The tigress from Lazo has become a mother for the first time, giving birth to at least two cubs, the Amur Tiger Centre reports.

Researchers obtained the information during a regular monitoring expedition to the habitat of the reintroduced tigers in the Jewish Autonomous Region, including the Zhuravliny Nature Sanctuary. The expedition was held with the support of the Amur Tiger Centre at the very end of the year.

“We thought that the tigress from Lazo might have become a mother after we analysed data from her GPS collar, which was put on her a week before she was released,” the statement says.

After examining the tigress’s tracking data, experts noted that she had not been moving much for a while, only rarely walking away for a short time and always coming back. This could mean that the tigress was raising a litter.

“The monitoring group was very careful to not provoke the mother and to not pose a danger to the cubs. Experts did not visit the tigress’s ‘fresh’ clusters, but visited the four clusters that she went to a month ago. To our excitement, in one of the clusters there were paw prints of at least two tiger cubs. We believe the cubs are four months old. The paw prints vary in size, which could mean that one of them is a male and the other is a female, which is good news. The father is probably Boris the tiger, with whom the tigress met several times,” said Sergei Aramilev, general director of the Amur Tiger Centre.  

He also said that according to the new data, experts found the remains of wild boar, the tigress’s prey, in almost all the clusters.

“It means that the tigress is successfully feeding herself and her family. We are very happy for the tigress from Lazo; her first litter is another great success of the reintroduction programme. It is noteworthy that the tigress became a mother at the age of three, which means that she matured early and also confirms the fact that animals which were not raised by a female can learn both hunting and social skills by themselves,” Aramilev added.