This is the heart-warming moment a pair of orphaned tiger cubs are released back into the wild after being found scavenging for food in a town.

The cubs were taken in by experts at the Wildlife Rehab Centre in Dalnerechensky District, in Primorsky Krai, eastern Russia, and spent months learning how to hunt for their prey and avoid humans.

Now the brother and sister, aged about 18 months, have been returned to their natural environment as a secret location where experts expect them to thrive.

Footage of the release, recorded by the Siberian Tiger Centre and shared on 12th May, shows the pair in separate cages on the back of pick up trucks.

The male, on the left, can be heard snarling and battering at the sliding door before it even opens.

As it is lifted up he takes a few swipes at it with his massive paws before sprinting off into the forest.

His sister, though, seems more cautious, and stays in her open cage until she is sure the coast is clear.

This release was part of a conservation bid to boost the population of endangered Siberian tigers, with fewer than 500 big cats in the wild.