VLADIVOSTOK, April 5. /TASS/. The number of Amur leopards, the rarest wild cats on the planet, living in Russia’s Land of the Leopard National Park in the Primorsky Region, has risen to 125 adults and 13 cubs, Marina Syritsa, head of the science department at the national park, told reporters at a press conference.
According to last year’s figures, there were 121 adult leopards in the national park.
"New data on the number of Amur leopards. Thanks to the largest photo-monitoring network in Russia, we’ve managed to acquire over a million photographs, including over 11,000 photos of leopards alone. The data obtained allow us to assess the number of leopards in the protected territory. There are 125 adult cats, <…> and at least 13 cubs were born," she said.
According to Syritsa, the population of predator felines remains stable. Data obtained from photo traps show that leopards continue to spread over the territory of the species’ historical range. Further growth in the number of leopards is the result, among other factors, of the preservation of the number and density of ungulates (hoofed mammals) within the national park and the possibility of the wild cats’ dispersal to new territories.
The Amur leopard is the rarest wild cat in the world and one of the rarest animals on the planet. In Russia, this predator inhabits only the Land of the Leopard National Park in the Primorsky Region. Listed as endangered in the Russian Red Data Book, the Amur leopard is among the 13 priority animal species under Russia’s "Ecology" national project.