KNOWSLEY Safari Park is launching a new trail for summer this month, where visitors can now explore the forest in search of tigers.

The Amur Tiger Trail, which has taken more than a year to complete, is based on a Russian themed habitat and will be unveiled at a grand opening on Thursday, May 24.

Guests visiting throughout the summer are invited to learn all about the Amur tiger - also known as the Siberian tiger while journeying through its habitat where there will be full length viewing windows and experiences on offer.

Edward Perry, managing director at Knowsley Safari, said: “This is the first major habitat development we’ve undertaken in recent years and it sets the standard of things to come at Knowsley Safari.

"As always, our starting point was to create an enriching and natural landscape for our Amur tiger sisters, Sinda and Bira to explore and enjoy.

“As well as creating a great environment for our sisters to thrive, we also wanted to bring our visitors a real taste of what makes the Amur Tiger different to other subspecies and educate them on the challenges they face in the wild - all through play and fun.

"We want this to be an active experience for our guests and so we’ve created lots of different activities around the habitat for them to explore and learn from.”

Amur tigers are an endangered species with numbers thought to be around 500 in the wild.

Of the nine subspecies of tiger, three are already extinct and the Amur tiger are the largest living species remaining.

Eveline de Wolf, head of living collection at Knowsley Safari, added: “This is the first of many new plans we have for our Amur tigers as we are working with the European Breeding programme coordinators on the introduction of a male in the coming months.

"We are also partnering with the Wild Cats Conservation Alliance to support conservation efforts protecting these magnificent predators under threat”

There is huge potential in using tigers that are in breeding programmes to boost the health of the wild tigers.

The new facility at Knowsley Safari has been designed to enable breeding and contribute to the global breeding programme.