Experts from the Far Eastern national parks and nature reserves will conduct the first joint Amur tiger count across Russian protected areas. This programme was initiated by representatives of the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve. The meeting, which took place in the Land of the Leopard office, brought together 11 representatives from federal nature reserves and parks participating in the tiger count. Apart from discussing the new programme, experts also shared their experience of conducting tiger counts using trail cameras, and learned about latest global trends in collecting and processing trail camera data.

“Land of the Leopard is rightly considered one of the most Amur tiger-inhabited protected areas in Russia’s Far East,” said Dina Matyukhina, a senior researcher at the national park. “We have experience in organising and conducting big cat counts, as well as processing and analysing the count data. We are happy to be a part of this important initiative.”

Until now, tiger-inhabited areas practically never exchanged the results of their tiger monitoring. That is why experts decided to create a single annual report on the status of Amur tiger groups based on the data obtained from photo monitoring in protected areas of federal importance.

“We are already conducting the tiger count using our trail camera data,” said Svetlana Sutyrina, deputy director for research at the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve. “All we need is to collect reports from all areas on time, examine and summarise them.”

This initiative of the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve was supported by all participants of the meeting. Earlier, on 15 May 2018, in Vladivostok, members of the Coordinating Council of Nature Reserves and National Parks of the Southern Far East unanimously supported the idea to coordinate efforts on conducting trail camera counts.

The annual reports will be made publicly available to researchers. The first results of the programme are to come out in late 2018. Moreover, they will serve as a basis for scientific articles on the Amur tiger population, including international publications.