Specialists have completed a regular joint expedition in the Jewish Autonomous Region. New photos and videos from camera traps allowed them to learn about the life of several reintroduced tigers in the region: the tiger Grom, his mother Svetlaya, and the tigresses Lazovka and Filippa.

Experts from the Amur Tiger Centre’s monitoring group, the hunting supervision service and the Tiger Centre conducted a field expedition to the habitat of tigers that had been earlier released into the wild in the Jewish Autonomous Region. They retrieved data from camera traps in the Dichun and Zhuravliny nature sanctuaries. They also laid a new walking trail in the basin of the Pompeyevka River in the region’s Oktyabrsky District, where the tigress Filippa now lives.

The results of the field inspection showed that neither floods nor an outbreak of the African swine fever affected the number of tigers in the Jewish Autonomous Region. According to Viktor Kuzmenko, director of the Tiger Centre, the predators have enough to eat. There are many hoofed animals – Manchurian wapiti, moose and roe deer – in these places.

“The tigresses Svetlaya and Filippa are in their hunting areas. Svetlaya’s cubs, which were fairly grown up during the previous inspection, have started an independent life and are moving to other grounds. We have also received further evidence that the young tiger Grom has finally ousted his father, Boris, from the area. Grom visits all three female tigers: his mother Svetlaya, Filippa and Lazovka. Thus, he largely has replaced his father,” Kuzmenko said.

Camera traps captured photos of Grom, Svetlaya and Filippa. Lazovka’s collar transmits data about her location, and specialists know that she is on her home ground now.

“Usually, the territory of a male tiger is about 100,000 hectares. Three or four female tigers, and in rare cases more, live there. The obtained data show that Grom has a full-fledged territory, on which at least one more tigress can settle. Usually, this is a daughter of one of the female tigers. It is necessary to consider the fact that inbreeding among tigers is very different from humans.

“Our main goal for the future is to merge the northern section of the habitat in the Jewish Autonomous Region (the Bastak Nature Reserve and the surrounding area) with the southern part where Grom and others live. Maybe Svetlaya’s cubs, which have already separated from her and lead an independent life, will accomplish this mission,” said Sergei Aramilev, director general of the Amur Tiger Centre.

The Jewish Autonomous Region has seen a steady increase in its tiger population following the reintroduction of several tigers into the region with a view to creating a stable group on the border of their historical habitat. Monitoring them with camera traps plays an important role in studying the Amur tiger.

During field expeditions, specialists retrieve data from the mounted devices, service them (replace batteries and memory cards) and install new motion-sensor cameras.

By tracking the behaviour of reintroduced tigers, specialists can monitor their wellbeing and receive new information about their relations with tigers that have never encountered people. At present, owing to the cooperation of the Amur Tiger Centre and its partners, the camera monitoring network in the Jewish Autonomous Region covers all key sections of the tiger habitat and is steadily growing.