VLADIVOSTOK, FEBRUARY 14, 2004, /RIA-NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT VERONIKA PERMINOVA/ -- Vasily Zelenin from the Primorye (Maritime) territory's Kronstadtka village was fined 130,000 roubles, or more than $4,500, for killing an Amur tigress. This sentence was passed on Zelenin by the Spassk district court. (The Primorye territory is located in the Russian Far East - Ed.) Talking to RIA-NOVOSTI, court officials noted that Zelenin had killed a tigress in the forest last December, subsequently flaying it and hiding the animal's head and paws in a bee-hive. The poacher was invited to a local police station two days later, confessing of his crime. He also gave up the tigress' skin, head, paws, as well as his hunting gun and cartridges.
Experts from the World Wildlife Foundation's Far Eastern division estimate that poachers annually kill somewhere between 30 and 40 Amur tigers.
The Amur tiger is listed in the Red Data Book.
