By The Siberian Times reporter
23 February 2013
Environmentalists rescued the male cub after its
mother apparently died in unexplained circumstances.
The cub was trying to hunt in the taiga but due to
inexperience was doomed to failure. Had wildlife specialists not
intervened, he was likely to have died.
'The tiger cub is very active and put up a fight,'
said Vladimir Vasilyev, head of the the Primorye wildlife protection
service.
It took three days to track him.
The cub will now go to a rehabilitation centre
before being released back into the wild.
Experts think the cub is the brother of a
six-month-old tigress rescued from a poachers' trap ten days earlier in a
nearby location.
She was badly injured by the trap and needed
surgery in Arsenyev town to remove two claws after suffering severe damage to
her paw. She was said to be in a 'weak' condition but is now undergoing rehabilitation
in Ussuriysk.
It was not immediately clear why the mother had
died, but poaching continues to be a threat despite huge efforts from the
Russian and Chinese governments along with voluntary wildlife groups to save
the endangered species. Estimates suggest around 450 of the creatures
remain in the wild.
But up to 50 Amur tigers are slaughtered illegally
by poachers each year despite efforts to crackdown on hunting. The species
remain on the endangered list.
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