The second of three rare tigers set free by Russian President Vladimir Putin was found wandering around the Sino-Russian border following after another reportedly roamed into China, an insider told Xinhua on Friday.
The Siberian tiger, Ilona, was observed at a venue less than five km from the Heilongjiang River along the Sino-Russian border, said Eugene Simonov, coordinator with Rivers without Boundaries Coalition, a multinational non-governmental organization.
Simonov said he received a message from Russia on Thursday morning and the tiger, tagged with a tracking device, was found moving towards China for three days prior.
It remains unclear whether Ilona has followed the footsteps of Kuzya, another Siberian tiger that has allegedly roamed into China earlier this month after it was released into the wild, along with Ilona and Borya, by Putin in May.
In his experience, Simonov said, if Ilona crosses the border, it would reach somewhere with more humans but less food compared with the shelter of Kuzya that was observed at the Taipinggou nature reserve in Luobei County in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.
Possible traps are a major danger for Kuzya, he said. Chen Zhigang, director of the nature reserve said on Thursday they had dispatched personnel to remove traps that may exist and set up more than 60 cameras in the hope of capturing its image.
Simonov said parties in the region should have a contingency plan as soon as possible in case the tiger is trapped.