Original subtitles

Deep in the frozen forests of Russia lives a hunter.

It's one of the world's rarest animals.

He's right in there. Right there, less than 300 metres.

More scientists have been to space than have seen it in the wild.

THEY GASP

Now an international team are tracking this elusive predator.

Wow! Tiger!

They're dedicating their lives to protecting it.

He's really struggling, watch out.

In this series, we enter the hidden realm of this legendary big cat.

The Siberian tiger.

My name is Liz Bonnin.

Before I started working in television,

I was a wildlife biologist.

I've studied Bengal tigers in India and Nepal

but the Siberian tiger and its habitat here in the Russian Far East

are completely new to me.

I've been invited to Russia to help a team of scientists.

We're trying to uncover the secret life

of this mysterious and rare big cat.

I've come at a crucial time.

Some scientists believe there could be as few

as 300 Siberian tigers left in the wild.

I've travelled 5,000 miles, across ten time zones,

to reach one of the Earth's last great wildernesses.

I'm heading to a remote base where I'll be meeting the team.

I'm a little bit concerned about the conditions.

It gets to minus 30, minus 40 on a bad stormy day,

and these Russians are tough and they know this place

and they're fast. Hopefully I'll do OK.

HE SPEAKS IN RUSSIAN

The research team is led by Dr Victor Lukarevsky.

He's been tracking tigers here for five years.

All my life is connected with big cats.

Victor believes research holds the key to the future

of this endangered predator.

I am absolutely convinced it is possible to save the tiger.

Joining the team is American biologist, Dr Dale Miquelle,

from the Wildlife Conservation Society.

I've already invested 20 years of my life trying to understand

and save the Siberian tiger.

In recent years the numbers are declining, but we've got

the combined resources of Russians and all kinds of scientists here

to make sure there's a future for this animal in the Russian Far East.

So what's our best tactic? Where shall we start?

I've also brought cameramen with me, including wildlife specialist

Max Hug-Williams.

My role as a wildlife cameraman is really to try

and get any shots of the last remaining Siberian tigers.

There's only a handful of non-Russians who've even seen

these big cats so it's going to be super-tough.

It's been three months since Victor was last here.

He's worried that some of the tigers

in this area may have fallen victim to poachers.

I know that probably the most extraordinary animal on the planet

is in very real danger of becoming extinct here,

so I'm really keen to get to know the people who are trying

to stop that from happening and help them with their research

in any way that I can, but mostly I want to find out

if it's even possible to save the tiger here,

and if enough can be done before it's too late.

Right, come on, Victor. No more talking, here we go.

It's minus 28 this morning, really feeling it.

This cold is so severe everything gets covered in ice.

Even if there's a semblance of heat in this engine,

everything around it still freezes absolutely solid.

The scientists working in these extreme conditions are poorly funded.

Every morning their well-worn vehicles have to be coaxed back to life.

Another small problem in the Russian Far East.

We brought equipment to help the scientists here

capture more information about an animal that's rarely seen.

We're starting our search for Siberian tigers

in Ussuriysk Reserve, Victor's main study area.

In the past, Ussuriysk has been a safe haven for up to eight tigers.

It served as a breeding ground, producing young

that go on to populate the surrounding area.

With poaching on the increase,

Victor doesn't know which tigers are still alive.

Something we hope to help him find out.

Victor, how big is the protected area?

47,000 hectares.

So 470 kilometres squared.

Completely closed to the public for over 80 years,

the reserve is full of tiger prey.

We start our search by driving the reserve's roads.

Tigers like to use them too.

It's all about conserving energy out here and this is an easier road

to travel than in three feet of snow inside the forest.

We're looking for clues that tigers have been here.

Have you seen something?

Oh, my God, there's scratches all over the tree.

Yes, of course.

Hair. Look at all that hair. Tiger hair everywhere!

Siberian tigers mark trees to communicate with their neighbours.

Oh, you can see the mark, right, and it smells, you can still smell it.

But then you look up and inevitably

there's going to be that scratching of the tree

letting other tigers know, "I'm here."

Tigers do not meet face to face very often,

but they interact to such a high level with all of these signs.

It's just so thrilling.

It just shows that they're here, in this forest.

My heart is beating really fast!

It's brilliant news.

One of Victor's tigers is alive.

But which one is it?

How big is that to rub its head that high up?

It's a big cat, it is a big cat to reach that high.

The DNA in these hairs will tell Victor which tiger was here.

The remote cameras we've brought can also help identify individuals

and provide important information about their behaviour.

Where do you think...

you want to put? Yes, yes.

Are you putting the camera trap here? Yes, yes, I think.

On the left, huh?

For Victor, it's really important to get footage

so we're here to just provide camera traps to hopefully get him

evidence of tiger activity here.

The footage could even help him assess

whether the tigers are breeding,

and therefore if there's a future for the vital Ussuriysk population.

We are stuck. I mean, it's too steep

and you know, we're 15 miles from the nearest town,

we've got no sleeping bags or anything and it's minus 25 degrees.

I'm starting to understand how tough these Russian scientists are.

If we can't get this out, we stay here tonight,

that's for sure. What do we need to do?

Jeez!

I nearly got run over!

The car was coming at me in the snow!

Never mind getting stuck overnight! Getting run over!

When we finally get back to the safety of our cabins,

the work isn't over.

Facilities here are basic.

Heating and water come straight out of the forest.

The bowls are frozen together!

Oh, la-la-la-la! That's strong. How do you say strong in Russian?

Ochen krepko.

Ochen krepko. Ochen... Krepko.

Ochen krepko. You're doing great, Liz.

Five days later, and no further signs of tigers.

Fresh snow might change our luck.

So the snow has stopped falling for about 18 hours now.

If we're really lucky, there should be some nice fresh tiger tracks.

Siberian tigers are so elusive even Victor has only seen them

four times in the wild.

But that doesn't mean they're not here.

Do we still stay in the car?

'Correct, stay in the car.'

We've just driven up about 300 or 400 metres up the track

but we've all been told to stay in the car

because the tiger's a little bit behind.

We're even hearing the sound of crows being disturbed.

In previous years, Victor managed to trap a few tigers

to fit them with radio collars.

Right now he's getting a signal...

and it's close.

How far do you think the tiger is?

150...

That's it. 150 metres.

Not more.

God, guys, that's unbelievable.

And there are his tracks walking into the forest.

It's clear that it's moved in there because it's heard our cars

and it's quite possibly looking at us right now.

Now obviously it would be hugely foolish to follow these tracks forward.

The other somewhat disconcerting thought is that, er,

that tiger's tracks were heading straight down the path

that leads us to one of our cabins.

We won't be having lunch there today!

We've confirmed at least one tiger is in the reserve.

But a single tiger doesn't make a viable population.

Ussuriysk only has a future if tigers are breeding here.

We need to find more.

Russian technology helps us deploy more camera traps across the reserve.

We set cameras where Victor thinks tigers could pass.

But it's not just tigers that trigger them.

Over several days, we continue to put out cameras

and scour the forest for signs.

Finally we get together to see what we've captured.

OK, guys, are you ready? Here we go.

Just goes to show that the camera is actually working.

OK. Moving on quickly.

This man is going to have a heart attack

if I don't show him something interesting.

