Siberian tiger cub Kuzya, released into the wild by Russian president Vladimir Putin earlier this year, has swum across the Amur River and defected to the People's Republic of China.
Putin released Kuzya, then 19 months old, and two other cubs on May 22 in a remote area of the Amur region. Ecologists now worry for Kuzya's safety in the more densely populated and agricultural Heilongjiang province, where the tiger might be shot for spooking farm animals.
Vasiliy Gorobeiko, deputy head of natural resources management in the Jewish Autonomous Republic, said that "China will be informed about President Putin's tiger via Foreign Affairs ministry channels but time is needed for this information to reach local ecologists, and before then the tiger may well alarm the local villagers and may even suffer."
The two other tigers released by Putin, Borya and Llona, Kuzya's brother, have stayed true to the motherland and remain on Russian soil.
"We can only hope that Kuzya changes his mind and swims back to Russia as soon as possible, while the river is not iced over," newspaper Novaya Gazeta said.
0 User Comments