PICTURES: Highland Wildlife Park awareness of endangered species raised as International Tiger Day marked at Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) attraction with efforts to counter poaching and habitat loss highlighted

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) has celebrated International Tiger Day at Highland Wildlife Park to mark work done to protect the endangered species.

The tigers there were presented with "a colourful box of straw and perfume" which staff described as "an enrichment for their endangered Amur tiger family".

The wildlife conservation charity says its tigers represent an important contribution to the future of this endangered species at risk of extinction due to extensive habitat loss and poaching.

As well as being part of the European endangered species breeding programme, RZSS has supported tiger conservation in Nepal by developing methods to evaluate tiger diets within the RZSS WildGenes laboratory based at Edinburgh Zoo.

The Highland Wildlife Park is currently home to five endangered Amur tigers – Botzman and Dominika and their three one-year-old cubs, Layla, Nishka and Aleksander.

The Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) is the largest of all the big cats.

Previously known as Siberian tigers, the Amur tiger was renamed in the 1990s as the last tigers had long disappeared from Siberia. They are now found only in isolated populations around the Amur river valley in the far east of Russia and on China's north-east border

Highland Wildlife Park’s Amur tigers are part of the European Endangered Species programme

International Tiger Day is an annual celebration to raise awareness of tiger conservation.

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