Then our first glimpse of the animal we've been looking for.

Stop, stop.

Oh! Look at it. Oh, my God!

This footage is incredibly rare and it's the first time

many of the Russian researchers have seen shots like these.

What, sorry! Repeat, show him again.

Look at that face!

It's Banzai, a male tiger previously collared by Victor.

Away from his usual area, Victor thinks

he could be searching for a mate.

Amazingly, a nearby camera has filmed another male.

Also known to the Russian team, this is Luke.

Males found so close together will be competing for territory,

food, and females.

But even with 30 cameras out there not a single female has been found.

Finding those incredible camera trap images is really good news

but so far we haven't found any females

and without breeding females here, then this precious protected area,

this important potential source of new tigers is just going to waste.

So it's vital that we find evidence of females here.

Without female tigers, Ussuriysk's males could disperse,

leaving this all-important reserve empty.

Then we get a very disturbing call.

It's so important we're diverting from our main mission.

It looks like a tiger cub has been orphaned.

It's a bit sketchy, the news we're getting,

but it sounds like it's a cub that killed a dog in a village

and it got caught but needless to say we've turned the car around

and we're going to head right there to check out what the situation is.

We've been told the cub was spotted without its mother.

It's been brought to a wildlife rehabilitation centre nearby

and Dale is already on the scene.

So we've got a young, about four-month-old cub

in this cage right here. She's four months old?!

About four months old.

I'll show you, you can take a look at her. OK.

Seriously? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's OK.

My heart is beating so fast, not in nerves, just in excitement.

Sorry, guys, I'm being...

If you look there, she'll be looking right at you.

Get your eyes accustomed.

Oh. Oh, my God, there she is.

Oh, my gosh.

She's a cutie.

She's absolutely beautiful and she's just lying there,

dazed and confused.

This is my first glimpse of a Siberian tiger.

It's a shame it has to be in these circumstances.

Dale thinks its mother has been killed.

So, no sign of the mother?

No sign of the mother.

And from your experience, that's it, it's poaching, yeah?

If the mother was around, she'd be gone.

Just not old enough to be able to make it out in the forest.

The Russians have named this cub Businka.

She needs to be moved into the warmer enclosure quickly.

Easier said than done.

GROWLING

Businka will be looked after

until she's ready to be returned to the wild.

She'll be here for a year at least.

It's a long uncertain road ahead but for now she's safe.

Businka wasn't alone.

Her mother had three cubs.

Dale's been sent footage filmed by a ranger showing the cubs

soon after they were discovered.

It's just amazing footage, take a look at this.

Look at them, three of them.

Three cubs along the road here. The snow's coming down.

It's just spectacular footage. It's really something.

I've never seen anything like this, you know, in this type...

In Russia, to be able to see this is just, just incredible.

So what does it look like? Two?

It's hard to tell but it looks like one a little bit smaller

and then two a little larger. Yeah, so probably two males.

So three four-month-old cubs just sitting there for all to see

in the middle of that track in the snow

and that's the first they caught sight of them then?

This is the first time anyone's... Well, there's been a few sightings

but nothing like that.

These cubs represent almost 1% of the entire wild

Siberian tiger population.

This really brings home just how vulnerable this cat is.

Is their behaviour slightly unusual since they're so young?

It is unusual. Usually a tiger would be gone. They would bolt.

They just don't hang around. But they're young, inexperienced.

They don't know they're supposed to be afraid so they're just all sat down together.

Look at this, there's two huddled together.

Oh, my gosh, and that one is looking really curiously.

That is mind-blowing.

One cub is safe, but two are still out there without their mother.

We assembled a team to study Siberian tigers

and to try to understand why they're disappearing.

But now we've got to split up to help with the cub rescue.

I'll continue to work with Victor in the reserve

and wildlife cameraman Max is joining a search party

looking for Businka's siblings.

Well, it's a pretty crazy day in Siberia.

We literally dropped off our bags,

grabbed the camera kit we could, and came out here

when we heard the story of the cubs out here on their own.

And we're just going to have to go with the flow and see what happens.

Max is with a crack team of Russian rangers.

Many are ex-military.

They're experts in forest survival and tracking.

OK, looks like we're off. Are you jumping in with us or are you...?

They're heading to the spot where the cubs were last seen.

With every hour that passes, the chance of finding them alive fades.

So, look at this. Tiger tracks all the way along here.

Look at that. You can see it's definitely one of our cubs.

Small tracks.

The guys are pretty sure they probably bedded down overnight

somewhere just up here, so I am going to try and stay with them.

These forests are dangerous.

A rogue bear injured a hunter here last night.

I'm trying to stay behind the guy with the gun

because I think that's the safest place to be.

But I'm not sure what I'm more scared of -

this bear that apparently someone's in hospital after being

attacked by a bear, or the two tiger cubs, and there's definitely

tiger tracks all around here so they could be pretty close.

Sasha Rybin, a biologist from the Wildlife Conservation Society

has found an important sign.

So what time do you think they came through here then?

What, the two tracks went a different way?

They're alone, yeah.

The cubs have separated.

Now they're on the trail of just one.

It's three or four o'clock now so we're running out of light.

I think they're talking about calling it a day.

But the two cubs have split up now.

So they're having a bit of an argument about which way

to go at the moment!

So, Sasha, we're not having much luck. What are we going to do now?

So there's poachers around here who will shoot the cubs? Really?

So you've got the find them before the poachers? Yeah.

With the light fading, the cubs still haven't been found.

The team hope they'll find them tomorrow before the poachers do.

Again, it's a stark reminder that poaching is still

as prevalent as ever, isn't it?

Yeah, it's just an indicator that poaching is really the major threat

for tigers, not just here in Russia, but really across all of Asia.

It's the number one factor.

Poaching hasn't always been a problem.

Back in the days of the Soviet Union, stricter management

of the landscape and its wildlife saw tiger numbers rise.

But when communism collapsed, so did the economy.

People turned to the forests for food.

As capitalism took hold, borders opened

and the illegal trade in animal parts for Chinese medicine took off.

A Siberian tiger carcass could be worth up to $50,000.

Tiger numbers declined dramatically.

With tigers outside the reserve at risk,

it's vital that Ussuriysk's population is breeding.

But so far we've only found males.

So it's going off the road, into the forest.

How old do you think? Two days?

Yeah, two days ago. Definitely a male.

Absolutely, I am sure because it's big.

Very big pugmark. OK.

Going back onto the road. Back onto the road, yes.

So it does a loop. Oh, nice! Nice pugmark.

Oh, it's huge! It's huge, yes.

I mean, you can totally tell the difference between that

and a female pugmark, much bigger than a female.

In hope of confirming which male it is,

we check the nearest camera traps.

OK, here we go. Left, back. Here we go.

SHE GASPS

Ooh! Hang on a second. It's stopped.

Huge paws!

It's Banzai again!

He's using the eastern part of the reserve

where Victor has never found signs of him before.

Three in the afternoon,

just strolling around in the wide open area.

He's beautiful, but he's not the female the reserve needs.

So what do we do next?

More camera traps.

Up north, Max is still looking for the two orphaned cubs.

They've been without their mother for five days now.

The trail has led him

to a place where a BBC camera crew are definitely not welcome.

