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By Damien Sharkov
Staff Writer
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One of Putin's Siberian tigers has turned his back on a potential mate, leaving her for greener pastures in another part of the country, Russian news agency Interfax reported.
Boris is one of five Amur Siberian tigers who were taken into care in 2013 as part of conservation efforts to protect the species from going extinct, a project which Russian president Vladimir Putin has been personally involved in. All of them were subsequently released into the wild, and Putin was even present when Boris was released in 2014, along with two females Kuzya and Ilona.
However, according to Nikolay Stepanov, the deputy head of the wildlife protection department in the Amur area, Boris has wandered away from the Hinganskiy national wildlife park, where he and female tiger Ilona live. He reportedly swam across the river Bureya earlier this month and has since continued in his journey, moving further away from the tigress.
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"After that he started heading north west and he is now somewhere in the Oktyabrsky region. He appears to be moving out of the Hinganskiy park in the region where Ilona is," Stepanov said.
To make matters worse Stepanov says Ilona had been trying to start a family, as she had been wandering the Hinganskiy park, as cameras in the reserve recorded her marking the trees to notify a potential mate that she is there. The Russian press has jumped to lament the "abandoned bride-to-be", with a slight nod to Putin's own marriage which ended in 2013.
However, while Putin has since thrived as a singleton, having been hailed as Russia's most eligible bachelor by celebrity magazine Tayny Zvyezd shortly after his divorce and telling Russians he had enough love in his life last year, conservationists are still hoping Boris and Ilona will cross paths in the future.
"Either way it is tough to predict which route the tigers will choose in future," Stepanov said. "There is a chance they will meet again still."
Meanwhile locals in the Oktyabursky and nearby Zavitinskiy regions have been warned about Boris's arrival in their woods. They have been told not to bring dogs with them if they are trekking through the parts where the tiger may be so as not to provoke him.
Locals have also been warned to stay away from any animal remains which could attract Boris when he is looking for food.
Putin's Amur tigers have grown infamous since their release into the wild in 2014 and they have crossed into China on two separate occasions. Last November tiger Ustin reportedly killed several goats in northeast China and in October tigress Kuzya was also alleged to have gone on a killing spree in China, attacking a hen farm. Video of Kuzya devouring a domestic dog also emerged in December, however the tracker with which Kuzya has been fitted suggests she has since returned to Russia.
The Amur tigers are an endangered species as poaching remains a huge threat to their survival. According to the World Wildlife Fund only 40 Amur tigers remained in existence in 1940, but thanks to conservation efforts since then their number has now increased tenfold.
Russia has been involved in conservation efforts with the Amur tiger since 2010, sporadically homing and feeding cubs while they are young and releasing them into the wild once they have learned how to hunt.
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