A Russian-Chinese research expedition was held at the Langxiang ski area in China’s Heilongjiang province. Research was conducted to find a potentially suitable habitat for tigers. The international expedition team comprised experts from the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Nature and Ecology Institute of the Heilongjiang Academy of Sciences.

Five Amur tigers were released in Russia as part of a special programme devoted to Amur tiger research in the Far East in 2014 with the support of President of Russia Vladimir Putin. This event drew the attention of Chinese authorities to the issue of restoring the population of Amur tigers. Experts in Heilongjiang have been working on this task for almost three years.

In October 2018, tiger paw prints were spotted in the forests near Langxiang, and Chinese experts believe that this was the first time in the past 40 years that a tiger appeared there. This means that the area has become more comfortable for the large cats and that the chances of restoring the tiger population are much greater now.