OK, this is slightly random, slightly weird.

We're at a Russian military base.

It feels a bit like something out of James Bond.

But we've been told we've got to put all the cameras away

so we're just trying to give a little update.

Basically, one of the cubs has just been seen in the military base

so we've rushed over here, but they've told us

no English people are allowed anywhere near

this secret military base, so we're just having to wait in the car.

But it's definitely something out of the Cold War.

There's razor wire everywhere

and the two guards on the post in their Russian hats smoking away

are looking over here

so we should probably actually put the camera away.

Some of the Russian rangers have been allowed inside the base.

They've got the tiger?

They did get the tiger. Hang on a sec.

SHE SPEAKS IN RUSSIAN

Just go straight.

Tiger!

Somehow I'm now driving along, trying to find the guys.

Apparently they are 500 metres down here but I don't know

whether I'm just imagining things.

Some soldiers are looking at us

and we've got someone following us now, it's all slightly bizarre.

Where are we going now, left or right? Turn right, turn right.

So that car literally followed us

until we left the zone. And did they turn round?

And then they turned round, yeah. Is that them down there?

Before Max's imagination can run riot,

they're overtaken by one of the Rangers' jeeps.

Follow these guys.

Just trying to see if they bring us to the tiger cub.

Baptism of fire.

Well, we're through anyway. Congratulations.

I guess this is where the road ends.

Here they are, look, look, look. The guys with the tiger!

To capture this second cub, Sasha's had to sedate it.

It's freezing and half-starved.

It's just bones.

Sasha's team have got to get this male cub

into the warmth as quickly as possible.

They're saying that he's, you know, touch and go

whether he'll make it because he is so weak.

He was obviously coming back in to try and get some food

and he's really just nothing but skin and bones.

The rehabilitation centre is five hours away,

so they have to improvise at the nearest village.

There's no vet here and the cub needs a warm, dark place to recover.

The only solution is a cupboard in a local house.

This is animal hospital, Siberian-style.

Sasha's team have done all they can do to help the second cub.

Now they must wait to see if they caught it in time.

Back in Ussuriysk,

we've been scouring the reserve for tiger tracks.

But we still haven't found any sign of females.

Oh, my gosh!

Now that's a beauty, that looks... Is that a front?

That looks like a front. Looks...yes.

The size and shape of this track looks promising.

This camera we put up is very close to that pugmark we saw.

So we're going to see whether there's footage of a tiger on it.

Shall we put it on Victor's little computer?

Oh, are you nervous? Yes.

Oh, what was that, what was it?

She was here, there was, she was!

Was it...?

She was here.

This is great news.

Oh, my God!

It's a tigress Victor has collared before.

We just got Serga on video, play again.

We got Serga on film.

Just beautiful, just watching her move just makes your eyes water.

Oh, my gosh.

Shake my hand. I am so happy.

Are you happy? I am happy.

We need to drink vodka tonight.

This is our most important discovery so far.

It means the males are less likely to disperse into unprotected areas.

And Serga could have cubs, the future of this reserve.

Up north, the tiger in the cupboard has come round.

The Rangers have named him Kuzya, and he's woken up hungry.

HE GROWLS

Sasha wants to transport him to the rehabilitation centre.

A piece of meat lures him into the crate.

It's his first meal in nearly a week.

In a few hours, he'll be reunited with his sister.

Two precious tiger cubs have been saved.

The last one could still be alive out there,

alone and fighting for its life.

The next day, Kuzya has arrived at the rehabilitation centre.

He's been placed in an enclosure with his sister.

If they're ever to be released into the wild,

they must have minimal human contact.

But a camera allows me to check how they are.

Take a look at this.

But look at that face, look at that face.

A wild Siberian tiger,

just the most beautiful thing alive.

I would give anything to be in there having a look

but obviously this is all about making sure that these little fellas

who are only four months old can survive rehabilitation

and can be released in about a year's time.

To be able to fear man and to hunt properly

and to be as wild as they possibly can

at this early stage of their lives.

And ever so slowly, the second cub comes up.

It really is lovely to think that two of the cubs have been reunited

and hopefully, fingers crossed, if everything goes well up north,

they'll able to bring the third cub to join its siblings.

And right now it's about getting them to relax a little bit

because they've really gone through a lot.

It's vital to just get them to calm and to feed and to drink water.

These cubs needed to stay with their mother for up to two years

to learn vital survival skills.

Orphaned at just four months,

Businka and Kuzya will need a lot of help

to prepare them for release next spring.

There's no guarantee it'll work.

For now, they're in safe hands.

I head back to the reserve to help Victor,

and Max has started searching for the last cub.

This is a bit of a challenge now.

He may well have already died but we can't give up hope.

Every one of these tigers counts.

There's only 400 left in the wild

and if we can get these three cubs down to the rehab centre,

who knows, one day they may be released back into these forests.

We are going to have to leave the truck here

because that is definitely going to go through the ice.

You can see over here little pools of water.

Tiger track.

You can see, look. Bit of snow on top so it's probably from yesterday.

Has he gone across the river, Sasha?

Is he trying to lose us? Look at this guy!

The rangers have marched ten miles today and show no sign of easing up.

I've no idea what these Russians had for breakfast but, look,

they have either got much longer legs than me...

They're walking along, I'm virtually jogging

and I can't bloody catch up with them!

There's a reason the Russians are moving so fast.

They've got to try and catch this last cub before tonight.

Basically, the snow's coming in for three days, a massive storm

and they don't think it will survive out here. The last cub

we picked up was just skin and bones, they haven't eaten

for ten days now, and so we're just going to keep following.

We've got to get him by the end of the day.

After seven exhausting hours, the tracks lead them

back where they started.

These tracks are going towards where we caught the one yesterday so...

So we might have done one big circle. Yeah, unfortunately.

Oh, what a day! The weather is closing in now.

You can see the clouds and snow,

heavy snow is forecast.

So we really have a race against time to find this last cub

and get him down to join his brother and sister

before he just perishes in the cold.

While Max is searching for the last cub up north,

I'm in Ussuriysk helping Victor.

We've only found one female in the reserve, Serga.

From studying the camera trap footage, Victor thinks

there's a chance that Serga could be pregnant.

To find out, we need a different type of evidence,

so we're following her trail.

Perfect pugmark, perfect pugmarks in the snow.

An experienced tracker like Victor can piece together

a tiger's story in the snow.

Wait, wait. Yeah, yeah.

Wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait.

Because she can go here, because these tracks.

Ah, she's OK.

Well, what are they, they look like tiger tracks? It's OK.

It's her going this way, she went off here for a bit though, huh?

These tracks are 36 hours old,

but Victor can still gain a lot of information.

So where has she gone now?

We will see, don't worry. We will find.

I'm getting impatient. Learn from the master.

Victor, this is going that way. Yes.

This is going that way.

I tell you that she turn back in the same.

She walked back in her own footsteps.

Is the same track. Why?

And she put the legs in the same...

Unbelievable. So this pugmark, there's the pad, there are the toes.

Liz, we'll stay here.

She's going this way.

This lady walked back in her own footsteps.

Why would a tiger bother to do that?

Victor has the answer.

Look! She sleep here. She was sleeping here.

Oh, God, Victor.

