An Amur tiger that has never before been spotted at the Ussuri Nature Reserve was caught on camera wandering in the area.

The male tiger, which scientists believe has come up to take the place of the previous master of the area, the tiger Banzai, was captured by a trail camera as he passed by a marked tree on 30 January 2017.

“Normally, there are one or two male tigers and two or three female tigers at the reserve at any one time – with or without cubs,” said Sergei Naidenko, leading researcher at the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the Russian Academy of Sciences. 

According to Naidenko, in addition to the new tiger, the Ussuri Reserve is now also home to Serga the tigress and her three cubs, as well as another two tigresses, one of which has been seen in the company of three cubs.     

The institute’s tiger research teams have been working at the Ussuri Reserve since 2008. Banzai was captured and fitted with a tracking collar in 2011. Since then, the tiger had been regularly spotted on the territory of the reserve until late 2016. The last time new male tigers appeared at the reserve to take the place of their predecessors was in 2010 and 2011 – they were Banzai and Luk – and now six years later, a new tiger has come up to assert himself as master of the reserve.