A poacher who shot an Amur tiger and attempted to sell its skin for 210,000 rubles ($6,355) will stand trial at a court in the Primorye region.
The 24-year-old resident of Roshino, a village in the Krasnoarmeisky district, is charged with illegal hunting, the region's police department said Friday.
He faces up to two years in prison if convicted.
A trial date has not yet been set.
In May, the defendant admitted to shooting the adult female Amur tiger with a 28-gauge shotgun, after which he removed the animal's skin and threw the carcass and his gun into the Bolshaya Ussurka river, Interfax reported.
Police managed to catch the poacher by posing as potential buyers.
After meeting the accused in a forest, one of the police officers took out the tiger skin and estimated its value at 210,000 rubles. After the purchase took place, the suspect was arrested after initially showing resistance.
Endangered Amur tigers are found only in the Primorye and Khabarovsk regions. There are only about 450 left. They are listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
The World Wildlife Fund said recently that at least 19 Amur tigers have been killed by poachers in Russia since 2012. Body parts and skeletons of 19 dead tigers were discovered during seven criminal investigations by Russian authorities, planetsave.com reported.
