Russian leader Vladimir Putin has been given a birthday present with bite, a rare tiger cub. State television showed the prime minister tenderly petting the two-month-old female Ussuri at his residence outside Moscow. Mr Putin said a good home will be found for the tiger, presumably in a zoo or wildlife preserve. He refused to say who gave him the cub for his 56th birthday, which was on Tuesday. Fewer than 400 Ussuri tigers are believed to survive in the wild, most of them in Russia and some in China. They are the largest tiger species, weighing up to 600 pounds.