Serga left the track to find a place to sleep.

It is the tail, it sleep here, it's the... Head.

The head is here. Look, paws? Yes, yes.

It's amazing, just amazing.

Because Serga's spent the night here, she may have left

evidence which could tell us about her breeding condition.

OK.

Now I'm going to do a urine sample in this one, yes?

Yes, yes. You have a pen for marking?

Analysing this frozen urine sample could answer

whether Serga is pregnant.

Following her tracks uphill reveals more clues.

Look. Here she stayed like a dog.

Ooooh!

She was looking for her prey.

She sat on her hind legs and she looked over her kingdom!

In Russian, this position, the name position sphinx.

Sphinx! The Sphinx position.

Not to be disgusting but that's part of, you know, faecal matter,

which indicates that she's old, do you think?

I think the female is old.

She's old.

It's bad news.

Incontinence can be a sign of illness or old age.

Victor is beginning to suspect that Serga will not have cubs again,

which would leave this important reserve without a breeding female.

Back up north, Max is still searching for the missing cub.

A blizzard has begun and hope is fading fast.

Snowed about two foot overnight

and I've got no idea what the cub's doing in this weather.

Sasha's really worried that unless it's really hunkered down,

it's going to die because it's just skin and bones.

Look at this, I mean it's... Yesterday there was next to no snow

and now it's almost up to my knees.

It means that all the tracks are covered up, we've got no idea

where the cub is and we're going to have to wait

until someone sees, if we hear any news that someone sees

any tiger tracks, but it's not looking good.

Sasha, do you think in this weather the cub is going to have any chance?

Chance for what? Surviving.

It's not nice, is it?

In these conditions, finding tracks of the last cub

is virtually impossible.

I suppose they could be covered up already!

Any track could be covered already.

All they can do is wait for the blizzard to clear.

It's not looking good for this last cub.

We've been working the roads all day,

getting stuck in the vehicles

and looking for fresh tracks to no avail.

The snow is up to my waist in places

and I think any cub trying to move around in this would need a snorkel.

It's really a race against time now.

Sasha thinks that the cub's probably got another 24 hours,

if that, before it's just going to die of cold and exhaustion.

It probably hasn't eaten for eight to ten days now.

We can only hope, and just really hope,

we catch up with him in the morning.

Let's check this one.

Back in Ussuriysk, I'm checking the latest camera trap footage

with Victor and Dale.

OK, here we go. Left.

Fox! Oh, wow, nice.

Beauty. What's he hunting, Victor?

It's a mouse or squirrel.

Look at that, here we go, here we go.

That's brilliant! I love that.

Oh, my gosh, he's gorgeous.

Nice deer action.

One, two, three...oh, and a fourth one. Good reproduction here.

This is great, a nice big group of red deer.

You usually don't see them in such big groups.

They're all very healthy.

Then these superb daytime shots of Serga, our resident female.

Victor!

Serga is the only female Victor has confirmed

here in Ussuriysk in the last year.

The reserve should act as a breeding ground,

bridging the last populations of Siberian tigers on each side of it.

Ussuriysk badly needs a fertile female.

But so far, it's not looking good.

So Victor has been looking at the camera trap footage of Serga

in more detail and also based on her behaviour

as we're tracking her, he's pretty sure that she's not pregnant,

and obviously that's really bad news

and you know Serga is old now, I mean, she may not breed again,

so the outlook really isn't good unless Victor can find

evidence of other breeding females in this protected area.

So really it's hugely important to put all our efforts

into finding out whether there are any other females in the reserve.

That is really the key now.

Up north, the blizzard has cleared.

Max has lost hope that the third cub is still alive.

Then, a local reports something worth checking out.

OK, this is the area we were driving around in yesterday

and we couldn't see any fresh tracks, then the guys have

seen this track probably from last night coming across the road.

Dale has travelled up overnight to lend his expertise.

So we've driven around, driven a circle around

this little island of habitat and we know the tracks didn't go

out of that circle, so that at least right now this cub is in this area,

about a kilometre wide by three or four kilometres long.

From a distance, it almost looks like a human track from the road,

but you can see getting closer, paw prints, look at that.

That's definitely a tiger.

There's a whole series of tracks in here,

trying to make sense of them. He's done a number of circles in here.

Look, tiger, tiger.

What's happening, Dale?

OK. We've got the cub down here. You've got the cub.

It's a tiger. OK.

What's going on?

OK, it's right underneath the snow, right there, see?

Siberian tiger cub just here.

It's coming out! It's coming out.

Out here, sticks are the only way to capture the cub without hurting it.

We've got the last cub, it's so good to see him alive.

They're just immobilising him now.

I can't believe he's seen it through the storm.

And I'm this close to a growling cub. He's moving a bit.

He's moving.

The cub is given a calming sedative.

Just waiting for the drug to take effect.

It can take up to ten minutes.

When there's this many people around, it's more stress,

it's harder for the drug to take effect, he's fighting it.

I just can't quite believe we've got him.

You know, every one of these cubs is so important,

there's only 400 in the wild

and we really thought he'd died, this one.

I don't know how he lasted for about ten days on his own.

Without his mother, without his brother and his sister,

and now hopefully he can join them at the rehab centre.

and one day come back into the wild.

This is great. This is what we wanted. To get this guy.

He's got a second chance now.

Which is all we can do, give him a second chance.

The sedative stops the cub from blinking.

A gel protects its eyes from drying out.

They've got to get this weak cub somewhere warm

as quickly as possible.

This tiger's life is hanging by a thread.

Next time.

We find out if the last cub survives.

We step up the search for breeding tigers.

Just to get one glimpse, you know, just a flash of orange.

And we investigate how we can save the Siberian tiger.

Deep in the frozen forests of Russia

lives a predator.

It's one of the world's rarest animals -

the Siberian tiger.

He's right in there. Right there.

Less than 300 metres.

Only a handful of pioneering scientists

have ever seen one in the wild.

These Russians are tough, and they know this place, and they're fast.

Now, an international team are on the trail of this elusive big cat.

Clearly, you're looking at a Siberian tiger.

They're working in one of the planet's coldest places.

This is a lawless wilderness...

It's an illegal rifle.

..where tiger and man compete to survive.

I'm Liz Bonnin. I'm trying to uncover

the hidden world of this remarkable animal for the first time.

Revealing the untold story of Siberia's snow tigers.

I've studied Bengal tigers in India and Nepal.

But the Siberian tiger,

and its habitat here in the Russian Far East,

are completely new to me.

Siberian tigers once ranged across Northern Asia.

Now the remaining few live here,

in the Russian Far East.

Scientists think there are now less than 350 in the wild.

I'm part of a research team trying to document the lives

of individual Siberian tigers.

They roam over vast areas of forest.

We've been on the trail of a few important tigers...

..but we discovered a problem.

In a vital stronghold,

we found male tigers...

..but no breeding females.

We began the hunt for female tigers...

..but our mission was interrupted by tragic circumstances.

Three Siberian tiger cubs lost their mother.

Two of the orphan cubs were saved.

Wow, a tiger!

But the third was found with only hours to live.

He's struggling a bit. He's struggling. Watch out!

This is great, this is what we wanted, to get this guy.

The cub is so weak, they need to act fast to save him.

