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WWF�Russia19, bld.3 Nikoloyamskaya St.,109240 Moscow RussiaTel.: +7 495 727 09 39Fax: +7 495 727 09 38 [email protected] http://www.wwf.ru
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WWF is one of the world's largest and most experienced independent conservation organ�izations, with almost 5 million supporters and a global network active in more than 100countries.
WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build afuture in which humans live in harmony with nature, by:– conserving the world's biological diversity– ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable– promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.
Publication of this album has been made possible through the financialsupport of WWF�Germany and WWF�US. WWF�Russia expresses aspecial thanks to WWF supporters in Japan and appreciates thetremendous work of WWF�Japan staff to promote conservation of theFar Eastern leopard.
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Vladivostok,
2006
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RE Aramilev, V.V., and Fomenko, P. V. 2000. Simultaneous Survey of Far Eastern Leopards
and Amur Tigers in Southwest Primorskii Krai, Winter 2000. Final report. Augustine, J., D. G. Miquelle, and V. G. Korkishko, 1996. Preliminary Results of the FarEastern Leopard Ecology Project: Implications for Conservation and Management. ZovTaigi. No. 4.Baogang, S., D. G. Miquelle, Y. Xiaochen, E. Zhang, S. Haiyai. G. Goshen, D. G. Pikunov,Y� M. Dunishenko, and I. G. Nikolaev, and L. Darning. 1999. Survey of Amur Tigers andFar Eastern Leopards in Eastern Heilongjiang Province, China, and Recommendations fortheir Conservation. A final report to The Wildlife Conservation Society.«Conservation of the Far Eastern Leopard in the Wild» // Materials from anInternational Conference. Vladivostok. May 2001.Darman Yu., and L. Williams (eds.). 2003. Conservation Action Plan for the Russian FarEastern Eco�Region. Vladivostok.Land of the Leopard (Baklanov P. and Karakin V., editors). Vladivostok, 2002.Murzin, A. A., D. G Miquelle. 2001. Spatial Distribution of the Far Eastern Leopard inSouthwest Primorskii and Recommendations on its Preservation. Vladivostok.Ognev, S. I. 1935. Wild Animals of the USSR and Adjacent Countries. Vol. 3. Carnivora(Fissipedia and Pinnipedia). M.�L: Gosudarst. Izdat. Biol. Med. Lit., Moscow. (Transl.from Russian by Israel Prog. Sci. Transl., 1962, 741 pp.).Pikunov D.G., V. K. Abramov, V. G. Korkishko. 2000. Full range survey of the Far EasternLeoaprd and Amur Tiger in Southwest Primorskii Krai. Vladivostok.Pikunov D.G., V. K. Abramov, V. G. Korkishko, I. G. Nikolaev. 2001. Analysis of thePopulation Condition of the Far East Leopard in the Southwest Portion of its Habitat inthe Russian Far East in 2001 // Materials from a Workshop on the Conservation of theFar Eastern Leopard. Vladivostok. May 2001.Pikunov, D. G., V. K. Abramov, D. G. Miquelle. 2003. Results of Research on the FarEastern Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) and Amur Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica)Populations in Southwest of Primorskii Krai of the Russian Far East. Vladivostok.Pikunov, D. G., J. Augustine. 1996. Biology and Ecology of the Far Eastern Leopard in theWild and in Captivity. // Strategy for Preserving the Far Eastern Leopard in Russia.Materials for a Conference to Conserve the Far Eastern Leopard in the Wild. Vladivostok.Pikunov D.G., V. G. Korkishko. 1992. The Far Eastern Leopard. M.: Nauka.Polo, Marko. 1477. Description of the World. (StP, 1999)Przhevalskii, N. M. 1870. Travels in Ussuriiskii Krai. St. P.Schlegel, H. 1957. Handleiding tot de oefening der dierkunde.Strategy for Far Eastern Leopard Conservation in Russia. 1999. Moscow�Vladivosotk.Uphyrkina, O., D. Miquelle, H. Quigley, C. Driscoll, and S. J. O’Brien. ConservationGenetics of the Far Eastern Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) // Journal of Heredity,2002, V. 93 (5)Uphyrkina, O., W. E. Johnson, H. Quigley, D. Miquelle, L. Marker, M. Bush, and S. J.O’Brien. 2001. Phylogeography, genome diversity, and origin of modern leopard, Pantherapardus. Molecular Ecology. 10:2617�2633.Yang, S., J. Jiang, Z. Wu, T. Li, X. Yang, X. Han, D. G. Miquelle, D. G. Pikunov, Y. M.Dunishenko, and I. G. Nikolaev. Report on the Sino�Russian Joint Survey of Far EasternLeopards and Siberian Tigers and their Habitat in the Sino�Russian Boundary Area,Eastern Jilin Province, China, Winter, 1998. A final report to the UNDP and The WildlifeConservation Society.Yankovsky, Yu. M. 1990. Half a Century of Hunting Tigers. Vladivostok: Ussuri.
