ASTANA, May 28 /TASS/. In addition to the four Amur tigers already delivered from Russia, Kazakhstan expects to receive more of the predators after the animals already brought in become adapted to their new environment, Danyar Turgambayev, chairman of the Committee on Forestry and Wildlife at Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Ecology, said.

"As these tigers settle in, more of them will be brought in," Turgambayev said, according to comments provided to a TASS correspondent by the press service of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Ecology.

"The reintroduction program will continue. It is designed to be long-term, spanning 35 to 40 years," the committee head noted. He did not specify where the additional tigers would come from.

On May 28, following talks in Astana during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to Kazakhstan, Putin and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev watched a video presentation about the four Amur tigers Moscow had gifted to Astana. The animals were transferred to Kazakhstan in May and are currently living in the Ile-Balkhash Nature Reserve.

Astana received two adult tigers - a three-year-old male and a female - as well as two eight-month-old cubs of different sexes. The cubs were orphaned and rescued by volunteers during the winter. They are currently in quarantine.

In two months, the adult tigers are expected to be ready for release into the wild, while the cubs will require another year of preparation. The animals were flown from Khabarovsk to Almaty and then transported by helicopter to Ile-Balkhash.

Amur tigers are the closest relatives of the Caspian tigers, which once inhabited Central Asia and became extinct in Kazakhstan by 1948. Through this program, the republic hopes to restore the species population.