapped out.

On one of those routes, researchers saw the tracks of a tigress and a cub. Judging from the paw print, the cub is around 12 months old, which means it will stay with mother until roughly December.

The tracks of a lone adult were also found in the vicinity, but the 10.5 cm wide paw print doesn’t allow scientist to determine the tiger’s sex with certainty.