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Author text: M. Krechmar, PhD
Scientific consultant: V. Aramilev, TIG DVO RAN
© 2004 WWF. All rightsreserved
This publication is distributed free of charge.
Circulation: 500.Any reproduction in full or in part of this publicationmust mention WWF.
Editor: A. SolonitskiiDesigner: L. KabalikTranslation M. Jones
Text prepared by Center for the Protection of Wild Nature «Zov Taigi»
BSI DVO RAN – Biology and Soil Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Far Eastern Branch
ISUNR – Institute for Sustainable Natural Resource Use
TIG DVO RAN – Pacific Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Far Eastern Branch
WCS – Wildlife Conservation Society
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T THE FAR EASTERN LEOPARD – BACKDROP NUMBER ONE:
Manchurian Taiga 4THE FAR EASTERN LEOPARD – BACKDROP NUMBER TWO:
Cities, villages and military ranges 6THE FAR EASTERN LEOPARD – BACKDROP NUMBER THREE:
Protected territories 8THE LEOPARD AS IT REALLY IN IS
The study of the leopard in the recent past 10The far eastern leopard: current status 12The leopard's children 13Where and how many 14How does one count a leopard? 16Leopard research 18Leopard genetics 20The leopard and humans 22Snow and fire 26The leopard and deer farming 28Leopard protection 30Defenders of the leopard 32Environmental education 34«Rescue the leopard» 35International cooperation to protect
the far eastern leopard 36Captive breeding of the far eastern leopard 38What can be done? 40They are not sure of the existence of this animal 42The price of the leopard's fate 43
If the history of the res�cue of the tigerreminds one of a well�
written thriller that isbeing confidently «guid�ed» to a happy ending, thehistory of the leopard’sexistence in the RussianFar East reads more like adrawn out detectivenovel. And its conclusionis not nearly so obvious...
Since the very early daysof the Russian environ�mental movement, theAmur tiger has been thatmovement’s poster child.Everything about thishuge, self�confident pred�ator is satisfying: from itsphysical beauty andpower to its almost samu�rai contempt for its owndestiny. No matter what’sbeen done to the tiger, itsnumbers remain relativelystable, at least over thetime that we’ve seriouslycommitted to countingthose numbers and notjust making pro formaattempts at such.
Photograph – V. Solkin
Amur Tiger
Everyone loves the tiger.Moscow has its Kremlin.Kamchatka has its bear.And Primorskii Krai hasits tiger. These have beenthe popular images inRussia since the beginningof the 1990s.
But only a few specialistsand lovers of large catsseem to remember that inthe Russian Far East, inthe shadow of this power�ful comrade, there is yetanother exotic carnivore –the Far Eastern leopard.And in the sad hierarchyof large, rare cats that areunder threat of extinction,while the Amur tigerranks seventh, the leopardranks first.
To understand what isgoing on with this animal,you have to imagine foryourself the backdrops inwhich it lives.
Photograph – V. Solkin
Far Eastern leopard
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The Manchurian taiga, or more precisely, that little cor�ner of taiga that we call the land of the leopard, ismainly a land of low hills and a plateau less than six
hundred meters high. The slopes of these hills are steep andall are strewn with half rotten, gray cliffs. The leopard findsshelter, makes its den and gives birth to its kittens in thehoneycombs and caves that are eaten into these cliffs.
The mountains and plateau are covered with a thickly wovenblanket of forest. These are crooked oak forests with virtu�ally no understory, an atmosphere that is a lot like strollingin a city park. Just that here no one rakes up the leaves thatcover the ground in a thick, quaintly rustling carpet.
Korean pine broad leaf and oak broad leaf forests grow onthe hills, along the slopes and in places further away fromwhere the forest has already been cut. The leopard’s favoriteforest type is gloomy, thinly stocked, 200–300 year old vir�gin timber: oaks, Korean pine and abundant grass – every�thing that ungulates need – this is where our hero seeks outits basic prey. Sika deer and wild boar feel at home in theseconditions. Roe deer roam along its edges. Badgers set uptheir dens here. In a word, the leopard can make a full mealof it. These abundant crags, cliff facings and canyons areideal habitat for the leopard.
