Endangered Amur tiger captured in stunning camera trap picture

Away from the madness of the world, a stunning Siberian tiger pauses in a quiet forest in this jaw-dropping picture.

The scene was captured in December 2021 by wildlife photographer Sascha Fonseca using a hidden camera trap.

Sascha, from Germany, says the image is special as Amur tigers are endangered and this was an undocumented male.

He explains: “A male Siberian tiger passed by my camera trap deep in the forests of Far East Russia.

“It turned out that it’s an unknown male which had not been documented yet. So, the researchers I work with during my camera trap project invited me to give him a name.

“We agreed on ‘Leo’ because of the distinctive L pattern on his left cheekbone, and after the famous Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.

“The very fact that there are wild Amur tigers in the world today is something of a miracle. Only 3-4% of the area of an Amur tiger’s range are protected by wildlife reserves and national parks.

“Habitat loss, logging and mining, poaching, hunting, and a shrinking gene pool – the world's largest cat clings to existence amidst a large number of interconnected problems.”