The fieldwork portion of the coordinated effort to measure the Amur tiger population in the south of Russia’s Far East has been completed. This time, the government has made an important contribution to this major undertaking by providing financing, facilitating cooperation between programme coordinators, game reserves and specially protected natural areas, as well as monitoring the progress on the various routes and verifying submitted data.

In an interview, Dmitry Sukhanov, an expert with the Department of Hunting Supervision for the Primorye Territory, talked about the role of hunting watchdogs in the tiger count and the challenge of fighting poaching.

Question: Mr Sukhanov, could you please tell us how the hunting supervision service and you personally were involved in measuring the Amur tiger population?

Dmitry Sukhanov: That’s not how I would think about it. I wouldn’t divide the participants of the counting effort into representatives of government bodies and other organisations. We were all in it together, and our actions complemented one another, which allowed us to do really good work. Of course, the state plays a pivotal role in protecting the Amur tiger population and nature in general, from fighting tiger poaching and the destruction of its food supply to improving the work of game reserves in order to increase the numbers of hoofed mammals. That said, the assistance from environmental protection and scientific institutions is also extremely important. As for myself, in accordance with a departmental order, I was responsible for the Kirovsky and Spassky districts of the Primorye Territory. This was a special year for me and for my colleagues in the department, since everyone was involved in this work, at least indirectly. I was responsible for overseeing the progress of the Amur tiger count. Basically, our main objective was to make sure reliable data was being collected; if no tracks were found, we had to be absolutely sure that there were no tigers around, and if there were actually tigers there, we had to count them. I should mention that local hunting experts started working on this project long before the snow starting falling. I regularly surveyed game reserve employees and hunters on whether they saw any tiger tracks, and asked them to measure them and mark down their coordinates. People operating in districts under my supervision knew that they could call me at any time, day or night, so that I can come check the information on the spot.

Question: Could you please share some details on the measures taken before the start of the tiger count?

Dmitry Sukhanov: The coordinator Sergei Aramilev and I mapped out routes covering the whole area to make sure there were not blank spots and that every area was accessible by foot or by car. In addition, we recruited skilled staff and held several workshops for them to ensure that they are on the same page and are able to properly record information. Furthermore, there has been a lot of snow in the area I’m responsible for since November, which, to be honest, was pretty worrying for me, since it could have been an obstacle to our work and impacted its quality. We discussed this issue with the coordinator and decided to travel the planned routes on snowmobiles or skis in advance. I didn’t take long before we saw the results: the tigers started using the frozen tracks left by the snowmobiles and skis. It wasn’t easy and took a lot of time, but it was totally worth it. During the counting phase of the programme, people could easily access the routes and record the tracks of tigers and hoofed mammals in their journals. By the way, this approach was also used by my colleagues and their coordinators from other areas.

Question: Besides counting tigers, what are your responsibilities?

Dmitry Sukhanov: The main job of the hunting supervision service is to protect wildlife, oversee efforts to keep their numbers stable, and measure the population. What we do is supervise game reserves and their employees, as well as ordinary hunters. Beside this enforcement function, we are also involved in prevention and raising awareness among local residents to ensure harmony between humans and animals, as well as promoting better hunting habits.

Question: Could you elaborate on the prevention activities?

Dmitry Sukhanov: I regularly meet with local residents and guests from other cities to share with them hunting rules, information on new fines and regulations, and hear their proposals and complaints. People often commit violations not because they want to, but because they don’t know what is permitted and what isn’t. Of course, there are people who intentionally commit violations without knowing that they could face very serious charges. They often claim that they wouldn’t have engaged in poaching had they been aware of the punishment, but that doesn’t do much for them. The law is the law, and we punish everyone regardless of their position or status. To give you an example, the fine for illegally killing a roe deer used to be 3,000 roubles, but now it is 60,000 roubles, which makes hunting deer unprofitable, since the yield is 15 to 20 kilogrammes of meat. In addition, the possible penalties now include revoking hunting licenses for up to three years. For many this is a much more severe punishment than a fine.