On 22 June, the Amur Tiger Centre and Russia’s Transaero Airlines unveiled a joint project called Striped Flight at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport. Stripes were painted on the fuselage of a Transaero-owned Boeing 747-400 and a tiger face was painted on the plane’s nose to raise public awareness in Russia and around the world about environmental problems and the need to preserve rare and endangered animal species. Stripes will be added to parts of the Boeing’s interior in the future.

“One of the Amur Tiger Centre’s jobs is to attract wider attention to the issue of Amur tiger conservation and the threats facing this powerful, yet very vulnerable animal. We are happy to count Transaero among our friends and supporters who share our commitment to conservation and popularising the image of the ‘master of the taiga’. The Striped Flight project is evidence of our cordial partnership and commitment to work together to achieve noble goals,” said Andrei Smirnov, general director of the Amur Tiger Centre.

The project also contains an educational component. Transaero’s inflight magazines and social media pages will feature special wildlife sections on efforts to protect the Amur tiger and other rare species.

While on board, Striped Flight passengers will also be able to watch documentaries produced by the Amur Tiger Centre.

According to preliminary estimates from the latest tiger count, the Amur tiger population in Russia stands between 510 and 540. The count was carried out in February 2015 and spanned more than 150,000 sq km of tiger habitat in the Russian Far East. The final results of the count will be released this autumn.