The Amur Tiger ecological center has offered a 150,000-ruble ($2,343) prize for any reliable information that helps find the poachers who shot dead an Amur tiger cub in Russia's far eastern Khabarovsk region, the TASS news agency reported Friday.
The dead cub was found by tourists who passed by on Aug. 1, but when they returned to the spot later that day, the body had been removed, the report said. Ecologists say the cub was probably 6-8 months old.
"It seems a tigress with her 6-8-month-old cub or several cubs was walking along a timber-transport road," Sergei Aramilyov, director of Primorye regional branch of the center, was cited by TASS as saying Friday. "When a vehicle appeared, the cub must have lingered on the road for some reason, and became the victim of poachers," he said.
The Amur tiger is a dying breed listed in Russia's International Red Book of animals. According to this year's data, there are as few as 480-540 of them left, TASS reported. Ninety percent of them live in the Primorye and Khabarovsk regions of Russia's Far East.
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