The tigress Sanda is successfully undergoing rehabilitation, with the support of the Amur Tiger Centre, at the Centre for the Rehabilitation and Reintroduction of Tigers and Other Rare Animals in the village of Alekseyevka.

“The rehabilitation is going according to plan; the tigress is doing well and continues to demonstrate success in all areas of preparation for her return to the wild. Once a week, we arrange for her to hunt ungulates. Now she is successfully hunting one-year-old sika deer,  which is an indicator of excellent hunting skills for her age. We hope that in the future everything will also go well, and when the time is right, Sanda will return home,” said Viktor Kuzmenko, director of the Tiger Centre.

Russian specialists have gained unique experience in rehabilitating and returning to the wild troubled tigers. These animals are taken from their natural habitat due to injuries, trauma, disease or other factors that threaten their lives or carry the potential for conflict situations – forced walks into settlements, attacks on farm and domestic animals, and so on.

“The rehabilitation method is quite simple, on the one hand, since it is only necessary that no one disturb a tiger in an enclosure. On the other hand, it is not that simple, since a tiger needs to be constantly fed. In order for the rehabilitation to be successful, and a tiger to be returned to the wild, the tiger should not see people or associate the appearance of prey in the enclosure with a person. Therefore, a deer or wild boar is let into the enclosure at different time intervals from the moment of delivery to the enclosure, and this is done remotely. There are also other measures that seem simple at first glance, but in fact require special knowledge and a professional approach,” said Sergei Aramilev, general director of the Amur Tiger Centre.

Tigers in need are captured and transferred to rehabilitation centres by special teams for resolving conflicts between humans and large predators of hunting supervision services operating in the regions of the tiger’s range, with the support of the Amur Tiger Centre.