Siberian tigers & Amur leopards Photography tours! Come to discover wild Russia!

[Olga.bohai]

The@"peter" 

Dear Peter,
Thank you for this detailed information, your suggestions and request. I'll try answer you as detailed as I can))

(12-07-2018, 02:03 AM)peter Wrote: 1 - Long flight.

Our tourists who'd already come here don't think the flight is really long as real wildlife lovers go also to Latin America, US national parks and Australia and flight time is not important for them. Our aim tourists should understand that you can't see real wildlife in one-hour drive from Amsterdam for example. Also the most of European big cities have direct flights to Moscow, so it means only one transshipment to Vladivostok on the way.

(12-07-2018, 02:03 AM)peter Wrote: 2 - Costly affair for a tour of 8-9 days only. 

Yes, I agree that our prices are pretty high, that is mostly because of reserves' charges. To attract rare animals the reserves do huge job, they feed enormous amounts of ungulates in winter, pay salaries to their big staff, starting from scientists finishing rangers who protect wildlife against poachers and who need good transport, many equipments and so on. Another point is big distances and high transportation charges. Plus the Far East in Russia is the most expensive region, the prices for everything here are minimum twice higher than in Moscow. We're lucky that the Ruble became twice weaker 4 years ago, otherwise we'd never started such tours because their price'd be 10000 us dollars and more...

(12-07-2018, 02:03 AM)peter Wrote: 3 - Visum.

It is very easy to get Russian tourist visa. It usually takes no longer than one week. Some countries are visa free in Russia.

(12-07-2018, 02:03 AM)peter Wrote: 4 - You might get tired.  

In our tours you spend the first night in the hotels to come through jet lag and gather strength.

(12-07-2018, 02:03 AM)peter Wrote: 5 - No additional tropical attractions to recover from the ordeal of possibly meeting a wild leopard or tiger.

The main reason is tour price first, second our tigers and leopards tours are run in winter time as it is easier to attract them in winter because of lack of food in the forest and there is not much to do here in winter, especially in -10-20 C. But we provide great tours (without tigers and leopards) in summer time from May to October with great landscapes, seashore, fishing in wild taiga etc.
Plus our Lazo tigers tour is run all year round and in summer we provide additional tours around the reserves (sea bays, wild beautiful rivers and mountains) on request.

Our main customers are wildlife photographers, they usually don't need another attractions, they prefer to spend all the time in the hides waiting for the tigers and leopards.

(12-07-2018, 02:03 AM)peter Wrote: 6 - No real interest in the natural world.

So this is not our target audience))

(12-07-2018, 02:03 AM)peter Wrote: 7 - Politics. Over here, the western anti-anything campaign affected many.  

Real wildlife lovers don't pay attention on international affairs as everybody understands that all politics is a big theater and has nothing in common with adventures.

(12-07-2018, 02:03 AM)peter Wrote: NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS AND TIGER SKULLS

We don't have any natural history museums here, only historical. But I saw several tigers sculls in Leopard Land National park scientific department.
I've called now there and to Sikhote Alin reserve to ask them about skulls but their scientists are offline now, it is a busy time, I think everybody in taiga now setting camera traps for new leopards and tigers census. When they recall me I will ask them about tigers sculls and possibility for scientists to come, I think it is very possible. 
I can help you with such journey with the contacts, information and transportation without attending such trip. Some scientists in the reserves speak English. Also there is American guy who's been living and working in Terney for WCS for more than 20 years (next to Sikhote-Alin reserve), you can write directly to him, I think he also can help you Dale Miquelle [email protected]. He was a consultant for several wildlife movies for BBC, Netflix and others. 

So I will update my info about tigers sculls after get the scientists though the phone call. Thank you for your attention! Reply