The young female tiger rescued by the Department of Hunting Supervision experts and Gornovodnoye villagers in the Primorye Territory’s Olginsky District has been named Sanda in honour of Sandagou, the old name of Gornovodnoye.

The tigress is staying at the Centre for the Rehabilitation and Reintroduction of Tigers and Other Rare Animals (Tiger Centre) in the village of Alekseyevka, where she has been recently given access to a rehabilitation enclosure.

“Today we have given Sanda access to a large rehabilitation enclosure. It is larger than the quarantine enclosure, where she has been living. We are not moving her from one enclosure to another. No, she can live in either one. We are trying to create a situation similar to wildlife conditions, when cubs gradually learn to expand into new areas. When Sanda becomes comfortable in the new enclosure, we will give her access to another one, so that she gradually learns to live in a larger space,” said Viktor Kuzmenko, director of the Tiger Centre.

He added that the rehabilitation process was going well. Sanda is learning the skills she will need to survive in the wild, primarily hunting skills and the ability to avoid humans.

“Sanda has hunted wild boar piglets seven times, not always successfully, but this is natural. Tigers do not always succeed in the wild either. On the other hand, hunting success in conditions of an enclosure is relative, because the tiger can always give it another go. She has hunted a young deer – she would be unable to kill an adult deer, because she is rather small yet – but it was perfect hunting. We are delighted by her appropriate reaction to humans: she takes cover and hides cleverly, and otherwise avoids people. Since she has been brought to the rehabilitation centre, the staff has never seen her in person, but only on video and trail cameras. This has greatly increased her chances of returning to the wild,” said Sergei Aramilev, general director of the Amur Tiger Centre.