A camera trap installed in the centre of the Khingan Nature Reserve has spotted a wild male Amur tiger in the reserve for the first time. This part of the reserve is home to the tigress Yelena. The camera trap that recorded the male tiger is located on a wooden path that Yelena occasionally uses.

“Most likely, the wandering tiger came from the Jewish Autonomous Region, and we are yet to find out if he is an adult cub who left his mother, or a male that we know well. We hope that Yelena and the male will meet soon and create a family. Then the Amur Region will become part of the Amur tiger habitat because the habitat is where the animal breeds,” said Sergei Aramilev, director general of the Amur Tiger Centre.

The video shows a close-up view of the pattern on one of the tiger’s sides. Researchers may be able to identify the tiger using the video archives from other regions in the Far East. If they cannot identify him, he will receive a new tiger “passport,” said Vyacheslav Kastrikin, deputy director for research of the Khingan Nature Reserve.

“It is known that the nature reserve was home to the reintroduced tigress Ilona, and now to Yelena. However, male tigers have always kept their distance from the nature reserve, bypassing it along its northern border. For some reason they never went to the south. This year, we felt hopeful while monitoring the male tiger wandering across the Amur Region, because it seems to be the same tiger whose tracks we saw in the first half of the year outside the reserve. Despite the fact that he does not have a tracking collar, we managed to keep tabs on him thanks to the locals who always report tiger tracks,” Vyacheslav Kastrikin said.

According to Kastrikin, the male’s territory covers a big area, so he could have met both Yelena and Sanda, who lives in the Bureisky Nature Park not too far from the nature reserve.

Experts believe that this male’s tracks were seen by the employees from the local hunting supervision department to the west of the Khingan Reserve, in the Zavitinsk District. Experts then tracked the tiger crossing the Novobureisky District and the Bureya River. In April, they saw tiger tracks on the right bank of the Arkhara River and in June, even closer to the nature reserve, a couple dozen kilometres from its border. Now the torch has been passed to the Khingan Nature Reserve employees, who will continue to monitor the tiger.