Will a young tiger cub make it in the wild?

By Yulia Fomenko, World Wildlife Fund

13 Mar 2008.  The starving little tiger cub took advantage of owners’ absence to kill a dog and eat him before seeking shelter in his box. That’s where members of the Tiger Inspectorate found the cub, not far from Vyazemskoye settlement of Khabarovsky Province, last January. They named her Angara.

A second tiger cub, probably from the same litter, was not so lucky. A truck driver found him in critical condition on the road side, 14 km off Vyazemskoye village, but the little animal was exhausted and died in spite of all the efforts taken by the veterinarians.

Meanwhile, Angara was staying safe and warm at the temporary base for rescued wild animals in Razdolnaya, under the supervision of Tiger Inspectorate specialists and veterinarians.

Questions were raised about the future of Angara. Should she be raised at the Utes rehabilitation centre in Khabarovskii Province and then be released into the wild? A similar experiment with two young tigresses was done in 2001. But they were killed by poachers.

“Over the last 2 years, 11 tiger cubs were taken from the wild and none of them had been brought back to the taiga, said Yury Darman, head of WWF-Russia Armur branch. The 5 cubs who survived were moved to the zoos.”
 

“Now we hope that with the age of the cub and her experience, she could survive in taiga - with our help of course. We want to catch this opportunity to bring at least one cub back into the wild.”

The Tiger Inspectorate, the Department for nature resources control of the Far Eastern Federal Okrug, the commission on rare species of the Russian Academy of Science and public organizations such as Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Utes rehabilitation centre supported the project.

“We hope that in August-September, after rehabilitation course in Utes centre, Angara could be released into the wild with a radio collar”, said Yury Darman.

“We’ve done everything to prepare the cub for further rehabilitation, but we are seriously concerned about her future”, said Vitaly Starostin, deputy head of the Tiger Inspectorate.

As only the militia has the power to control natural resources use there is no proper registration of poaching cases.

But the number of injured and killed tigers is a strong indicator of the growth of tiger poaching: five cases of injured and killed tigers have been registered since the beginning of this year. It is believed the toll might be five times higher.

“Our last hope to change the situation in nature protection, and therefore the situation of the cub, is the creation of the Russian Committee on Ecology, with full rights and liabilities”, said Vitaly Starostin.

Edward Kruglov, director of Utes rehabilitation centre, and Vasilii Solkin, director of Zov Taigi nature conservation centre came to take Angara at the end of February.

“The whole team was seriously concerned about the cub reaction after a 16 hours trip, said Vasilii Solkin. When we arrived, we placed the tigress in a closed cage. And we were relieved the morning after to see she had eaten the meat we gave her.”

Angara is now living in a large enclosure, located far from human eyes, to minimize contacts with humans is one of the main conditions of rehabilitation.

“She has to learn at least two important things once she is released into the wild, said Vasilii Solkin. First: to stay away from humans and try to be out of sight at a remote distance. Second: to learn hunting by herself.”

Normally, the mother trains the cubs to do this during their first year. Now, Edward Kruglov will replace the mother.

“We need to get a license for the cub maintenance, which means collecting several documents and sending them to Moscow, said Edward Kruglov. Then, we need to train Angara’s hunting skills, and to save her natural instinct to recognize the taste and smell of the game.”

“We already implemented this methodology and can manage it. We are also concerned about her release: the place is to be determined in advance and should be a protected area.”

Environmentalists from Zov taigi centre will observe the development and future condition of the cub.

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