The banner, reading 'Amur Tigers – Five Weeks To Go', has raised interest in the latest addition to the strath's fauna, but these big cats will be kept securely under lock and key.

A team from the Royal Engineers arrived at the park near Kincraig nearly a year ago to help build a strong enclosure for the two tigers, and the Army will also be called in to help transport Sasha and Yuri north from their current home at Edinburgh Zoo.

The pair have already produced two litters of cubs, in 2000 and 2003, and staff at the park hope they will also breed at the wildlife park.

Amur tigers are recognised as the largest species of cat in the world, and live in the far east of Asia. They were previously known as Siberian tigers, but this name is no longer used after the native population in that area died out.

Sasha and Yuri have been sent to the Highland Wildlife Park as part of an international breeding programme for the conservation of the endangered species, numbers of which fell to less than 50 in the middle of the last century.

The success of a captive breeding programme in zoos around the world has seen numbers rise to several hundred, and Daska MacIntosh at the park said staff were excited about the possiblity of welcoming a new litter of cubs.

"Just getting the tigers is amazing, but the arrival of cubs would be wonderful," she said. "All the staff are hugely excited."

She added: "We are just making a few final alterations to the enclosure, and once we get approval for that, we will move them in and let them settle for a week or 10 days before the public see them.

"Hopefully we will be ready to welcome people in time for the October school holidays."

Amur tigers are larger than Bengal tigers, their closest cousins, and in the wild live on pigs, deer, cattle and buffalo.

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