Uporny (Tenacious), a three-year-old male Amur tiger, has been released into the wild in the Khabarovsk Territory, at a locality called Tigrovy Dom (Tiger Home), after completing a six-month rehabilitation course in the Utyos Centre.

Tiger Home is 200 kilometres from the rehabilitation centre, on the border with Anyuisky National Park.

“This tiger is fully ready to return into his natural environment. He received the necessary nutrients and balanced food,” said Eduard Kruglov, director of the Utyos Wild Animals Rehabilitation Centre. “The video surveillance system worked fine: no one entered the enclosure, human contact with the tiger was reduced to a minimum, the animal has preserved all his wild instincts – he hunts, hides his prey and is terrified of humans.”

Uporny strayed into a village in the Vyazemsky District last November. He attacked a dog and was later caught and taken to Utyos.

A GPS collar will help monitor the tiger’s movements.

“The collar will detach automatically after the battery runs out. A wild animal that has had contact with humans sometimes remains conflict-prone, which is why the tiger will be monitored till his last days,” Sergei Aramilev, director of the Primorye branch of the Amur Tiger Centre, said in an interview. “After the collar ceases to operate, Uporny will be tracked using trail cameras and other methods. During the first month, it’s important to understand how the tiger is behaving back in the wild, so a special team will continuously monitor the animal’s location from the GPS collar to see whether he’s eating well and what he’s eating.”