This is the moment an endangered Siberian tigress stretches and lets out a big yawn after a long sleep as she prepares to hunt food for her cubs.
The footage was captured in Primorsky Krai, in the Russian Far East, on Monday, 9th March 2026, and was obtained from the Amur Tiger Centre on 12th March.
The clip shows the Siberian tiger, also known as an Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), stretching in the snow and letting out a huge yawn before heading off, presumably to hunt for food for her cubs.
The Centre said that the clip showed “tiger gymnastics”, adding: “Tigers can sleep 16-20 hours a day.
“Stretching helps them prepare for activity after a long rest: it restores muscle tone and warms them up before movement.
“This video, captured by a camera trap in Primorsky Krai, shows a nursing tigress. Her readiness to hunt prey depends not only on her own food supply but also on the well-being of her cubs.”
Siberian tigers once faced extinction after decades of hunting, poaching, and habitat destruction dramatically reduced their numbers in the wild by the 1940s.
But strict protection measures and conservation efforts in Russia and neighbouring countries gradually helped the population recover, particularly in the forests of the Russian Far East where most of the animals live.
Today, the global wild population is estimated at roughly 500 to 600 Siberian tigers, with the vast majority living in Russia and smaller numbers spreading into north-east China.
Although the species remains endangered, its recovery from near-extinction is widely regarded as one of the more significant conservation successes, despite threats such as poaching, habitat loss, and prey decline continuing to threaten it.
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