The female tiger Filippa has undergone her regular medical and biological check-up at the Centre for the Rehabilitation and Reintroduction of Tigers and Other Rare Animals. Specialists assessed Filippa’s health, measured her body and took blood samples. The results showed that the tigress is in good health. She is very active and has acquired the skills vital for predators. “The tigress has successfully learnt to avoid humans, which, aside from being able to hunt on her own, is a necessary condition for her potential return to the wild,” Yekaterina Blidchenko, a senior researcher at Land of the Leopard National Park and zoologist at the PRNCO “Tiger Center”, said commenting on the examination’s results.

Filippa’s “passport” has also been compiled. It will help researchers to identify her among other tigers in the future. If her rehabilitation proceeds smoothly, she may be ready to return to the wild in a year, scientists say.

The tigress was just four month old when she was found by a resident of Filippovka, a village in the Khasan District in Primorye, in winter 2015.  The emaciated cub was immediately taken to the PRNCO “Tiger Center”, where she has been under observation ever since.