In winter the leopard, all the more its kittens, keeps a limit�ed home range, leaving behind its trails and so called«scrapes», the markings its claws make in the bark of trees.During the surveys and research conducted in southwestPrimorskii Krai in recent years, no sign of leopards wasfound in agricultural areas, in reed swamps and in sparselygrowing broad leaf deciduous forests with shrubs.
This small corner is indeedan isolated island of taiga insouthwest Primorskii Krai.The only route for makingcontact with its formerhabitat in the southernSikhote�Alin mountains isvia a narrow strip of forestbetween Terekhovka andBanevurovo, the so calledBaranovskii Corridor thatis part of the Baranovskiimilitary range from whichthe corridor takes its name.But human pressure on thisarea is increasing and thegap between the cities ofVladivostok and Ussuriiskis narrowing and the futureof this corridor could be injeopardy.
The Far Eastern leopard:M a n c h u r i a n t a i g a
Racoon dog – the key small predator in the Land of the Leopard
Олень�цветок – пятнистый олень
Siberian roe deer – one of the Far Eastern leopard’s prey
1По названию Барановского воен�ного полигона, благодаря которомуон и сохранился.
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The Korean pine –the father of all that
is the Land of theLeopard
Broad�leaved forest is one of the major habi�
tat types for the FarEastern leopard
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Leopard encounters in differenthabitat types
(Pikunov, Korkishko, 2002)
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The Far Eastern leopard:C i t i e s , v i l l a g e s a n d m i l i t a r y r a n g e s
Leopards live in the most heavily populated corner ofPrimorskii Krai: in parts of Khasanskii Raion and inthe southern reaches of two other administrative
units – Ussurriiskii and Nadezhdinskii Raions.
Its habitat is located among villages, settlements, smalltowns and military ranges. These are sites where, in an ear�lier era, pitched battles with the Japanese army occurred,battles that for the Soviet Union were the precursor toWW II.
There are three active military ranges in leopard habitatwhere tanks rumble and where cannons blast.
Fortunately for the leopard, settlements in southwestPrimorskii Krai are mostly concentrated near thecoast’s convenient bays. Humans have thus far leftthe animal the relatively untouched ridges andplateaus along the Russian�Chinese border.
Still, there are plenty of people and in KhasanskiiRaion alone there are nine villages dotting onethousand square kilometers.
The land of the leopard is less than a three hourdrive from Vladivostok. It is even closer by sea:just thirty kilometers across Peter the Great Bay.
The construction of summer residences, dachas,and recreation zones that move the gradually«expanding» Vladivostok to the south – towardthe Korean and Chinese borders – is an additionalkind of human pressure on the land of the leopard.And not just the people from Vladivostok are
building summer residences; people in Slavyanka, Zarubinoand Pos’et are also building dachas.
The land of the leopard is separated from the sea by twolarge transport corridors, the Vladivostok–Slavyanka high�way and a railway. In the future, given economic develop�ment plans, a major highway and possibly several pipelinescould cut off a third of the animal’s potential habitat.
If at some point leopard density exceeds its maximum carry�ing capacity in the current range (and we sincerely hopethat this will occur), the leopard could disperse to the northand east – onto the Pogranichnyi ridge and into the south�Local resident
Sunset over the railroad leading to Khasan
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7Agricultural activities
in the Land of the Leopard
Human tracks in the Land of the Leopard
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ern Sikhote Alin mountains, areas where it lived notso long ago. Today some relatively untouched land�scapes that unite the land of the leopard with theUssuriiskii Zapovednik remain intact. These areasare linked to the southern flanks of the Sikhote�Alinmountains by a narrow corridor of intact forest thatis found on the Baranovskii military range. But alas,dacha development from Ussuriisk and Vladivostokalong the road dissecting this forest could make itimpossible for the leopard to travel these corridors.
More critical to the fate of the leopard than roadbuilding and dacha construction is the economicplight of local residents in dozens of villages immedi�ately adjacent to protected territories. Deprived ofwork, with no funds to move in search of employ�ment, dozens if not hundreds of people head into thetaiga to look for food and for a means to survive. Andby default, the Far Eastern leopard is their victim.
