Amur Leopard

I wish that I could say that this was taken on location in the mountains and that I spent weeks trekking just to get this photo, however I cannot!

The Picture was taken at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Kent, they run breeding programs for rare cats and unfortunately are not open to the public.

The Amur Leopard is a wild feline predator native to the Russian Far East, and also the mountainous areas of the taiga as well as other temperate forests.

It is one of the rarest felids in the world with an estimated 35 to 45 individuals remaining in the wild. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has deemed the Amur leopard critically endangered, meaning that it is considered to be facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. It’s main threats are hunting by the chinese for medicine and by the russians for fur.

Habitiat destruction is also becoming more and more of a threat for these animals as secluded groups are cut off from each other by expanding urbanisation making breeding more and more difficult.