Vladivostok is hosting an international research and practical conference on Amur tiger protection and conservation prospects in Russia, with leading experts from Russia, China, Korea and Japan taking part.

On the first day of the conference, the participants discussed Amur tiger monitoring efforts, including the data of the last winter count held in Russia’s Far East.

According to the latest estimates cited by tiger count research adviser Vladimir Aramilev, acting director of the Joint Directorate of the Lazovsky Nature Reserve and Call of the Tiger National Park, the tiger population of the Far East currently ranges between 523 and 540 animals. The gap is due to the fact that some of the paw prints found during the snow tracking campaign were indistinct and hard to measure because of loose snow. The Primorye Territory accounts for 417-425 tigers: 100 males, 169-172 females, 72 cubs and 76-81 tigers whose sex remains unclear. The paw prints of 100-109 tigers were recorded in the neighbouring Khabarovsk Territory, of which 30-33 are males, 33-38 are females, 26-28 are cubs and 8-10 are tigers whose sex was impossible to determine. The Jewish Autonomous Region is home to four tigers (two males and two females) and the Amur Region has one male and one female tiger.

“Today, it is possible to say that the Amur tiger population has somewhat stabilised. There are gaps in certain habitats where the local tiger population might have increased, but that didn’t happen,” Mr Aramilev said.

The comprehensive tiger count data were processed using a special algorithm, and, the final figure worked out to 562. One of the algorithm’s developers, Andrei Murzin of the Pacific Institute of Geography at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Far Eastern Branch, noted that the computer software filtered several parameters (the size of the heel pad, average daily distances, habitat and others) and the final result matched experts’ conclusions, thus proving that the programme can be trusted. The count data included information obtained with the help of trail cameras as well.

“The existing methods for counting and monitoring the Amur tiger population have on the whole proved worthwhile. And yet, there are objective reasons for certain changes in order to make the state-funded monitoring and count of Amur tigers economically expedient and to give us sufficient data for timely and correct administrative decisions. Also, a balanced approach is necessary, which would take into account various methods, and all that should be reflected in new methodological recommendations through adding separate clauses on the use of camera traps, for example, and so on,” said Sergei Aramilev, Director of the Primorye Branch of the Amur Tiger Centre. The majority of experts agree that large-scale Amur tiger and Far Eastern leopard counts should be held once every five years and not every 10 years as they are now. The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has backed the idea.

A member of the Chinese delegation unveiled China’s plans to launch a sweeping count of rare wild cat species on its territory next year. It will be China’s first effort of this kind.

“We are planning to hold Amur tiger and Far Eastern leopard counts once every five years – first in the Heilongjiang province and later also in some parts of the Jilin province. Preparations have already begun. But insofar, there is no unanimity on how it should be done – using trail cameras, DNA samples, or other methods. Perhaps, like in Russia, this will be a combined project,” said Jiang Guangshun, an expert of the Feline Research Centre of the State Forestry Administration in Harbin, China.