The Economy of SouthwestPrimorskii Krai
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Leopard tracks (surveys 1997-2003)
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The Far Eastern leopard:P r o t e c t e d t e r r i t o r i e s
The system of protected territories inFar Eastern leopard habitat consistsof one small highly restricted reserve
(«zapovednik») that is under the manage�ment of the Soil And Biology Institute ofthe Far Eastern Branch of the RussianAcademy of Sciences, and two wildliferefuges («zakaznik») that are under themanagement of the Primorskii KraiDepartment for the Protection, Monitoringand Managing of Hunting Resources.
These two wildlife reserves and theZapovednik «Kedrovaya Pad» cover only asmall area, about forty percent, of currentFar Eastern leopard habitat. This figure isdeceptive, however. For one, the leopard’s
current range is significantly smaller thanits historic range. Secondly, total habitat isbetween 250,000 and 400,000 hectares, asmall area that doesn’t begin to comparewith the size of the Sihote�Alin BiosphericZapovednik, for example. And finally, theexisting protected territory system is dis�persed, is poorly organized and financed.The protected territories offer different val�ues for the leopard, that depend on habitatconditions, the standing managementregime and the effectiveness of protectionactivities. Only tiny «Kedrovaya Pad»Zapovednik acts as a permanent, fixed areaof leopard habitat.
Type and Name of Protected Territory Year Created Area,
hectares
Zapovednik «Kedrovaya Pad» 1916 18,000
Federal Wildlife Refuge «Barsovii» 1979 106,900
Regional Wildlife Reserve «Borisovskoe Plateau»
1996 63,400
Total Area 188,200
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Protected territories in Far Eastern leopard habitat
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Photograph – V. Solkin
The leopard is forced to be crafty in its own territory
Leopard tracks (surveys 1997-2003)
Hunting leases in FarEastern leopard habitat
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Apparently the leopard was never especially numerousin the Far East. There was a time, however, when theFar Eastern leopard lived almost everywhere in
Primorskii Krai and even showed up in the middle drainageof the Amur River watershed, in the mountains of the MalyiKhingan. Nikolai Przhevalskii, who observed the leopard inthe 19th century and who called the leopard by the term ofthe day, «bars», writes that the animal was very thinly dis�persed:
«The bars (in Chinese tsin�tsen�pau) is everywhere inUssuriiskii Krai but is found comparatively less frequentlythan the tiger. At that, it lives in the wildest of locationsand with rare exception, even in winter time, it refrains from
approaching peoples’ dwellings. In general the bars is morefrequent in southern Ussuriiskii Krai than in the Ussuriitself, although at both locations it is very rare. Only twiceduring my stay in Ussuriiskii Krai did I see this animal’stracks and only once was I able to take a skin and that onewas completely disfigured. The average price for a leopardskin in these parts runs from 15 to 20 silver rubles. Like thetiger skin, Manchurian merchants willingly buy them andsend them to China.»
As late as the 1970s the leopard occupied three, intercon�nected sites in southern Primorskii Krai. Seventy years ago,aside from the current population’s range, the leopard livedin the southern Sikhote�Alin and on the PogranichnyiRidge. Even so, judging by sporadic records, we know thatits numbers in the two northern areas were never especiallyhigh. But in southwest Primorskii Krai, according toVladimir Arsenev, the number of leopards was comparable totiger numbers.
Yurii Yankovskii with a dead leopard, 1936
(Archive, Arsenev Museum)
Far Eastern leopard habitat at the beginning of the 20th century (Rakov, 1968)
Ancient leopard illustrations
Far Eastern leopard habitat in mid 20th century (Pikunov, Korkishko, 1992)
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T h e l e o p a r d a s i t r e a l l y i sDistr ibution of the leopard in the recent past
Pavel Fomenko, Coordinator,Biodiversity Projects, WWF,
standing next to a tree markedby a Far Eastern leopard
A leopard marking a tree
Cliff faces in Borisovskoe Plateau, the northern boundary of the Far Eastern leopard
Photograph – M. Krechmar Photograph – D. Pikunov
Photograph – V. Solkin
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Current s tatus
In reading modern scientific works, it is difficult to imag�ine what the Far Eastern leopard looks like. Its colorscheme is not as contrasting as any of the African leop�
ards and it is rarely black like Indian leopards. In captivityit has a maximum weight of 90 kg for males and 60 kg forfemales. other sources, however, put the limit at 43 kg forfemales (Gao et al. 1987) and 60�75 kg for males (Ognev,1935). Leopards of all subspecies are approximately thesame size, the exceptions being the leopards in the rain�forests of Gabon (males weighs, on the average, 40 kg) andSouth African leopards (around 100 kg).
