VLADIVOSTOK, December 18. /TASS/. An Amur tiger has died after a car collided with it on a highway in the Primorsky Region, in the Russian Far East, with the female driver being taken to a medical facility, the regional police press service reported.
"At the 155th kilometer of the Artem-Nakhodka-Vostochny Port highway, a tiger unexpectedly jumped from the roadside onto the roadway. It has been preliminarily established that a 34-year-old woman was driving a foreign car from Nakhodka towards the Vrangely microdistrict. As a result of the accident, the female driver was injured. She has been taken to a medical facility. The animal died at the scene," the press service said.
It was specified that the driver has 16 years of driving experience. An investigation into the accident is underway.
The Amur tiger is the largest tiger subspecies. It is listed in the Red List of Threatened Species. In the mid-20th century, uncontrolled hunting of Amur tigers put them on the brink of extinction. In 2013, at the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Amur Tiger Center was created to protect and expand the habitats of these predators. Over the past 20 years, the number of Amur tigers has increased from 450 to 750.