Putin’s tiger finds another "girlfriend"

Boris the tiger who was released into the wilds of Russia’s Far East personally by President Vladimir Putin seems to have found a new "girlfriend" as pictures taken by trail cameras indicate, the Center for Rehabilitation and Reintroduction of Tigers and Other Rare Animals (Tiger Center) said on its Facebook account on Monday.

Six orphaned young Amur tigers were released into the wild in the Russian Far East after a rehabilitation course at the Tiger Center in 2013-2014. Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in one of such operations and set free a couple of tigers.

"When inspecting trail cameras we found out one interesting thing: tigress Philippa’s territory had been recently visited by Boris who we have been keeping a close eye on. The intervals between the shots of the tigers taken by the trail camera are rather small - within one week. It indicates that the probability of their encounter is rather high," the Center wrote.

Sergei Aramilev, director of the Amur Tiger Center, a non-profit organization for the study and preservation of the Amur tiger population, told TASS that no one can be 100% sure that Boris and Philippa have already mated as such things typically are never caught on camera. However, in his words, the tigers are sure to know about each other. Moreover, Philippa has already reached sexual maturity, so the chances that the two have already mated are high.

"Boris has already had ‘romantic’ relation with tigress Sveltaya who gave birth to their cubs. By now, the cubs are about to leave their mom. When we released Philippa we knew that it is Boris’ territory and they surely got to get well. Their encounter was a matter of time as their territories overlap. Trail cameras have only confirmed what we hoped for from the very beginning," he said.

Amur tigers, also called Siberian tigers, live primarily in Russia’s Far Eastern Primorsky Territory. These tigers are included in the Red List of Endangered Species. As of today, some 540 Amur tigers reportedly live in the wilds of Russia.