Wild tigers are once again all set to roam the vast landscapes of Kazakhstan's Ile-Balkhash State Nature Reserve after decades. Located in the Almaty and Balkhash regions, this reserve spans over 4,150 square kilometres and has undergone extensive restoration to bring back the felines to its delta ecosystem.
Two captive Amur tigers, called Bodhana and Kuma, were relocated from the Stichting Leeuw big cat sanctuary in the Netherlands to the reserve. Conservationists hope these tigers will produce the first wild cubs in Kazakhstan since the 1950s, when hunting and habitat loss led to the extinction of tigers in the Caspian region, according to a CNN report.
Stuart Chapman, head of World Wildlife Fund's Tigers Alive Initiative, said, “These tigers were selected because they're very similar to what would have been found in the Caspian region (before their extinction).” The Amur tigers, native to Russia's Far East, are well-suited to the region's extreme climate.
Transporting the tigers was a complex operation, involving a journey across land and air from the Netherlands to Kazakhstan. “Tigers have been translocated within country boundaries, and zoo tigers cross international borders all the time, but that's for them to remain in captivity. This is the first time that tigers have crossed international borders to reintroduce them into the wild,” said Chapman.
Kazakhstan announced its tiger reintroduction plan in 2010, and since then, the reserve has worked to restore local wildlife populations, including the endangered Bukhara deer and the Kulan, a species of wild ass. The WWF and the United Nations Development Program supported the project with reintroduction initiatives and strict hunting regulations, allowing prey populations to rebound.
To prepare for their release, Bodhana and Kuma were conditioned to hunt within an enclosure and underwent quarantine checks. They were released into a semi-natural area within the reserve this month, where conservationists hope they will breed. “Any cubs produced will stay with the mother. The male will be removed from the enclosure once the female gives birth,” said Chapman, explaining that cubs will later undergo a rewilding process with no human interaction. Upon release, the young tigers will be monitored via radio collars.
The reserve aims to gradually increase the big cat population to 50 wild tigers by 2035. Managing potential conflicts with local human populations will also be a key focus, as four villages with around 6,000 residents lie on the reserve's outskirts. Conservationists have put education and compensation schemes in place, and radio collars on the tigers will help create an early warning system, modelled after successful programmes in India.
