How it all began
The association's founder, Jura Hlasensky, spent two weeks on an internship in Primorsky Krai in 2018. When he witnessed firsthand the importance of the rescue station and the difficult conditions of its operation, he decided to start supporting local conservationists and protecting the Amur tiger subspecies.
His idea and passion resonated with people and gave rise to our association. Since then, many activities have taken place. The most important is Run for Tigers. Additionally, the International Tiger Day celebration takes place at Hodonin Zoo on July 29. Both events include educational activities as well as the sale of promotional items. Proceeds from the sale of items, together with entry fees from the Run, support from Zoo Hodonin, and other voluntary contributions, went directly to the rescue station.
TRNGO Tiger Center
The main goal of our activities until Russia's invasion of Ukraine was to help the interregional public organization TRNGO Tiger Center. It is a rescue station for wildlife in Russia's Far East, many of which are listed in the Red Book of Endangered Species.
Depending on the season, they often care for several dozen animals. They care for injured birds and orphaned chicks. Specifically among raptors, these are often owls, falcons, eagles; among cranes, Daurian and red-crowned cranes. Repeatedly, Far Eastern storks as well.
Rescue of big cats
Among big cats, these are primarily Asiatic black bears, which are very often poached due to demand for their body parts in nearby China for traditional Chinese medicine products. Orphaned bear cubs are left behind after their parents are poached, and they end up at the rescue station. In 2020 alone, they raised 19 to adulthood in a successful repatriation program, returning 100% of them to the wild.
Wild cats and lynx also appear here, both adult individuals recovering from injuries and orphaned cubs. The most valuable animal charges in their care, however, are Amur tigers and the even rarer Amur leopards. These are again orphaned cubs or injured adults shot by poachers or hit by cars.
Unique repatriation program
Their repatriation program has a uniquely high success rate. This is partly because all animal care is conducted remotely, with no human contact, so the animals' natural fear of humans is preserved.
The facility with enclosures is approximately 2 km from the monitoring center. Contact with animals occurs only when absolutely necessary, with maximum care to ensure the animal does not feel cornered and its fear of humans does not turn into undesirable aggression.
Throughout the entire process, activities are recorded and the predator's behavior is subsequently analyzed. The same applies to feeding, which always involves live animals, evaluating the animal's ability to hunt and thus survive in the wild.
The entire program is truly designed with maximum effort to preserve natural habits. For example, even with a 3-month-old tiger cub that many experts considered impossible to repatriate. However, the opposite proved true, and the tigress is not only back in the wild but already has cubs, completing her return to nature with 100% success.
Other activities
Another activity the rescue station engages in is monitoring the presence of tigers, primarily in Primorsky Krai. Additionally, they work on resolving or participating in the resolution of conflict situations between wildlife and humans.
Last but not least, their activities include public education. This includes talks with people living in regions where tigers live or used to live and are now returning. Working with youth in schools is also an integral part.
Current situation
There are many positive results that accompany their truly well-done work. Everything is part of the Russia visit presentation, which lasts about 90 minutes. At the end of 2021, or early 2022 at the latest, we wanted to visit Primorsky Krai again. However, the visit is currently impossible due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Our support is also suspended, and financial aid is impossible due to the closure of monetary flows from the EU to Russia. We wanted to help local nature through the WWF program in Primorsky Krai. We personally met the program coordinator Pavel Vasiljevich Fomenko. He is an amazing person who has dedicated more than 30 years of his life to nature conservation. He was named a hero of the planet in nature conservation by the New York Times. We hope the situation calms down soon and our collaboration can resume.
Support for Amur tigers is currently suspended due to the Russia-Ukraine military conflict. We believe that nature conservation should be apolitical. However, even if we wanted to help, banking transfers between the EU and the Russian Federation are currently suspended.
