The journey of a tiger from danger to safety

Experts from the Amur Tiger Center are closely watching an Amur wild tiger placed back in the Russian forest in 2017. This 300-pound male tiger wandered to the streets of Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, which attracted the attention of the international media and was named Vladik.

Now, Vladik, with a positioning collar, is released into the remote forested Bikin National Park in Russia; experts will continue to observe its whereabouts.

The care of Vladik until its final release became an example of international cooperation in the protection of the endangered Amur tiger, often referred to as the Siberian tiger.

Some US institutions have been working with Russian research institutes, parliamentarians and communities to strengthen anti-poaching legislation, ban illegal logging, increase the number of tiger prey, and promote the dangers of tigers to the public.

This effort is paying off. Through decades of protection and anti-poaching measures, the Amur Tigers in the Russian Far East increased to 540, making it the largest number of tigers living in a series of regions in the world.

According to the World Wildlife Fund , the number of Amur tigers was reduced to only about 40 at that time, and hunting activities in all directions were likely to exterminate them. However, since the 1940s, the Amur Tiger has gradually come back to life. Russia is the first country to give tigers full protection.

Tigers are still facing threats from human activities in the Russian Far East, including urban expansion and illegal logging. Poaching also poses a serious threat to the Amur Tiger. People take tiger skins, tiger teeth and tiger bones to illegal wildlife markets for trading.

However, the United States and Russia are working together to reduce these threats:

• The Siberian Tiger Project of the Wildlife Conservation Society provides instruments and equipment for experts in Russia to conduct tiger health analysis, site transfer and supervision.
• WWF worked with the Russian government and Russian tiger experts to help establish a networked protected area along the Russian-Chinese border and conduct anti-poaching campaigns.

Russia is a staunch supporter of tiger protection. For example, in 2010, Russian President Vladimir Putin presided over the International Tiger Summit, and 13 countries with tiger habitats promised to double the number of tigers in the world by 2022.

For now, Vladik has recently traveled nearly 400 miles south of Bikin National Park .  Experts speculate that it left because it was too crowded there, and then turned around and moved to the middle of the Sikhote-Alin mountain range in southeastern Russia. Wildlife protectors everywhere are watching its whereabouts.

March 3 is World Wildlife Day (World Wildlife Day). Learn how you can help them.