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Rare spotted cats found beyond Land of the Leopard National Park
Rare spotted cats found beyond Land of the Leopard National Park
28 august 2018
The Amur leopards were captured by camera traps to the north of the national park, in the Poltavsky Provincial Wildlife Refuge. The new data have been received by WWF Russia.
For a long time the Land of the Leopard National Park
was considered the utmost frontier of the rare species home
range. Though over the time the population stared to grow and expand
beyond the protected area.
WWF received the information on the expansion. In 2018, the camera traps fixed not less than 10 kilometers away from the national park’s borders registered three adult leopards and one cub.
After analyzing the data, the staff of NP concluded
that from the scientific point of view the registered animals are new for the
leopard “family”. These cats have never been captured in national park – the spots patterns do not resemble
any of the “passports” of already known leopards.
Historically, the Amur leopard home range encompassed
the Poltavsky Refuge but due to the land exploitation, infrastructure
development and poaching the number of leopards has dropped. Today, thanks to
the efforts of conservationists the population is growing and the animals come
back to the areas they have not been seen in decades.
WWF Russia plans to enlarge the research area further north expecting to find more leopards.
It is to be recalled that earlier it was found out
that the Amur leopards also expand to the south towards North Korea.
The project is run with the funds from the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and the National Fish and
Wildlife Foundation.
For additional information please contact
Senior Project Coordinator
