No lunch today! Rescued Amur tigress flips in the air and falls on her back as she misses prey

Sanda the Amur cub was rescued at the end of May after spending three weeks near a village in the Far East of Russia, as if begging for human help.

Experts from the regional Hunting Surveillance department hoped that mother tigress would appear, but after lengthy air and land monitoring they concluded that the cub was orphaned, sick and needed help. 

She was put into the care of Russia’s two leading Amur tiger centres, and has since shown remarkably quick recovery as she started to eat and take water. 

Her unusually tame behaviour at the presence of humans - the tigress didn’t try to hide and was not aggressive - has also started to change. 

The new videos released by Amur Tiger Centre show that the rare cub, now 11 months old, is progressing in mastering hunting skills. 

At least two of her attempts flop: she somersaults in the air and falls on her back as a young boar rips past her in the first video filmed by a CCTV camera in the rehabilitation centre. 

The second shows Sanda jumping out of the bushes, but missing again as another boar escapes her claws. 

‘As you can see even tigers can miss! Specially when they are still young and don’t have enough experience. 

‘On average only one out of five hunts ends with a meal, and a price of every mistake is very high. This is why one of our top priorities is to teach predators to hunt,’ said the Centre in the comment to the video. 

No lunch today! Rescued Amur tigress cub flips in the air and thuds on her back as she misses prey. Video: Amur Tiger Centre

 
The Amur tiger is the world’s largest big cat. 

About 600 grown up animals - 95% of the world population - live in Primorsky Krai, Khabarovsk regions, Amur region and the Jewish Autonomous region in the Far East of Russia. 

Some Amur tigers live in China and in North Korea. 

The next tiger census in Russia will be held in winter 2021-2022. 

Sanda pictured at the Amur Tiger Centre in the Far East of Russia looking a lot healthier weeks after she was rescued. Pictures: Amur Tiger Centre

SUPPORT THE TEAM THAT HELPS ENDANGERED AMUR TIGERS IN RUSSIA AND SUCCESSFULLY REINTRODUCES THEM BACK TO NATURE  

The team of PRNCO 'Tiger Center' have rehabilitated 7 tigers and 1 African lion.

Of them, 6 tigers were released into their natural habitat. Five became fully adapted to life in the wild.

The first female Zolushka (Cinderella), which had passed the full course of rehabilitation, was observed with two cubs in December 2015. The tigers Svetlaya (Bright) and Boris, released in 2014, formed a couple. 

The Centre was founded September 19, 2012.