In a heartwarming story of love and conservation, two Amur tigers, Boris and Svetlaya, have been reunited in the Russian wilderness after being separated by almost 200 kilometers. Boris and Svetlaya were rescued as orphans from the Sikhote-Alin Mountains in 2012 and grew up together in a conservation program with minimal human contact. The aim was to release them back into the wild at 18 months of age, which was successfully done in 2014 in the Pri-Amur region, a historic habitat for Amur tigers, the New York Times reported.
As part of the conservation project, the tigers were tracked and separated by hundreds of kilometers to promote the spread of their population. However, Boris had other plans. Conservationists were intrigued when they discovered that Boris was exhibiting unusual movement patterns. Unlike typical tigers, which tend to roam within a specific territory, Boris moved in a remarkably straight line. In a stunning show of determination, Boris traveled an incredible 200km for almost three years to reunite with Svetlaya. Six months later, their love story culminated in the birth of a litter of cubs.
See the photo here:
If humans can go miles for love, so can tigers 😀
Two orphaned, unrelated Amur tiger cubs, Boris and Svetlaya, were rescued as vulnerable babies in Russia’s Sikhote-Alin Mountains. Raised together in a semi-wild environment, scientists have prepared them for life in the wilderness,… pic.twitter.com/RHlSiL6nLe— Supriya Sahu IAS (@supriyasahuias) December 15, 2024
Conservationists hope the love story between Boris and Svetlaya could point to a new, successful chapter in tiger repopulation.
“The data showed that orphaned cubs, raised in captivity and released, were as good as wild tigers at hunting, targeting the same types of wild prey and very rarely killing livestock,” said Dale Miquelle, lead author of the Wildlife Conservation Society. (WCS).
“This success shows that tigers that are properly isolated from people and given the opportunity to learn to hunt can be successfully released back into the wild. But this process requires great caution and attention to detail when preparing cubs for this journey,” Miquelle added. .
The Siberian tiger, also known as the Amur tiger, is a majestic and powerful subspecies of tiger native to the Russian Far East. Unfortunately, due to several threats such as habitat loss, poaching and human-tiger conflict, the Siberian tiger is listed as Endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.