A tigress and three cubs were spotted by camera traps in the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve. The cubs were presumably born in January; they are Princess’s fourth litter.

According to experts, the periods of reproduction and bearing offspring in Amur tigers are not confined to a specific time of the year, but most often, cubs are born between April and June. As she prepares to give birth, the mother tigress arranges a den in a safe and hard-to-reach place – in dense thickets, caves, or rock crevices, where other predators are unlikely to spot the cubs. Tiger cubs aged 1-3 months never wander far from the den, but they gradually expand the scope of their forays; at 3-4 months, they begin to follow their mother from prey to prey. The trail camera captured Princess with her cubs during one such traverse.

“Princess is one of several tigresses in the Sikhote-Alin Reserve that we have been observing for years. They regularly bring offspring and safely raise their cubs in the protected area. This means that, as before, the Sikhote-Alin Reserve remains a reliable home for the tigers, where they are completely safe,” Svetlana Sutyrina, director of the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve said.

According to Sergei Aramilev, director of the Amur Tiger Centre, the Sikhote-Alin Reserve, like many other areas in the tiger's range, has been affected by an epizootic of African swine fever, which led to a significant decrease in the number of wild boar. However, there were enough red deer, roe deer and sika deer for the tigers not only to survive, but also to have offspring and safely raise them.

“Nature prevents tigers from ‘eating up’ their prey and reducing their numbers to a critical level, so it is worth noting the good work of the reserve. Thanks to its efforts, the local animal world was able to respond to the changes and adapt to them,” he said.