Serga gives birth to three cubs

Serga gives birth to three cubs

4 December 2015

Serga, a tigress living in the Ussuri Nature Reserve, gave birth to three cubs. In late November, images of the tigress and her cubs were captured twice by camera traps.

 

According to scientists, the tigress is about 13 years old.

 

The cubs’ father and their sex will be determined during winter tracking and molecular genetic tests under a project run by the Russian Academy of Sciences Permanent Expedition for the Study of Red Data Book Animals and Other Important Wildlife in Russia, in cooperation with the Russian Geographical Society.

 

Serga was the first Amur tiger caught under the programme to study the Amur tiger in the Russian Far East in 2008, which was initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin and is carried out by the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the Russian Academy of Sciences. At that time, Serga was the only female Amur tiger that lived permanently in the Ussuri Nature Reserve. With her were three little cubs aged about four months. The tigress successfully brought up her cubs and later had two more litters.