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The 'Amur Leopard' (''Panthera pardus orientalis'' or ''Panthera pardus amurensis'') is the rarest subspecies of leopard . A species of leopard that lives in the northernmost climate, they are facing extinction, as there are less than forty Amur leopards left living in the wild.

Contents

Common name

Habitat

Behavior

Physiology

Conservation

References

External links

Common name

Its common name comes from the Amur River; other common names for this subspecies are "Far East Leopard" and the "Siberian Leopard".

Habitat

This species was originally distributed throughout the Korean Peninsula, northeastern China, and southeastern Russia; the majority of its range overlapping with that of the Siberian Tiger. But today, it is extremely close to extinction with only 25 to 34 known individuals remaining in the Sikhote-Alin mountains of southern Russia (only 6 of these are female), while it is estimated that at least 100 are needed if the species is to avoid extinction.^[1][2] A few individuals are thought to remain on the Kaema Plateau and Baekdusan of North Korea, but the status of the species here is unknown. Habitat destruction and the fur trade have diminished its numbers dramatically, and have resulted in the animal becoming the rarest extant member of the feline family on the planet. It has also been suggested that poachers (interested in the Leopard's fur and meat) helped bring about this magnificant creature's downfall; however, there is no solid evidence to support this.

Behavior

Although their range overlaps with that of the Siberian Tiger, the population of that feline is not as heavily affected as it is for leopards living near tigers in different regions. Amur Leopards tend to avoid living or hunting too close to tiger territory to avoid direct competition for prey.
Like all leopards, they are very skillful and opportunistic hunters, though their usual diet consists of roe and sika deer, hares, badgers and smaller rodents. They are solitary animals with primarily nocturnal habits. It lives in forest areas mainly

Physiology

The Amur Leopard stands apart from the ten other living subspecies of leopard with its longer fur, helping it better cope with the cold, harsh conditions of the taiga.
The fur is golden orange and about 2.5 cm long during the summer but grows to around 7 cm during the winter, when it also lightens to a pale cream colour. Its fur has larger and more widely spaced rosettes than other leopards.

Conservation

While the Amur Leopard inhabits the same area as the Siberian Tiger, it has received far less attention from the media and from charities. The Amur leopard is the rarest of all the big cats, and is in immediate danger of dying out in the wild. It is suffering from habitat loss and is especially vulnerable to natural disasters, such as fire, because of extensive habitat fragmentation. Amur Leopards prefer to live in forested territory, but most of its remaining territory is surrounded by farms and villages, making poaching easier.
Russian plans for building an oil pipeline through the last remaining habitat of the Amur leopard were recently redirected to a safer route after pressure from the WWF and other environmental organizations.
A Population Management Plan has been established for this subspecies of leopard. The PMP is a cooperative effort among zoos and other captive-animal facilities to monitor the status and plan breeding of the current captive population.
On April 16, 2007 a female was shot and killed by hunters, leaving only six females left in the wild.^[3][4]

References

1. Group: Amur leopard close to extinction
2. Leopard Near Extinction -- Only About 30 Remain
3. Hunters kill one of last surviving Amur leopards
4. Yahoo News: Hunters kill one of last Amur Leopards

External links

★ ARKive

★ Saving the Amur Leopard: "Amur Leopard Conservation Support Programme"

★ The Tigris Foundation -- dedication to the conservation of the Amur leopard

★ Oregon Zoo fact sheet and videos

★ WWF: World’s longest oil pipeline re-routed in Russia's Far East, endangered leopard habitat spared

★ WCS Russia