Three Amur tiger cubs were caught by a dashboard camera of a passing car when they wandered onto a highway in Russia's far eastern Primorye region, the Interfax news agency reported Thursday.
The cubs appeared to have been unaccompanied by their mother, as researchers found no tracks of adult tigers at the scene, the report said. The cubs' tracks indicated the animals were about six months old, Interfax reported.
The video footage, captured by a local resident's camera and submitted to the region's “Leopard Land” nature preserve, showed three tiger cubs appearing on the highway, and then ?€?running off in different directions,?€? a spokesperson for the park was quoted as saying.
Amur tigers are a highly endangered species. But their population in southern Primorye is believed to have been growing recently, causing increasingly frequent encounters between local residents and the animals, researchers were cited by Interfax as saying.