海参崴新闻

Amur leopard is the rarest wild cat in the world. Locals sometimes call him a panther. His body length is 130 cm, male’s weight is 70 kg, female’s is 42 kg. Spots on leopard’s skin are unique. It's impossible to find two leopards with the same patterns. A distinctive feature of Amur leopards is grey or blue eyes. Others have yellow or brown eyes. Leopards prefer mountainous borders of three countries – Russia, China and North Korea. This is what we call “Leopard’s land”.

Leopard usually feeds on deer, hares, roe deer, badgers. Sometimes it can even catch a bird. The cat does not hunt every day. A leopard can live several days on one deer. Amur leopards have wonderful sight and sense of smell. It is not possible to hide from them on trees, as they can climb really well. Also, they are great swimmers.

Only 100 years ago you could meet an Amur wild cat almost all over Primorsky region. But in 1980 their natural habitat shrank drastically to a small island in the Southwest part of Primorye. Many specialists were able to increase the number of cats from 30 to 80 within 15 years. However, leopards are still threatened. The program of reintroduction started in 2017 and can make a reserve population of the leopards in Lazo’s national park. For doing it, no wild cats are going to be caught. Leopards from different zoos all over the world will make the population’s basis. The posterity of these cats will be trained in a special education program. Only cats that will show great hunting skills and ability to avoid humans will go into the wild.

News source: www.vestiprim.ru