Celebration of Day of the Tiger in Vladivostok on September 28 was as huge as never before. According to the organizers, it was attended by about 10 thousand people. This is not surprising, since over time the holiday has gained more and more popularity and this year it was held for the 15th time. Following the trend, National Park “Land of the Leopard” has also well prepared for Day of the Tiger: about 200 from «Land of the leopard» formed a column.
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The idea of environmental festival in honor of the Amur tiger, which is the symbol of Primorsky Krai and Vladivostok originated in 2000. Among the initiators of the festival are: a famous writer-hunter Vladimir Troinin and Russian and international environmental organizations. In 2001, by the Head of the Administration of Vladivostok the festival was given the status of an official city holiday, and in later years it was regularly held in the capital of Primorye.
The main aim of the festival is to draw public attention to the problem of conservation of wildlife, including the Amur tiger. Being in the Red Book, today the Amur tiger is one of the most rare representatives of the world’s fauna. The main part of its population lives in the south of the Russian Far East – Khabarovsky Krai and Primorye. According to the latest census, there are about 500 tigers in our country.
Among those who represented “Land of the Leopard” in the procession were members and friends of the National Park – volunteers from movement “Your Footprint», students from the professional college and from Student Council of School of Economics and Management, Far Eastern Federal University. They marched from Pokrovsky park to the Central square of Vladivostok with colored balloons and big banners saying: «Land of the Leopard cat brotherhood».
“Land of the Leopard” is a unique place, because only here you can meet all the rare cats of this region – the Amur tiger, the Amur leopard, the Far Eastern forest cat and even the trot, which again has been recently seen in the National Park, – says head of the National Park Department of environmental education Valentina Vysotskaya. – According to the last census, at least 23 tigers live in the Park and only if we care about the safety of the environment in general we can preserve this unique cat brotherhood».
Confirming the words about the brotherhood of the rare cats, volunteers of the «Your footprint» movement welcomed visitors at the pavilion of the national park in the Central square in the costumes of the tiger and the leopard. Residents and guests of Vladivostok gladly took pictures with “cats”, but especially popular was the makeup. Dozens of people wanted to become a tiger or a leopard were standing in line.
For those who wanted to test their knowledge about the rarest cats of Primorye, volunteers prepared a quiz. For correct answers participants received souvenirs from «Land of the Leopard».
Yet the main gifts of the holiday were a good mood and a sense of unity in the preservation of unique cats.
Photo: Press office of the National Park “Land of the Leopard”