Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin got a tigress cub for his birthday and will give the animal to a zoo, state broadcaster Vesti-24 reported.

Putin, who turned 56 on Oct. 7, was shown stroking the two- month-old tigress at a meeting with Russian journalists at his residence outside Moscow.

The prime minister said he was thinking of naming her Mashenka or Milashka. The tigress, who now weighs 10 kilograms, is sleeping in a basket at his home and will soon be transferred to a zoo, he said. Putin wouldn't reveal who gave him the present, while saying it was his most original birthday gift.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, 32, who owes his position as leader of the mainly Muslim southern Russian region to Putin, keeps lions and tigers.

At the end of August, Putin shot an Amur tiger with a tranquilizer gun after the big cat escaped a trap set by scientists in Russia's Far East, according to state media. A Vesti film crew at the scene said the tiger attacked after breaking free from a noose.

Putin was visiting the Ussuriisk preserve to review a program to save the rare cats, which are threatened by poaching, construction and logging in their habitat. There are about 500 of the cats left in the wild, according to the WWF conservation organization.

The Russian state media often portray Putin in action, showing photos and video of him co-piloting a fighter jet, practicing judo and riding and fishing bare-chested in the mountains in Tuva, Siberia.

To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 10, 2008 03:19 EDT