With no clinic nearby, they take him to a house in a local village.

A bedroom becomes a makeshift surgery.

Dr Dale Miquelle has been working with Siberian tigers

for over 20 years.

He's dehydrated, so we just want to get a drip in

until we get some fluids back into him. It'll also help

warm him up, to get some warm fluids into him,

just to get him rehydrated, basically.

Cameraman Max Hug Williams

tracked this cub with rangers for over a week.

When we first came up here,

I didn't really know what to expect.

But following these guys around,

it's just unbelievable.

They literally give up everything for this species.

You get pretty choked up when you see these guys

marching through the forest, and you think, you know,

they're like something out of the military

but then, deep down, they're doing all of this for a tiger.

It's a problem because his pulse is really weak.

The cub is so dehydrated, they can't use a drip.

So it's not in the vein. No.

Now we're trying to warm him up with a hot water bottle here.

Heart is racing, but there's not good circulation.

So this animal is fighting for its life right now.

(The guys are frantically trying to get some fluids in because he's so dehydrated.)

His temperature's gone up a lot.

It was 95.5 and now it's 99.2,

so in the last half hour,

it's gone up four degrees.

He's coming round! He's coming round!

He's waking up from the anaesthetic,

but it's still uncertain if he'll survive.

The team have done all they can, for now.

While we wait to find out his fate,

we return to our main mission.

The reason we've come to Russia.

We're here to find out

what Siberian tigers need,

if they're to have a future in the wild.

The lack of breeding females here is a major problem

and something that Dale is concerned about.

He's collaborating with Dr Victor Lukarevsky,

who's been studying tigers in the crucial Ussuriysk Reserve.

It's likely this tiger's right on this, this bear that he dragged off.

Of the remaining Siberian tigers,

they believe only 100 are females of breeding age.

Reserves like Ussuriysk are essential tiger nurseries.

These protected areas have become havens for tigers

to be able to reproduce in safety,

and produce as many tiger cubs as they can, as often as they can.

And then those tiger cubs are dispersed

into the larger and less safe habitat.

The problem is, Ussuriysk only has

one resident female, Serga,

and she's too old to breed.

Without a fertile female, the male tigers will leave,

and the reserve's population will collapse.

But Victor has found something that gives us hope.

Photographs from camera traps

can be used to identify individuals.

Tiger stripes are like fingerprints, unique to each animal.

This photograph has just been analysed and it's not Serga.

It's her daughter.

This is Princess. Oh, my gosh, look at that.

This is 22 November last year.

So, 22nd November? 22nd, yes.

So two months ago, basically.

It's two or three months ago. So before that,

you hadn't had footage of Princess for a year, is that right?

Yes. A year, we have no information from her

and I thought that she is...

She's poached. She's killed. So this is really great news!

And whereabouts is this?

It is inside of the protected area.

So it's in the reserve. Inside Ussuriysk.

But she still overlapped with Serga, her mother. Yes, yes.

So there's some overlap. Yes, yes. Half, er, area.

Half her area overlaps with her mother? Half of it?!

OK, that's bigger than I thought. OK. Look, guys, where do we start?

Everywhere! Doesn't matter.

Which is why it's best for us to split up, to try and maximise

the chances of finding her as soon as possible, yeah?

Great stuff, though! Great image. Good news. That's a great find.

This news, for me, that was best news for the last year!

Absolutely, it's true.

Princess holds the key to the future of the Ussuriysk tigers.

But apart from this one photograph,

Victor has no evidence that she's still in the reserve.

She's vanished.

Now our team have just three weeks to try to find her

before we have to leave.

So we split up to search the area where she was last caught on camera.

And so if Princess is here, it's really important to find out

what condition she's in, how often she uses this protected area,

and if there's even the slightest chance she might be pregnant.

So about four days ago, we had a warm front come through,

rain came down and, amazingly, er, had a very warm period.

A tiger walked through here while there was wet, wet,

basically a slush. And so, it's amazing,

but you can actually get down and uncover...

almost like dinosaur tracks,

this track of a male walking down

this road in the reserve.

They're just spectacular to see.

Siberian tigers prefer to use roads,

rather than walk in deep snow.

It helps them to conserve energy in winter.

I'm setting camera traps, which are triggered by movement.

I'm aiming the cameras at the only road in Ussuriysk Reserve.

If Princess is still here, there's a good chance she'll walk past them.

Tigresses will often donate a portion of their home range

to their female offspring.

What they're trying to do is ensure that their daughters have

a high probability of success in raising their own young.

And so in a situation like here, we've got Princess,

who is using part of her mother's home range and, hopefully,

acquiring the benefits that her mother had in that same area.

In other words, high densities of prey, a good knowledge of that area,

and also increasing the success in terms of rearing young.

Winter is too long in Russia.

It's six, seven months per year, it is too long.

But in the snow, you can collect a lot of data.

In previous years, Victor has managed to capture

some of the Siberian tigers in Ussuriysk,

to fit them with tracking collars.

If he's close enough, these collars help him to locate the animals.

Princess was fitted with a collar,

but Victor hasn't picked up her signal for over 18 months.

It's working...

He's not far, I think maybe half a kilometre,

maybe it's outside of the...

Wait...

Victor has found the signal of a large male.

He's a little too close for comfort.

And these tracks lead right past one of our cameras.

Shall we have a look at the footage?

This is really interesting because the tracks look fresh.

Dale! It's Dale.

This is great, we split up to look for Princess

and what do we get on camera traps?

Dale! So Dale triggered it.

Oh!

With a collar. With a collar.

Who is that? Is that Serga? It is Luke. No, no, it is Luke.

How soon after Dale, walking down the road by himself?

20 minutes ago, Luke was going that way. 20 minutes ago.

I hope everything is well.

No, Dale is fine.

I hope. Dale was going down this way.

The tiger was going up this way. But first, there was... Don't.

Victor, don't. Let's go find Dale.

Let's just go find Dale now, please.

Tigers hunt at dusk.

We had planned to collect Dale before sunset,

but we've got a problem.

Go!

We're just on our way to find Dale and, of course,

as luck would have it, we get stuck in the snow.

It happens all the time, but tonight is not the night

we want it to happen. So we're just getting Victor to pull us out

and then we're going to try and make sure Dale's OK.

The darker it gets, the more worried we are about Dale.

But thankfully, we find him.

Dale!

Liz. We have to show you something, come with me.

Seriously, I'm so glad to see you. I'm glad to see you, too.

Let me just show you something. All right, great.

Dale has rarely been so close to a tiger.

I was too early! I should have waited 20 minutes,

we would have met! Oh, my gosh! Dale, it is OK. It is very well.

So first of all, me and Victor were like, "Oh, there's Dale.

"Oh, tiger! Yay, tiger!" And then we were like, "Oh, my gosh, Dale!"

Look at you, look at you!

Strolling, not a bother in the world! No problems at all.

Listen, I mean, day one looking for Princess,

no Princess, but we know Luke's in the area.

And, who knows? Possibly, he's here because of Princess.

It could be a possibility. We will see.

It's a result, you're safe and sound.

Healthy result, and he's safe and sound.

He's really healthy and safe and sound.

Right, dinner, guys, and a drink to celebrate, I reckon. Yeah? Great.

