On 29 July, International Tiger Day, the Amur Tiger Centre published information showing that the endangered predator had expanded its habitat. Specialists are referring to the data received during the comprehensive tiger count in 2021-2022. The final results of the count will be announced at the 2nd International Tiger Conservation Forum in September 2022.

Earlier, at President of Russia Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Government members on 25 July, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Alexander Kozlov reported that Russia is home to over 600 Amur tigers. 

“This year, we conducted a count of Amur tigers throughout their entire range: the Primorye Territory, the Amur Region, the Khabarovsk Territory and the Jewish Autonomous Region. Now we are processing that information and will announce the exact figure in autumn. However, we already see that these data exceed the figure of 2015. For the first time, we recorded tiger population growth in the Amur Region and Bikin, Land of the Leopard and Call of the Tiger national parks. We had 540 tigers there in 2015, and now there are definitely more than 600,” the minister said.

He added that work was underway to create Pompeyevsky National Park on the President’s instructions in the Jewish Autonomous Region. The park planning will be completed in the middle of August.

“This park is the last territory we need to keep the tiger population stable,” Alexander Kozlov said.

International Tiger Day was instituted at the first tiger summit in 2010 to raise awareness about the disappearance of tigers and ways of protecting them. The forum adopted a global tiger recovery programme for 2010-2022, which specified the main areas of work for each tiger range country.   

Implementing Russia’s commitments following the forum, the Russian Geographical Society established the Amur Tiger Centre at the initiative of President Vladimir Putin on International Tiger Day in 2013. Its main goal is to study the Amur tiger, conserve and restore its population.

By 2022, Russia fulfilled all the tasks set forth in 2010. It will complete this work by summing up the Amur Tiger count in 2021-2022.

The data obtained during the field stage of the count point to the presence of Amur tigers in areas where they have not been seen before, notably, in the Oktyabrsky, Pogranichny, Khankaysky and Khorolsky districts of the Primorye Territory. Experts also noted a considerable increase in the presence of Amur tigers on the left bank of the Amur River, in the Jewish Autonomous Region and the Amur Region.

The data from the count also show that Amur tigers have changed their diet. The epizootics of African swine fever reduced the number of boars in the tiger range, thereby decreasing their share in the tiger diet. Looking for prey, tigers began to move around more in their habitat and hunt Manchurian wapiti, roe deer and sika deer, which allowed them to safely survive in difficult times.

Russia’s Amur tiger count was organised and conducted by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the governments of the Primorye and Khabarovsk territories, the Jewish Autonomous Region and the Amur Region, as well as by nature reserves and national parks with the support of the Amur Tiger Centre and the participation of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The 2^nd International Tiger Conservation Forum will take place on 5 September 2022, the first day of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. It is organised by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Justice and the Amur Tiger Centre.