ASTANA, May 28. /TASS/. The four Amur tigers that have been brought to Kazakhstan are doing well as all conditions were created for them to adapt to the new environment, Daniyar Turgambayev, chairman of the Forestry and Wildlife Committee at the Kazakh Ministry of Ecology, said.
"An initial veterinary check-up showed that the tigers are in good health. They will now be kept under observation," he noted.
"We’ll see how the second phase of the program progresses, how they adjust to their surroundings and how they behave," the official added. "All the necessary infrastructure is now in place here, above all a sufficient population of hoofed animals, which are the main prey of the tiger," he specified.
On May 28, the presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan, Vladimir Putin and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, watched a video presentation about the four Amur tigers that Moscow had gifted to Astana. They were brought to Kazakhstan earlier in the month and are currently staying at the Ile-Balkhash Natural Reserve. Astana received two adult tigers and two cubs. After they are released from quarantine, the two adult tigers will be able to be released into the wild, but it will take the cubs another year to be prepared for that.
Amur tigers are the closest relatives of Caspian tigers, which used to inhabit Central Asia. In Kazakhstan, they went extinct by 1948. The country expects that the special program will help revive their population.