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Tigers return to Kazakhstan after 80 years, but not everyone welcomes them
2026-11-08 19:14:00 / MISTERE&KURIOZITETE
Two tigers are now roaming the wilds of Kazakhstan, nearly 80 years after these predators were last seen in the country.
On November 2, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources announced that a tiger, named Amur, was settled in the nature reserve that is home to the big cats.
Amur will share the Ile-Balkhash State Nature Reserve, located about 300 kilometers northwest of Almaty, with a Russian tigress named Umit. Umit was released into the reserve on July 31. Ten days later, she killed and ate a wild boar and a wolf and is reported to have successfully adapted to her new environment.
Valery Bilyachenko runs a recreational fishing center near the site where the tigers were released. He is one of the people in the area who is closely following the development of this project. Bilyachenko told Radio Free Europe that local residents are largely against the tiger reintroduction project, A2 reports.
"The main source of livelihood in the villages in the area is livestock," he stressed. "There are pastures and cattle, and of course the locals are worried that the tigers will kill their animals."
Some villages are located just a few dozen kilometers from where the two tigers are.
"The tigers are now equipped with collars with satellite trackers, so their movements are being monitored. We have been told that when the tigers start approaching the villages, special teams will be sent to scare them away," Bilyachenko said.
Kazakhstan has pledged to deploy "anti-conflict" teams to prevent incidents between tigers and people or livestock. It also reportedly will send text messages to alert residents whenever a tiger approaches a village or farm within five kilometers.
"Our main goal is not simply to return these predators to their historical habitat, but to create a stable population, which will be able to live and reproduce independently in nature," said Alibek Kvantyrov from Kazakhstan's Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, after releasing the Amur into the wild.
The hope is that the two tigers that are free in the reserves will find each other and become a couple, although experts say the chances of them mating are slim.
As for his business, where he runs lodges for fishermen, Bilyachenko said he expects there to be little impact in the near future, although that could change. Two more tiger cubs are expected to be released into the reserves in 2027, with the ultimate goal of having about 50 tigers roaming the wilds of Kazakhstan.
This would create opportunities for tourism in terms of tiger watching, but could potentially affect people's willingness to freely enjoy nature in this area.
The Ile-Balkhash reserve was created in 2018 and is specially prepared for tigers, as it has been home to more than 200 deer and over 100 kulans. The kulans are donkey-like animals from Central Asia that will enrich the “menu” of large predators.
The $30 million tiger project is a joint effort between Kazakhstan and Russia, where the animals were taken, and is funded by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan was once home to a significant tiger population, but due to hunting and habitat destruction, their numbers are estimated to have fallen to around ten by the mid-1930s. By 1948, these predators were believed to have completely disappeared from the territory of present-day Kazakhstan.
"This project sends a message to the world. No country has ever managed to bring back a species of large mammal that had gone extinct, especially a predator," said Sergey Aramilev, general director of the Russian Amur Tiger Center, speaking about the project in Kazakhstan. If the initiative proves successful, he said the animals' return "will show other countries that this is possible."/ REL
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