Images of Svetlaya the tigress and her three cubs were captured by camera traps in her habitat area in the Zhuravliny Wildlife Sanctuary and nearby areas, the Amur Tiger Centre reports.

According to the centre’s General Director Sergei Aramilev, Svetlaya’s second litter confirms the success of the tiger reintroduction programme in the Jewish Autonomous Region.

“The successful breeding of tigers is possible because of the high number of ungulates in this area. To maintain this positive trend, the Jewish Autonomous Region’s hunting supervision service, with our support, will significantly strengthen security so the feline mothers and their cubs are safe. Tigers are tropical fauna and they can have offspring throughout the year, so it is not possible to predict when this will happen. In our case, the cubs of two broods were born in the autumn, and by the beginning of winter they were big enough to follow their mothers around. Judging by the images received from the cameras, Svetlaya and a female tiger from Lazo have at least five cubs about the same age,” said Sergei Aramilev.

He also said that the monitoring programme would be expanded with new camera traps installed.

“Next year, the monitoring group will try to track all the tigers previously released into the wild in the Jewish Autonomous Region, including Saikhan, Filippa and, of course, the tigress from Lazo and Svetlaya with all their cubs,” said Sergei Aramilev.

Viktor Kuzmenko, director of the Tiger Centre , who also took part in the field monitoring of the reintroduced tigers in the Jewish Autonomous Region, noted that Svetlaya was expected to have this second litter.

“It was time for Svetlaya to have her second brood, and she did that. Although we expected that to happen,  our joy was great indeed – this was a real New Year’s gift. It is worth noting that in some images from the cameras we see both Svetlaya with the cubs and Boris the tiger, who is likely to be the father. This is evidenced by his peaceful attitude toward the cubs,” the expert said.

According to Kuzmenko, there is a stable tiger population with at least three breeding females in the Jewish Autonomous Region.

Boris the tiger, released in 2014 in the Amur Region, moved to a neighbouring region and paired up with Svetlaya. In January 2019, the experts checked the habitat of the tiger family and recorded that they shared a hunting area with their two cubs from the first litter.