For more than 20 years, under the leadership of Park director Ulf Henriksson, Junsele Djurpark has been actively involved in the important conservation work to save these beautiful animals from extinction. In the 1940’s the Bengali Tiger was almost extinct in Russia. Thanks to very aggressive conservation laws the numbers climbed until the 1990’s when the economy of Russia crumbled and hunting them became a way to make money fast. Today efforts remain to stop the killing of Siberian Tigers. With less than 500 of them left in the wild, each one that dies brings the species closer to extinction. The tigers kept in Junsele are an important part of keeping the genetic pool healthy and help to prevent the extinction of these majestic creatures.