Amur leopard - World’s Rarest Wild Cat Doubles in Number

The Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) is a leopard subspecies native to the Primorye region of southeastern Russia and Jilin Province of northeast China, and is classified as Critically Endangered since 1996 by IUCN. Only 14–20 adults and 5–6 cubs were counted in a census in 2007, with a total of 19–26 Amur leopards extant in the wild.

 

Amur leopards differ from other subspecies by a thick coat of spot covered fur. They show the strongest and most consistent divergence in pattern. Leopards from the Amur river basin, the mountains of north-eastern China and the Korean peninsula have pale cream-colored coats, particularly in winter. Rosettes on the flanks are 5 cm × 5 cm (2.0 in × 2.0 in) and widely spaced, up to 2.5 cm (0.98 in), with thick, unbroken rings and darkened centers.

At least 57 Amur leopards now exist in Russia’s Land of the Leopard National Park, up from just 30 cats counted in 2007, according to new census data announced last week. An additional 8 to 12 leopards were counted in adjacent areas of China, meaning the number of Amur leopards, a rare subspecies considered the world’s rarest wild cat, has more than doubled over the past seven years.

The census - taken with camera traps spread out over more than 900,000 acres of primary leopard habitat - collected around ten thousand photographs which scientists used to identify nearly 60 individual animals, judging by the distinctive pattern of spots on the leopards’ fur. The census was carried out by the Land of the Leopard National Park jointly with the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, with the support of The Amur Leopard Center and WWF-Russia.

“Such a strong rebound in Amur leopard numbers is further proof that even the most critically endangered big cats can recover if we protect their habitat and work together on conservation efforts” said Dr. Barney Long, who leads Asian species conservation for World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in the US. “There’s still a lot of work to be done in order to secure a safe future for the Amur leopard, but these numbers demonstrate that things are moving in the right direction.”

Land of the Leopard National Park, which includes all of the Amur leopard’s known breeding areas, was hailed as a lifeline to the critically endangered cat when established in 2012. The park extends across nearly 650,000 acres, and is also home to the endangered Amur tiger.

According to Yury Darman, head of WWF Russia Amur Branch and a member of the Supervisory Board of The Amur Leopards Center, "The national park became the main organizational force for leopard protection and research.”

Conservationists are working towards monitoring leopard populations across the border in neighboring Chinese nature reserves. One of the highly anticipated next steps would be the establishment of a Sino-Russian transboundary nature reserve.