This young male tiger could be looking for a mate,

but we still haven't found any females.

Next morning, we head back into the reserve

and Dale discovers just how close he came to meeting Luke.

Yeah, so he came down to here and turned around and went back.

And me, standing on the embankment there, 20, 30 yards away,

turned around and ran back.

I never even saw him, didn't hear him. Just missed him.

Huh!

He stopped here, too.

He may have heard me walking down the road.

I don't know, it's hard to tell,

but he may have heard something and still continued down.

He may have thought I was a potential prey at that time,

but he changed his mind once he got down there.

Said, "I don't want any of that!"

Meanwhile, Victor and I

follow Luke's tracks forward to see where he went.

Male tigers travel huge distances patrolling their territory

and looking for mates. Luke could lead us to Princess.

Had a bit of a rest.

Tiger beds here are so much more telling than those in India.

I mean, you always see indentations,

but the snow really clearly makes out the shape of the tiger.

You can just visualise a tiger much more easily.

Is it possible that he came off the road, he lay down,

because we were on the road, making so much noise

looking at the camera trap footage?

Yes, he... Maybe he listens the car.

So while we were watching him on the camera trap, he was watching us!

But he was watching, yes.

Do you remember, he look and turn back? Yeah. And go.

He was so close to us.

Dale wasn't the only one who had a close encounter with a tiger.

Scientists can spend their entire careers studying Siberian tigers

and never see one in the wild.

To help us locate Princess,

we're deploying 30 state-of-the-art video camera traps.

Very little footage has ever been filmed of wild Siberian tigers.

These cameras could help us capture

their unseen lives for the first time.

So, these pictures provide

a means of putting a face to these animals, and understanding them

more as personalities than as mysterious animals.

It just provides an opportunity to better understand

these individuals as characters and not as dangerous, mysterious beasts.

If we're lucky, our cameras will find Princess.

I'll stay in Ussuriysk helping Victor,

while Dale and wildlife cameraman Max are heading north.

For over 20 years, Dale has lived in Siberia,

working for the Wildlife Conservation Society.

His main research site is 500 miles away, in the Sikhote-Alin Reserve.

It's a 12-hour road trip.

Dale has brought Max along to try to film another important female tiger.

Sikhote-Alin lies on the coast of the Sea of Japan,

near the small town of Terney.

DOG BARKS

People here live with tigers on their doorstep.

Dale wants Max to track down

a particular female tiger he's concerned about.

So this is Varvarra here, is it? When did you take this shot?

In July. End of July.

And when did you first collar her, then, was that...?

So we collared her a year ago, in September.

And so she's been on the air for about 14 months.

She's a young female.

When we captured her, she hadn't given birth.

But for the last couple of months, she's been concentrated in one area

and we think that she has cubs now.

She's quite small there. So she's, you're saying, how old?

She's probably three,

no more than four years old.

If she has cubs now,

it's definitely her first cubs.

This is August. This is August.

Wow, look at that. Wow! It's like a jungle in the summer, isn't it?

It's such a different environment now.

Yeah, it looks so stark and bleak right now

and it's like a jungle in the summer time. Unbelievable.

We know where she was a few days ago

and we need to get out there before another snowfall comes.

Tiger numbers in Sikhote-Alin

have been decimated by poachers and disease.

They're at their lowest for 35 years.

Varvarra is the reserve's last-known female.

Her recent movements suggest she might have cubs.

That's what they need to confirm.

Max is working with Dale's colleagues, Sveta and Kolya,

to track her.

To catch up with Varvarra, they'll need to travel light.

They don't carry guns for protection, only flares.

Well, I suppose if we come face to face with a tiger,

we've got to light ourselves up like a Christmas tree,

otherwise we could be in a bit of trouble!

Using the signal from Varvarra's collar, they've picked up her trail.

After walking for six hours, they're ten miles from the nearest road.

We've just had a crow go overhead,

which is normally a very good sign that you're close to a kill.

The guys are saying that Varvarra is about 300 to 500 metres away.

But this telemetry's not an exact science.

These are just bearings we try to plot onto a map.

So she could be very, very close indeed.

The trackers take another reading, and they're in for a shock.

Varvarra, now, they think, is literally 200 metres that way.

But it brings it home how quickly things can change here.

One minute, we were strolling along, and the next minute,

we're 200 metres, probably, from a tiger.

We've got these flares out and I'm assured that

it'll scare a tiger off, but I'm not quite convinced.

Something in the back of my mind just keeps saying

we're slightly crazy, getting within 200 metres of a cat

which could get here in a matter of seconds if it wanted to.

But apparently, these are going to keep anything at bay.

Surprising a Siberian tiger would be a bad move,

especially if she has cubs.

They soon discover why Varvarra is in the area.

Whoa! Look at that!

Yes. So she's made this kill? Yes.

And how old do you think?

Probably a week. A week old? Yeah.

Look at the size of it!

So the tiger took that down? Yeah.

My God!

Camera traps at the kill site could record Varvarra

if she returns to eat and help to reveal whether she has cubs.

They also set cameras along trails and by known scent-marking trees.

If Varvarra has cubs, and Max can film her,

it could be a rare insight into Siberian tiger maternal behaviour.

After a few days, the camera traps deliver

our first glimpse of Varvarra.

Despite the fact that it makes no noise,

she's clearly aware of the camera.

She's nervous, and there's no sign of any cubs.

Down south, in Ussuriysk, Victor and I are still searching for Princess.

She hasn't been seen for three months.

In previous years,

Victor has often found signs of her

outside the safety of the protected area.

Today, we're going beyond the reserve's borders

to try to find her.

Whoa!

So normally, we use Victor's trucks to go into the reserve,

but today, we're going further afield

and so we need something a little bit bigger.

Can I even get up here? Oof!

You've got to come and see this!

Dobriy den'. Meenya savoot Liz.

Alexis. Alexis. Dobriy den'.

Roma. Roma. Nice to meet you.

Dobriy den'.

This place is epic!

There's even a movie on this, it's brilliant!

Yeah, I'm moving in.

These six-wheel-drive trucks transport workers

into the most inaccessible parts of the forest.

They're designed to withstand the most extreme conditions,

the kind of vehicle you'd only find in Siberia!

Victor is searching for Princess' signal.

Each tiger collar has a unique frequency.

But these signals rarely reach more than one mile.

And we don't even know if she's alive.

Just to get one glimpse, you know, just a flash of orange,

that would be quite something.

Let's see other place, other area,

but it's difficult now to find her.

A short drive from the reserve,

we find a scar cutting through the forest.

The trees have been cleared to make way for a gas pipeline.

A service road runs alongside it.

Why is this access road such a problem?

It is the main problem for the wildlife

because it make very accessible

for the poacher, who can come here to hunt the different animal.

We're talking about an access road

that is an easy way for poachers to get into

what was before an inaccessible forest.

How long does this road go on for?

About 760 kilometres.

760 kilometres long. And that's only part of the entire gas line.

Victor, how does this make you feel?

Can I ask you, what do you feel

when you have seen a piece of art destroyed?

Now, obviously, it's important to bring gas to people.

I know you're not saying that it shouldn't be done. Of course.

But what's the solution, Victor,

when you have to bring the gas down to Vladivostok from Siberia?

