Monitoring Amur tigers with accuracy is challenging because tigers are secretive and range over large remote areas, making them impossible to observe. But ZSL’s team in the Lazovsky Reserve, Russian Far East, has identified two previously unseen tigers using special automated cameras around the area.
The ‘camera traps’ capture pictures of the tigers, as well as other species, as they walk past. The animals trigger a heat and motion sensor and a photograph is taken.
ZSL began monitoring Amur tigers using camera-traps in Lazovsky in 2007 but the work there started years before; our field crew has over 14 years of experience studying wild tigers in Russia.
From the photos, including the ones below, they successfully identified two tigers from the year before and two new tigers not photographed before.
Awareness programme
ZSL is launching an awareness programme using camera-trap photographs such as these one of the reserve’s tigers and other species. Support from local people is crucial for success in conservation, particularly of species that are dangereous to humans.
We aim to highlight the uniqueness of each one and to encourage local communities to feel some ownership of and special connection to ‘their’ tigers.
See these amazing photos of these newly identified tigers and find out more about Amur tigers and ZSL’s work to protect them.
One of the newly identified Amur tigers on the beach
The Amur tiger is one of the largest cats in the world and is found only in the Russian Far East, although a few may range across the borders into northern China and Korea.
The other newly identified Amur tiger, a female, scratching herself on a tree
The Amur tiger is critically endangered and in the 1940s was on the brink of extinction.
A male tiger, known as 'Male 7', scent marking
Fortunately, the subspecies gained protection, and with anti-poaching and other conservation efforts, was able to recover. The population in Russia is currently between 400 and 500 individuals and has remained relatively stable throughout the past decade.
A deer walks past the marked tree and so gets photographed
The camera-trap method can yield reliable results, but it is rarely used in Russia, because the tigers there have far larger home ranges than most, due to the temperate climate which supports a lower prey population than places like India or Nepal.
Another deer walks into shot
In most of their range, Amur tiger densities are low and one would need to travel hundreds of miles to set enough cameras for meaningful data. However, Lazovsky has succeeded in raising deer density and so tigers are relatively thick on the ground too.
Previously known male Amur tiger, known as 'Male 4', checking a scent-marked rock
Monitoring trends in the Amur tiger poulation in the reserve is of limited use unless actions are taken in response to its findings. The team are in regular touch with the Phoenix anti-poaching unit, also supported by ZSL through 21st Century Tiger, so that its activities can be targeted towards any problem areas.
Lazovsky is also home to Amur leopard cats, like this one, and many other endangered species
No one reserve is large enough for a viable poulation of tigers, and in fact the Amur tiger ranges over an enormous area of land only a proportion of which is protected.
'Male 4' checking a scent-marking tree
Human density is low in the region, the habitat is not yet fragmented, and some of the ways humans use the land can be comptatible with tiger conservation, making Russia one of the tiger's best bets for the future in global terms.
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