WWF Russia is completing a project to improve the infrastructure of the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve, where a large-scale counting of the Siberian tiger population will take place in February 2015. The project has been supported by EXNESS.
"The project is very timely. Thanks to the paths that have been cut out and the new huts, the reserve's inspectors will be able to better count the Siberian tigers, emphasized Pavel Fomenko, the biodiversity preservation project coordinator for WWF Russia's Amur office.
As part of the project at the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve, which is located in the Primorsky Krai, four taiga winter huts have been built for the reserve's inspectors and research personnel to stay in. There are approximately 70 huts throughout the entire protected area, but some of them are slowly becoming unusable. Additionally, more than 150 km out of the reserve's 560 km of trails were cleared. This will ease the movements of research personnel and conservation inspectors, who monitor the animals, perform counts, and patrol the area.
"The reserve's inspectors and research personnel are in the field, pulled away from home, for days at a time. The cozy and beautiful shelters will help them relax after working hard in the forest", said Dmitriy Gorshkov, director of the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve.
The Sikhote-Alin State Biosphere Reserve consists of 401,428 ha, with a 67,660 ha protected zone. At present, this is one of the places still inhabited by the Siberian tiger, rare predators that have been entered into Russia's Red Book. The Siberian tiger is the world's largest tiger adapted to living in snow. This year a large-scale counting, which takes place once a decade, will be performed in all of the animal's habitats. The counting will also take place within the reserve.