Do you think there's a better way of doing this?

Of course, we can use existing infrastructure,

outside of the forest.

So what do you, as conservationists, do to try and protect the forest

when you've got something like this

carving its way though 800 kilometres of tiger habitat?

The solution is to increase the number of rangers,

to re-cultivate all road and to close such a road.

The damage here is bad,

but the service road is the real threat to the tigers.

It's only two-and-a-half miles from the border of the Ussuriysk Reserve,

giving hunters easy access to the heart of the forest.

If Princess is spending time here, outside the reserve, she's at risk.

Back up north, in the Sikhote-Alin Reserve, Max and the trackers

are still on the trail of Varvarra, in the hope that she has cubs.

Very little is known about how Siberian tigers raise their young.

But we do know that they can give birth any time of the year,

even in the dead of winter.

Then they find an important clue.

(Wow, look at that. What's happened here, Sveta?)

(It looks like cubs stayed here and played for some time.)

(Well, at last, we exactly know that Varvarra has cubs.)

(And we, at last, see cubs' tracks, it's very good news.)

(Well, it's difficult to say, but it looks like more than one cub.)

(Maybe two.)

(That's good news!)

(Maybe three, maybe four! But I think two or three maybe.)

(We'll see.)

(Varvarra lay here with cubs, because there's no snow over here.)

(So we can imagine how it was.)

(Nice!)

Here is one,

two,

and three.

We know that not two, three or four.

Three or four. Yeah.

That's incredible, though. Either way, it's good news.

Yes, it's very good news!

The cubs played here and tried to go inside this tree.

Sveta keeps saying how they have been playing on this tree,

playing on that tree.

I just wish I was here to see them bounding around in the snow.

You can see on this tree...

they've run up there,

probably jumped off there.

Sveta's also found the remains of a deer.

So, we finally found the kill.

So it looks like she's feeding her cubs well.

I'm sure, yes, she's a good mum.

Her cubs are very fat.

Are they? I think!

Dale's not going to believe it!

Max and the team

have proof that Varvarra has had her very first litter.

It's fantastic news for the Sikhote-Alin Reserve.

Max is now hoping that his camera traps

have captured Varvarra and her cubs.

So I want to show you some of the results,

the fruits of your labour, as you say.

So, this was one of the first animals we saw,

which is a full-frame sika dear.

We got some night shots, too.

I can show you a few critters walking though.

Oh, wow! A lynx, just creeping in there. A Lynx showed up.

This is interesting, too,

because I think it's the same animal,

and look at this, he scent-marks right on that.

And then...

just to keep that momentum going, we got another animal walk though.

Oh, amazing! Is that Varvarra?

No, it's not, it's a male,

it's a male. But watch, watch!

He walks to the edge of frame

and then he does a scrape.

He's doing a scrape right now.

Wow! Look at that.

So we got him, which is pretty neat,

and we didn't really expect it.

The cameras have captured other animals scavenging Varvarra's kill.

Sable, a type of weasel, eat whatever they find.

Eagles...

..and even wild boar benefit from tiger kills in winter.

And then Varvarra makes her entrance.

Ah, look at that. Daytime, as well!

Yeah, she looks great.

But look how cautious she is. She's smelling where you guys were.

She still looks quite young. I mean, she is a first-time mum.

She is... She does look young, doesn't she?

But she's in good shape. Great shape.

And the other camera we had here, don't tell me that didn't fire!

Hang on.

To see the markings like that,

it's incredible, isn't it? Yeah, it's nice.

But where are the cubs? I mean, she's...

We didn't actually get to the site where the cubs were stashed

and she didn't bring them down through here, unfortunately,

so we missed that opportunity.

Collectively, with the radio collar, the camera traps

and these videos, we've gotten a much better understanding

of the way mothers interact and take care of their cubs.

Up until this point, we had always thought that females

would leave their cubs at a kill site and then go off hunting,

then go back to the kill site,

get the cubs and bring them to the new kill.

But we've seen in this video,

they don't leave their cubs

at the kills, and that makes sense,

because that's a dangerous spot.

We've seen, through these camera traps,

all these other carnivores coming through.

Lynx and sable and even wild boar coming in,

so that's a dangerous place to leave your cubs.

So she takes them off some place, and we didn't really realise that

until we started getting some of this footage.

The Siberian tiger

is one of the world's most endangered animals.

Footage like this is invaluable.

Only by studying this remarkable animal's natural behaviour

can scientists learn how to protect it.

And while we haven't seen the cubs,

it looks like Varvarra has got over her camera shyness.

Down south in Ussuriysk,

there's still no sign of Princess.

In the past, she has used an area

outside of the reserve

and that makes her vulnerable.

80% of all Siberian tiger deaths are caused by man.

But there are a few Russians

who dedicate their lives to protecting them.

One of those is Roma Kozhishev, an ex-boxer

and now an anti-poaching inspector.

Roma and just one other colleague

monitor 40,000 square miles of forest.

Dale and I are joining Roma on patrol,

to see first-hand the dangers tigers face from humans.

OK. Stop! Stop!

DOGS BARK

So he's telling him to contain his dogs.

There's a lot of dogs here, isn't there?

There are a heck of a lot of dogs!

Is that... That's an illegal rifle.

These raids are routine for Roma,

but they can quickly become dangerous.

Roma's been attacked many times by poachers while on patrol.

As well as the gun, he's found bullets for shooting big game.

THEY SPEAK IN RUSSIAN

So we've actually deployed one of our crew

to just follow that lot with Roma,

so he can cite them and write up the paperwork, et cetera.

But he's also asked us to stay here,

in case any of the rest of the guys try and hide anything.

DOGS BARK

For people living in poverty, the forest provides meat,

and that means that humans here are in direct competition with tigers.

'These guys are out here working every day, all day, right?

'They're driving back and forth.'

They're going to have opportunities.

And for them, it's fresh meat,

and free, and free.

You can understand it from their point of view, as well.

THEY SPEAK RUSSIAN

OK, so Roma is writing up the protocol citation.

It's a long process, basically, but the gun is illegal.

He isn't registered with the local hunting organisation,

which he should be, and he doesn't have a hunting licence.

So they will confiscate the gun and turn it over to the police.

HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

So he basically splits people into two groups.

There's professional poachers, who go out and kill animals

and just sell the meat, and he doesn't have any tolerance

for those people, basically. But there's lots of people

who are illegally hunting

to feed their families.

He says it's really hard, you know,

to not sympathise with them.

What's the hardest part of Roma's job?

THEY SPEAK RUSSIAN

It's really hard to be living in one place for a long time,

and the kind of people that are poachers

can sometimes have people that you had good relationships with

and then found out that they are also poachers,

so it's psychologically really difficult to deal with all that,

to live in a small community and maintain relationships with people.

It's unbelievable. I can't believe how difficult it must be for him

and how much he must care to keep going,

because it alienates him from his home and people around him.

This man, I have so much respect for what he does

and continues to do, it's wonderful. It's not an easy life...

It really isn't. ..but he's committed to it.

Roma's commitment to saving tigers is inspirational.

But he's just one man, with a vast area to police.

Tigers are prized for their fur, bones and body parts,

used in traditional Chinese medicine.

