Letter from Victor Yudin, Gaivoron, Russia, dated 6.5.99

Dear Hazel,

Thank you very much for your kind letter. We are very thankful to all inhabitants of Australia for their wish to help us in preservation and studying our tigers.

On summer 1998, we had 7 tigers: 2 adults, 3 cubs aged 2, and 2 cubs of 1.5 months. The family lived very friendly, but the territory was too small for them. Once Nyurka dipped a little cub accidentally into the water reservoir, and he got water into his lungs. The cub needed serious medical treatment, so we gave him officially to a rich man for temporary keeping and medical treatment. Then an accident happened to that tiger cub. He was twice operated on, and now he is healthy.

We had to pass the other tiger cubs to the Moscow Circus free of charge, as we had no financial opportunity to keep so many tigers any further. It happened in September 1998.

In future we would like to bring up tiger cubs in such a way that it would be possible to let them live in a wild. With a purpose of working out methods of adaptation of young tigers in natural conditions.

We certainly need help in reconstruction of our farm.

1. It is necessary to build 1 or two other small enclosures up to 1 hectare, so we need to purchase net and other material at the amount of about - $1400
2. Cost and installation of electric fence - $ 510
3. Purchase of spare parts and gasolinefor cars for 1 year - $1500
4. Payment for 2 assistants for serving and guarding animals for 1 year - $5500
5. We started to build a new base near the enclosure. To complete it we need - $15000
6. The most difficult thing in our work is to supply tigers with meat. To purchase it for two tigers we need $15 a day. When cubs are born, they will need more food.

Hazel, we are thankful to you and David that you remember about us and our tigers.

You are always welcome to Gaivoron.
 

Sincerely yours,

(signed) Viktor and Lena

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Letter from Victor Yudin, dated 6.6.99

Dear Hazel and David,

Thank you very much for the money we received in the Western Union on June 6, 99.

We are very grateful to Australian people who donated their money for keeping our tigers. This amount we use only to make the living of our tigers better. Now we have 5 tigers (2 adults and 3 tiger cubs).

Later we shall inform you of what we use the money for.
 

Sincerely yours,

(signed) Viktor and Lena

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Excerpt from personal letter to Hazel & David, dated 11.7.00

"At present, there are boring works near tigers' enclosure. The works are going for a week already, but the water is not found yet. The borehole will be very deep and expensive as well."

This borehole has been made possible by the generosity of Australian supporters of Viktor & Lena and they are very grateful..

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Letter from Viktor & Lena Yudin, translated and sent by their daughter, Yulia, 8.7.00

Dear Australian Friends,

We, Viktor and Lena Yudin, are very grateful to you for your help and participation in destiny of our tigers. Every time we give food to them we tell them about you, and they eat meat with pleasure. We are thankful to everybody and invite you to visit our tigers. At present we have five tigers * a male (named Kucher), a female (named Nyurka) and three cubs (we call them Kucheryata * children of Kucher). They know their names quite well, and when we call them, they run quickly catching up with each other. Nyurka and Kucher were born in forest. When they were about 6 or 7 months they lost their mothers and were caught in very bad condition. They were dying of frost and hunger. It was very difficult to save them, but we managed to do it. Now they become parents themselves for the fourth time.

This winter was very cold, it was about from *29 degrees to *39 degrees. This temperature is uncomfortable for us but not for the tigers! When they were not hungry, it was a pleasure for them to lie on the snow or to play with each other.

There was also a lot of snow * about 45cm. It?s too much, especially for wild ungulates that wild tigers hunt for in the taiga (forest). The tiger also does not like to walk in deep snow and so use roads or paths and sometimes meet people. Some people shoot tigers, sometimes kill them, and sometimes a wounded tiger kills a man. Fortunately, thanks to your help, our tigers are not hungry. Two or three times a month we give them animals alive to support their predatory instincts and to teach cubs to get food.

The tigress loves her children very much and never offends them even when they hurt her. Usually cubs bite their mother by her ears, tail or legs. Sometimes it hurts her so much she cries out in pain, but she never punishes them.

In our enclosure there are three shelters where tigers may hide from bad weather. In October 1999 we built one more shelter with a cave and an observation site. Nyurka likes to lie on this site and observe surroundings. We built it thanks to your help.

The main task of our work is not only to keep our tigers, but also to find a way to bring them up so that they should be able to live independently in natural conditions. We shall consider our task realised when we can let out our trained tiger cubs into the wild and be sure they have adapted well and become real wild tigers.

We know already how to do it. At present we don?t have opportunity to organise radio tracking, as it demands a lot of work and money.

Dear friends! We are very proud of our friendship. We are happy that you like animals, you like tigers and help them survive. If we, together, protect them * tiger, koala, panda, dingo, far-eastern leopard and other animals, we will certainly keep them for future generation of people.

Sincerely grateful,

(signe) Lena and Viktor Yudin