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Far Eastern leopard’s mating habits revealed

This is the first time when photographs of a leopard of this age in heat were obtained

VLADIVOSTOK, February 14. /TASS/. Specialists from the Land of the Leopard National Park in the Primorsky Region have for the first time obtained photographs of the mating games of the rare Far Eastern leopard at the age of 13, with their average life span being 12 years, the national park's press service reported on Monday.

"A big cat named Valera, at the advanced age of 13 had a romantic encounter with a young female. A photo trap captured the meeting of the world's rarest leopards and the process of mating. Photographs of a leopard of this age in heat were obtained for the first time. Thirteen years is a considerable age, given that the average lifespan of the Far Eastern leopard in the wild is about 12 years. Nevertheless, the elderly leopard demonstrated comfortable behavior and even communicated with the opposite sex which is indicative of its good health", the report says.

The female Far Eastern leopard is only about two years old and this is the first time she has been photographed in the national park. According to scientists, obtaining such data from the wild is an extremely rare event, which is of great value for science and allows one to track relationships between the animals and build family trees. Such work helps one better understand the social and spatial structure of populations, migration and dispersal patterns of animals, and eventually develop optimal conservation measures.

"Thanks to the snapshots we got valuable information both about Valera himself, who showed that he was fine, and about the life of Far Eastern leopards in general. At 13, the animal continues to live a full life, which expands our knowledge of the ecology of this subspecies of leopards. The success of the work of the national park is obvious", the press service quotes Marina Syrytsa, head of the science department of "Land of the Leopard", as saying.

The leopard received the name Valera thanks to the hockey club "Admiral", whose players in 2014 became his keepers and named the predator in honor of the legendary Soviet hockey player Valery Kharlamov. Leopards can breed at any time of the year. Usually, their mating lasts only a few days, and after a short married life, they quickly lose interest in each other. In the event a female successfully conceives, she carries the pregnancy for about 90 days and gives birth to up to three kittens.

The Far Eastern leopard is the rarest big cat in the world. In the early 2000s, there were only about 35 wild specimens of this predator left in the world. The animal was on the brink of extinction. Thanks to the creation of the Land of the Leopard National Park, the population has increased considerably and has grown to 110 animals.