“The multimedia materials are obtained under circumstances, where there was little external disturbance and therefore they truly reflect the conditions of those species in the wild,” said Jiang Zeyin, species programme officer at WWF-China.

Wildlife officials at the Hunchun Nature Reserve set up the camera-trap with support from WWF and the Wildlife Conservation Society after a local farmer reported that a predator killed a cow. The next day, they retrieved the film and discovered the image of an adult tiger feeding on the carcass.

The photograph, taken at the end of 2006, provides evidence that the endangered cat species is slowly finding its way from the Russian Far East back into China where it once lived before over-hunting and poaching wiped out the population.

The Amur tiger is the largest living cat in the world, with a typical male weighing more than 250kg and measuring nearly 3m from nose to tip of the tail. Each adult needs a territory of around 50km2 to survive. Scientists count about 430 to 530 Amur tigers left in the wild, with the majority living in the Russian Far East. A few are found across the border in northern China and Korea.

WWF has designated China’s Hunchun Nature Reserve as a priority tiger conservation area. Through our offices in Harbin and the Russian Far East, we are working with local officials to improve tiger monitoring - using infrared cameras, GPS tracking and digital cameras - and helping establish an ecological network of protected areas to secure well-connected habitat for the Amur tiger.