New patrols to give Cinderella special security protection 

A tigress called Zolushka -  or Cinderella in Russian - was orphaned when poachers shot her mother in 2012, before being released back into the wild where she recently gave birth to two healthy offspring, as we reported recently. 

Now there is concern of history repeating itself and the Center Amur Tiger and WWF Russia have teamed up with nature reserve Bastak in the Jewish Autonomous Region to offer 'individual protection' to the big cat and her cubs. 

An all terrain vehicle and a snowmobile have been deployed to ensure the safety of the tiger family. 

WWF-Russia's Amur branch bought winter tent and satellite phone needed for monitoring the tigers in the northern part of the reserve, where there are no residential buildings or mobile networks. 

Conservation specialist Pavel Fomenko said: 'Individual protection of broods of rare animals is a common practice for the WWF. That's what we did in the southwest of Primorsky region, when we rescued young Amur leopard cubs from poachers, the same method is used now to ensure the safety of the tiger family in Bastak reserve.'

He called on locals in the Jewish Autonomous Region - where the tigers are now living - to help protect the new cubs and their mother. 

'Only with the understanding of local residents will be possible to solve the main problem - to allow the cubs to grow safely and, most importantly, to live in this isolated territory in the future.' 

The cubs were born after the coupling of Cinderella with tiger Zaventy.

The director of Bastak reserve, Alexander Kalinin, said: 'Since tigress Cinderella found her home here, we watched her first with the help of GPS-collars, then footsteps in the snow, and in the last year and a half with the help of camera traps. In total, we received more than one thousand pictures of Cinderella and tiger Zavetny, with whom as we thought, the tigress could create a pair. And so it happened. 

'Looking through the pictures in September-October this year, we assumed that Cinderella recently became a mother. On 7 December, we got the first pictures of the tigress with two cubs. Now the most important thing for us is to ensure their reliable protection. So we are strengthening patrolling the northern part of the reserve.'

There are now six tigers in the Jewish Autonomous Region, part of a population of around 500 or so Amur or Siberian tigers living in the wild.