Wildlife researchers have produced photographic evidence that Siberian tigers have returned to the Greater Hinggan Mountains in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province thanks to the country's unremitting ecological conservation efforts.

Photographs of an adult tigress were captured by infrared cameras in the mountainous area and uncovered on May 30 when a research team sorted the information collected by the cameras.

Siberian tigers were widely distributed in northeast China at the beginning of the 20th century, with the Greater Hinggan Mountains as one of their primary habitats. However, a survey of rare and precious wild animal resources in Heilongjiang Province conducted from 1974 to 1976 indicated that the rare species had altogether disappeared from the area.

On December 29, 2021, the paw prints of a Siberian tiger were found in the Arctic Village National Nature Reserve in the Greater Hinggan Mountains by local researchers during a field survey. Since then, a team led by Zhou Shaochun, director of the biodiversity center at Heilongjiang Wildlife Institute, has been authorized by the Provincial Forestry and Grassland Administration to monitor the species' population in the area.

During their year-long tracking of Siberian tigers, the team found important indicators such as paw prints, reclining tracks and feces. They installed several infrared cameras in the mountains in December 2022 and finally produced infrared photographs of a Siberian tiger in late May this year.

"For the overall protection of Siberian tigers in China, we must build an ecological corridor to achieve integrated protection for the tigers in these scattered habitats, which will be conducive to individual exchanges between different habitats and promote the restoration of the Siberian tiger population in China," Zhou advised.

Siberian tigers, also known as Amur or Manchurian tigers, are one of the most endangered animals in the world. They mainly live in eastern Russia, northeast China and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula.

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