Cassandra, a female Amur tiger, has arrived in Primorye from the Gelendzhik Zoo. Scientists are going to conduct a unique experiment to increase the tiger population.

“The five-year-old female tiger born in Gelendzhik will participate in the programme to preserve the population of Amur tigers in Russia’s Far East,” said Viktor Serdyuk, a representative of the Tiger Special Inspection. “Researchers at the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution and the Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in Primorye will experiment with crossbreeding a tiger born in captivity and a tiger born in the wild. The offspring will be raised to live in the wild and released once they reach the age of two.”

According to Serdyuk, when the tiger cubs are four or five months old, Cassandra will be sent back home while her little ones will live at the rehabilitation centre in conditions close to those in nature. They will be collared with tracking devices for scientists to observe them after the cubs reach the age of two and are released.

“This is the first experiment of its kind. If the tiger cubs adapt to the wild, the experiment will be successful. We will then be able to try a similar method to restore the population of these wild felines,” Viktor Serdyuk added.