Yahoo News 24 Apr 10;
TEHRAN (AFP) – Russia has delivered two wild Siberian tigers to Iran in a swap deal in which Moscow has procured two Persian leopards, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.
The swap on Friday was agreed earlier this year during a visit of Russian Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutneve to Tehran.
By procuring the Siberian tigers, Tehran hopes to re-introduce the species some 50 years after its extinction in the country.
"In order to re-introduce the species, two Siberian tigers were brought from Russia, including a pregnant tigress expected to deliver a cub in two months," said Mohammad Javad Mohammadizadeh, head of Iran's environmental body.
He said the two animals will remain under observation in Tehran's Eram Zoo for nearly a month, and then be taken to a habitat in the northern Mazandaran province.
"Russian zoologists will manage the tigers' habitat here (in Iran) for five years and we will do the same for our leopards there," Mohammadizadeh said.
He said the Russian plane that brought the tigers was to head back with the leopards, which are to be kept near the city of Sochi.
The reintroduction of the Persian leopard -- extinct in Russia's Caucasus since the start of the last century -- is being championed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
