Where’s Mum? Search for tigress as three lonely Amur cubs are filmed on road

The healthy-looking cubs were filmed on a snowy road in Primorsky Krai by a driver who then shared the video with the region’s Amur tiger experts.

Their exact location has not been disclosed to protect them from poachers. 

The cubs did not seem to be scared of a man who filmed them as they sat on the road and then slowly made their way into the woods. 

Experts from several Amur Tiger conservation centres in the Far East of Russia have said unanimously that the cubs will not survive alone this winter if their mother has been killed. 

‘They are much too young to get through the winter on their own’, said specialists of the Amur Tiger centre outside Vladivostok. 

Specialists of local hunting watchdog are in the area checking for the mother’s tigress. 

Should she not be found, the cubs will have to be caught and cared for. 

There is no information about the mother yet.

Usually families with such big litters are closely watched with each tigress named to help the monitoring. When a mother tigresses is away hunting, she leaves cubs in a quiet place far from roads. 

A pair of skinned paws of a grown-up Amur tiger was stopped on Russia's border with China. Picture: FSB Russia

 Recently a pair of chopped and skinned paws of an Amur Tiger were stopped by FSB at Russian border with China. 

The poachers were detained, they explained that the cargo which also had dozens of chopped Himalayan bear paws was supposed to be used for either medicinal or culinary purposes. 

There are less than 600 Siberian - or Amur - tigers living in the wild in their native habitat in eastern Russia.

The species was hunted close to extinction by poachers but is now making a comeback.