A single tiger can sell for 50,000 dollars.

Ussuriysk Reserve is only 50 miles from the Chinese border.

This footage was filmed by police near Ussuriysk,

while we were working in the reserve.

In a single raid last year, they seized the remains of eight tigers.

That's two percent of the wild Siberian tiger population

eradicated in one hit.

The tigers here face such danger,

I'm beginning to doubt we'll ever find Princess.

There are so many things to think about to save the tiger.

Hunting, different organisations arguing, planning, management.

Do you ever want to just...

"It's too complicated, I give up"?

No, no, no, no, no. Liz...

Many times, I have thinking about this

but, for me, it is not my way.

I don't know about China,

about India, about everybody.

In Russia, I am absolutely convinced

that we can save the tiger.

We can save the tiger for...forever.

You're sure? I'm absolutely convinced!

How do you change that, Victor? Step by step.

You have patience for that? It is impossible to be patient.

'Victor has...'

such fire in his belly about this place.

There's not a moment that goes by

that he's not thinking about the tiger,

listening for it, looking for its signs.

I mean, his passion borders on an obsession, really.

And he's become a massive part of my journey here,

not only because he's taught me

so much about Siberian tiger conservation,

but also because he's taught me what it means

to be brave and determined and resilient against such odds.

And, you know, he doesn't get anything out of it,

other than the satisfaction of knowing

that he is working as hard as he can

because he believes that the tiger needs to be saved.

And I do think that as long as there are people like Victor out here,

then, yeah, there is hope. There has to be hope.

One hope is that Siberian tiger cubs, orphaned by poaching,

could be returned to the wild.

Our three rescued cubs have been reunited

at this rehabilitation centre near Ussuriysk,

run by the Severtsov Institute.

Today, they're being released into an outdoor enclosure,

where they can learn to become independent.

Max has been following the cubs from the beginning.

We've got these special remote cameras

and we're rigging up the enclosure for the cubs.

From now on, they can't have any human interaction at all

if they're going to be released as wild tigers.

So we've got to set up these cameras, drop way back, and then,

hopefully, we'll get a glimpse of them coming out for the first time.

The team need to see how the cubs are recovering from their ordeal.

The last time Max saw them, one of the cubs was in critical condition.

The cameras will allow the scientists

to observe the cubs from a cabin 300 feet away.

As night falls, the cubs still haven't emerged from the hut.

Max settles in to keep watch.

(I haven't really seen any activity yet.)

(We all thought the cubs would come out all three of them together.)

(But it's nearly midnight now and we've got the infrared lights up,)

(but we haven't seen a single sign of any cubs.)

(It might take a few days,)

(or at least a couple of nights before they even come out.)

But to his surprise, there's movement in the enclosure.

(Look at him. Amazing!)

It's the third cub. The one who almost died.

(Bloody hell, they've grown!)

(He's looking so healthy.)

(Wow!)

(Look at that!)

(They've been inside that hut for so long.)

(It's a real safe haven for them, so it's a massive leap for them,)

(but it's just the start of the journey,)

(a long, long journey of becoming a tiger again.)

(I mean, I really just want to come back and see them in the day.)

By the next morning,

all three cubs are out.

Over the next 12 months,

this space will be enlarged

and live prey will be released,

so that the cubs can learn to hunt.

Incredibly, these three cubs represent

one percent of the entire wild population.

If their luck holds, within a year,

they could be back in the forest.

The next generation of Siberian tigers.

We're nearing the end of our time in Siberia.

With two days left, Victor and I

still haven't found any sign of Princess.

Today, we're searching

the northern border of the reserve, but we're having some trouble.

Every day, it's the same thing!

Just outside of the reserve is a privately-owned hunting club.

There are signs of tigers here.

Could one of them be Princess?

Victor can cover more ground alone...

..and heads out to search for her.

The staff here put out food

to increase the number of deer and boar for hunting...

..and that means more prey for tigers.

But I'm curious to know about

the hunters' attitudes to this predator,

so I speak to the manager.

HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

He says, "You can see by the tracks here

"that we get along OK with tigers."

You know, he takes his share, especially of wild boar,

but, "We have no problems."

HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

"On this hunting lease, there are about four tigers in this area."

He said, "If there was an elimination of the tigers here,

"wolves would come in, and that's more of a problem than tigers."

So here, at least, the hunters and tigers

seem to benefit from each other.

Wolves are pack animals,

capable of taking large numbers of prey.

But tigers don't tolerate wolves in their territory.

This hunting ground may not be the norm in the Russian Far East,

but tigers here are protected from illegal poachers

and have plenty of food.

Victor continues the search for Princess.

The last hope for a breeding population

in the neighbouring Ussuriysk Reserve.

The next morning, he has something for me to hear.

INTERFERENCE ON RADIO

So who's that? What's that sound?

Is that a collar?

I have record of Princess.

Princess? Yes. In the hunting lease yesterday?

Yesterday. Oh, la-la la-la!

Victor has found Princess.

She's alive!

I was very happy when I record...

Victor, that's fantastic!

But I do a lot of track, we go in this mountain.

So you went up the mountain? Yes. And I switched on...

Oh!

..and I heard Princess.

Victor, how important is it to have proof of Princess,

for the reserve, for the future of tigers here?

It is good for population. It is very important.

Very important, and now that we have proof, you know...

she's alive, she's here.

The female is the future. The cubs is the future.

Like our children, they are the future for the human population.

Princess is the key to the future of this vital reserve.

The fact that she's alive is fantastic news

for the wider Siberian tiger population.

Hopefully, it won't be too long before she breeds

with one of the males in Ussuriysk and has cubs herself.

At the start of our mission, we deployed 30 camera traps...

..and we've already had some fantastic results.

Dale is keen to show us the latest images.

OK, everybody ready? OK.

OK, so I want to show you footage we got of a female up in Terney.

Look at that! Oh, she's absolutely magnificent!

This young female doesn't have a collar.

It's the first time anyone has seen her.

Yeah, this is pretty amazing.

Oh! Having a good old sniff!

Yeah, that's incredible, huh? Aw!

Whiskers right up to the camera.

Just no matter how often you see a tiger,

it just takes your breath away, doesn't it?

This footage is just mind-blowing.

I've not seen any wild Siberian tiger footage like this

anywhere in the world.

This grimace is the Flehmen response.

It allows her to make sense of the scent left by other tigers.

To see this young female coming into this area, curious,

active, with a character,

I mean, she really inspires hope

for the future of tigers across the region.

The cameras have revealed

there is another breeding female in Dale's reserve.

CHEERING AND LAUGHTER

Amazing. Excellent.

I hope we can save for the future.

Honestly, how can you argue that

that and its habitat have to be saved?

Looking at this, it kind of eliminates the need

to ask that question.

The video itself states the obvious,

that this animal deserves a place to live.

It's the end of our time here in Russia.

Working with these scientists, we've seen first-hand

the challenges threatening the survival of the Siberian tiger.

And our cameras have helped to unlock

the secrets of this elusive big cat.

The vital work to save the Siberian tiger continues.

Their future hangs in the balance.

But I've been overwhelmed by the passion

and dedication of the people I've met here...

..and perhaps, through their efforts,

there will still be tigers

roaming these magical forests

for generations to come.