The tigress came to the huntsman for help to save her baby

Ivan had spent decades as a forest ranger, his eyes having witnessed the secrets of the wild. Among these secrets was the elusive Amur tiger, a jewel of the wilderness.

The Amur tiger, an exquisite species, finds itself scarce in these realms. Ivan was well-aware that these majestic creatures are enshrined in the International Red Book and are shielded from hunters by law.

On a day steeped in the mundane tasks of rural living, the stillness was shattered for Ivan. While tending to his small homestead, a tigress manifested herself before him. On this occasion, his hands were unadorned with weaponry, though in a heartbeat, he could have been reduced to prey.

Approaching with a hush that belied her strength, the tigress bore a wound – a whisper of grass stained red betrayed this. Ivan’s seasoned mind pieced together the tragedy: a poacher’s greed had pierced her flesh. The tigress locked eyes with the human before her, an unspoken treaty of mutual respect and trust laid bare in her gaze. Then, as if compelled by an invisible thread, she vanished into the depths of the taiga. Her return was punctuated by the presence of a companion.

The tigress gingerly laid a tiny tiger cub, barely a month old and not yet seeing the world, by the doorstep of Ivan’s abode before retreating once more into nature’s embrace.

Ivan embraced the responsibility that fate had thrust upon him, nurturing the cub with bottle in hand until it could feast on more robust fare. The cub, which Ivan fondly called Cupid, flourished, frolicking with the resident felines and canines on the farmstead.

As seasons turned, Cupid’s stature grew from cub to majestic beast under Ivan’s stewardship. And when the time ripened, Cupid ventured back into the wilderness from whence he came.

Yet the Amur tiger faces threats not natural but man-made. Poachers — drawn by the allure of black markets where tiger parts are concocted into potions and salves, believed to hold curative powers — continue to pose danger to these noble beasts. It is this insatiable thirst for wealth that menaces the splendor of species like the Amur tiger.