Curious Tiger Cubs in Primorye Crash-Test Camera Trap

Кадр из видео с фотоловушки, установленной в национальном парке "Земля леопарда"

The scientists of the “Land of the Leopard” National Park in Primorye received a video showing the "massacre" of a camera trap committed by Siberian tiger cubs. The cubs who settled down for the night with their mother became interested in an unfamiliar object and decided to play with it. The result is charming footage illustrating the behavior of Siberian tiger cubs.

In February, the “Land of the Leopard” Science Department performed a routine inspection of the camera traps and noticed that one of the cameras, previously fixed to a tree, was lying on the ground five meters from the trunk. The strap was torn into small parts, but the camera trap itself worked, although the motion sensor was punctured and required repair.

The video from the camera explained why it ended up on the ground. The camera trap had fallen prey to the Siberian tiger cubs. They plucked it from the tree to play. During the game, the cubs dragged and turned the camera so that it was filming everything around.

"This behavior is typical for cubs that are not yet one year old. At this age, they tend to show curiosity and explore the world around them. And the camera trap has become an incentive for the cub’s play behavior, who is interested in everything that stands out among the usual landscape," reported the press service of the national park.

It should be noted that the “Land of the Leopard” has been using photomonitoring for eight years now. The protected areas are covered by a network of 400 camera traps – automatic forest cameras that take pictures and record videos of animals. The data obtained in this way provides scientists with valuable information about the Red Data Book species, in particular about the Amur leopard and Siberian tiger.

The Amur tiger is one of the largest land-based predators on our planet, the largest subspecies of the tiger in the world. The weight of an adult male is about 185 kg, body length is 220 cm. About 520 Amur tigers have been recorded in the world. 95% of the entire population lives in the Russian Far East and 5% in China and North Korea. In 1947, the Amur tiger was taken under protection – hunting for it was completely prohibited in the USSR. Since 2010, the Russian Geographical Society has supported the Amur Tiger project.