BEIJING
A wild Siberian tiger has reportedly attacked a calf in a village in northeast China, weeks after one of the big cats released by Russia's president was reported to have been detected in the area.
Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported Thursday that a resident of Heilongjiang Province had spotted the tiger on his farm and concluded that it had killed and eaten a calf in the area a day earlier.
Jiang Guangshun, the deputy director of the feline animal research center under China's State Forestry Administration, said that analysis of footprints and the dead calf had led researchers to believe the predator to be a young wild Siberian.
Earlier this month, Xinhua reported that "Kuzya" -- one of three tigers tagged with a tracking device that Vladimir Putin freed into Russia's wild last May -- had been detected moving southward away from Russia.
It quoted Eugene Simonov, coordinator of multinational NGO Rivers without Boundaries Coalition, as saying, "We have to prepare ourselves that Kuzya will spend winter in China.”
“The Russian experts have called for local Chinese not to feed the tiger with any poultry, which is vital to keep its wild survival ability," added Simonov, who is part of a joint program to find the animal.
Siberian tiger experts have traveled to the forests of northeastern Heilongjiang province after hair, feces and tracks thought to belong to Kuzya were found in the Lesser Hinggan Mountain area.
Jiang Guangshu, executive deputy chief of felid research at China’s forestry administration, has said that they regularly receive updated findings from Russia on the tiger.
"The tiger received special training before being released. It has been kept away from human beings,” Xinhua quoted him as saying. “The food it needs, such as wild boars and rabbits, can all be found in the area where it is staying."
Chen Zhigang, director of Taipinggou nature reserve in Heilongjiang, said personnel were removing any traps in the area and setting up over 60 cameras to capture an image of Ilona.
Putin has caught international attention with his diverse interactions with a variety of animals -- domestic and exotic.
In 2012, he led a flock of endangered Siberian cranes on a microlite from a bird sanctuary in Yamal ahead of their winter migration to Central Asia, while in 2013, he shook hands with a walrus at the under-construction Primorsky Aquarium during a tour of Russia’s far east.
Later that year, RIA Novosti news agency published a series of photos showing the president rolling in the snow near Moscow with his two dogs, an Akita Inu and a Karakachan.
Ahead of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, he led top officials to a sanctuary where he patted a leopard as it sat on his lap.
Siberians - one of the world's rarest animal species - predominantly exist in eastern Russia, northern Korea and northeast China. Fewer than 500 of them are believed to live in the wild.
Tiger parts have been used in traditional Chinese medicine because of the animal’s strength and mythical power.
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