In the winter of 2014-2015, tigers were counted simultaneously for the first time in the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve and Udege Legend National Park using camera traps.

In Sikhote-Alin, camera traps have been used to count tigers since 2006, while Udege Legend adopted this method only in 2012. The problem was that the two institutions counted tigers at different times, so simply adding the two results would not give an accurate picture of the tiger population. In October 2014, 17 camera traps were installed in Udege Legend National Park.

“Udege Legend National Park is our close neighbour just a few dozen kilometres from the northern edge of the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve, so it is quite possible that in some cases we counted the same tigers,” Dmitry Gorshkov, director of the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve, said.

The first stage of the tiger count, which consisted of checking camera traps installed in the national park, has been completed, and results from cameras installed in the northern part of the reserve close to Udege Legend will start coming in soon.

“In the first months of the photo count, 130 images of four adult tigers, one female and three male tigers, were obtained. We were very happy to receive images of three tiger cubs that are, judging by the photographs, about six months old,” Boris Litvinov, director of Udege Legend National Park, said. It should be noted that not all of the park’s territory was included in the count, so the total number of tigers living there could be higher.

During the count, one of the camera traps captured an image of a complete tiger family: an adult male, a female and three cubs. This is the first photograph of its kind, proving that male tigers sometimes visit their families in the wild.

“Counting tigers simultaneously across a large territory provides an opportunity to obtain precise data on the population. And so we will continue this work in the future,” Mr Gorshkov went on to say.

The final results of the count in the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve and Udege Legend National Park are expected to be released in late March when data from all camera traps will have been retrieved.

As reported earlier, the preliminary results of the Amur tiger count were released in February, confirming that tigers are expanding their geographic range in Russia’s Far East.