How to revive the Turanian tiger in Central Asia?
Speaking at a meeting of the government of Kazakhstan on Tuesday, Vice Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yerlan Nysanbayev told that the natural reserve "Ile-Balkhash" and the national park "Tarbagatay" will be created in the country next year.
"We will start together with the World Wildlife Fund to implement a project on the reintroduction of the Turanian tiger," Sputnik Kazakhstan quoted.
The Turanian tiger, or Transcaucasian tiger, or the Caspian tiger is an extinct subspecies of tigers inhabiting Central Asia, northern Iran and the Caucasus.
In the thirties of the twentieth century, tigers lived on the banks of the Amu Darya in the Tigrovaya Balka reserve in Tajikistan near the border with Afghanistan. The most documented cases of the appearance of tigers in the territory of Soviet Asia were recorded in the late forties and early 1950s.
On the territory of Turkmenistan, the last time a tiger appeared was in the Kopetdag mountains near the border with Iran - this case was documented on January 10, 1954.
How do you plan to revive the Turanian tiger in Kazakhstan?
In total, the World Wildlife Fund will allocate 10 million euros for the project. Annually, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Kazakhstan will allocate an additional 200 thousand dollars for the implementation of the project. The ultimate goal is to bring the first Amur tigers (the next of kin of the extinct Turanian tigers) to the territory of the reservation in 2025-2027. But this will happen after building the entire eco-infrastructure, the habitat for this species of animals. The program will restore the vast floodplain forests as part of the historic range of the tiger. The reintroduction program also includes the restoration of the kulan and tugai deer populations that disappeared from this area due to loss of habitat and poaching.
The number of tigers in 50 years on the territory of Kazakhstan should be 150-180 predators.
