Cinderella gives birth to two healthy children!

The tigress called Zolushka -  Cinderella in Russian - was orphaned when poachers shot her mother in 2012, before being released back into the wild after careful rehabilitation in 2013. The sighting of her with two healthy offspring has delighted experts from the  International Fund for Animal Welfare and partner organisations which were involved in the rehabilitation programme for endangered Amur tigers.

'We are overjoyed with the news of Zolushka becoming a mother to two healthy cubs,' said Masha Vorontsova, IFAW Russia Director. This is what we've all been hoping for since her release in 2013. This shows that she has fully adapted to a life in the wild and is able to successfully hunt, breed and now raise a new generation of Amur tigers.'

Watch Cinderella's cubs playing in the snow 

Scientists have been monitoring Zolushka since her release and she was spotted on motion-sensing cameras at the reserve in the Russian Far East.

She was fitted with a satellite and radio collar, and rangers used a combination of field tracking and motion-sensing remote cameras to monitor her condition and movements.

This ground-breaking animal welfare and conservation effort was jointly carried out by IFAW, the Phoenix Fund, Special Inspection Tiger, A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

In May and June last year, IFAW and its partners collaborated once again to release another five Amur tigers back to the wild.

This was the largest such release in history. 

Experts say there are only 500 or so of the Amur - or Siberian tiger - remaining in the wild.