Russian geneticist Olga Ufyrkina has research that demon�strates that the Far Eastern leopard is an entirely independ�ent subspecies and is the most far removed from the race�prototype: the leopards of central Africa which modernresearchers consider the «source of all leopards.
The leopard is a solitary animal. Only the female spends sig�nificant time with kittens. Leopard males live and die insolitude. And like all solitary souls, they are intolerant ofothers in their home range. Fights among males sometimestake on a totally desperate character.
Leopard females are rather easy going with one another.That they put up with their own kids in their habitat issomething not characteristic of large predators.
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WWF UK representative Callum Rankine (on the left) and SybilleKlenzendorf,WWF�US representative (on the right) study a leopard den
Current Far Eastern leopard habitat (Pikunov, Korkishko, 1992)
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The leopard's
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The depths of the Land of the Leopard
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Children are not just ourfuture. They are thefuture of any animal pop�
ulation, irrespective of systemat�ics, feeding habits or reproduc�tion patterns.
According to the Russianresearchers Dmitri Pikunov andViktor Korkishko, the litter sizefor leopards dropped from 1.9kitten per female in 1973 to 1.7in 1984, then 1.0 in 1991. Basedon the 1999–2000 field survey,the portion of young in the pop�ulation was only 11%, given thepresence of at least nine totwelve adult females (Pikunov,et al, 2000). A female leopardcan have four to five litters, orfive to ten kittens, over thecourse of her life. The childrenof the Far Eastern leopard staywith their mother for just over ayear and are fully mature at theage of two or three. But not asingle young was accounted foramong the Far Eastern leopardduring the 2002–2003 field sur�vey season!
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W h e r e a n d h o w m a n y
The key questions for which we seek answers whenspeaking about any resource are: Where? and Howmany? In an attempt to answer questions that, on
the face of it, would appear easy, we encounter a mass ofincomprehensibilities and contradictions. These contradic�tions make up the many details of the leopard «conun�drum» which, at its base, begs the question: «How has itmanaged to survive?
Today, according to official data, the entire leopard popula�tion is concentrated in a small «rectangle» along theChinese border in southwest Primorskii Krai.Nevertheless, we from time to time come across reports thatthe leopard is sometimes seen in the southern Sikhote�Alin,in Terneiskii Raion, or even in central Priamure. Thesereports are questionable but checking them out is one of thepriorities in monitoring this animal’s population.
But, in the bigger picture, the Far Eastern leopard has beencornered between the Chinese border, the sea and theVladivostok–Ussuriisk urban zone.
The question of how many leopards exist in the Russian FarEast is simultaneously the saddest and most essential one.Different researchers use different figures but their conclu�sions set the figure between 15 to 45 animals. But no mat�ter how many they are in fact, there are sadly too few!These low numbers are a clear indication that the leopardcould be on the road to total extinction in the wild!
No one believes that there are more than 50 Far Eastern leopards left in the wild. But eventhe highest figures provide very few chances for the survival of this subspecies. If we trust theresearchers of the Far Eastern taiga, Viktor Korkishko, Dmitrii Pikunov, Dale Miquelle andmany others, the leopard population has maintained its current population status for morethan a quarter century. And the longer this situation prevails, the more opportunities thereare for some irreversible event to occur right as you read these lines.
A leopard at rest
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Leopard tracks
LEOPARD SURVEYSSix leopard surveys have been carried outbetween 1997�2003 using three differentmethodologies. These surveys present the fol�lowing data on leopard numbers in southwestPrimorskii Krai:
Frontal survey – 1997 – 25–31 (Pikunov, et. al, 2001)
Simultaneous survey – 1998 – 40–44 (Aramilev, et. al, 2000)
Frontal survey – 2000 – 22–27 (Pikunov, et. al, 2001)
Simultaneously survey – 2000 – 48–50(Aramilev, et al, 2000)
Photo Trap survey – 2003 – 28–32 (Kostyrya, et. al, 2003)
Frontal survey – 2003 – 28–32 (Pikunov, et. al, 2003)
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) andthe Pacific Institute of Geography (Far EasternBranch, Russian Academy of Sciences (TIG,DVO, RAN), carried out two surveys in China andone in North Korea together with local specialists.These surveys provide the following data:
Winter survey in Jilin Province (1998) con�firmed the presence of 4–7 leopards in areas adja�cent to the Russian border.
Winter survey in Heilongjang Province(1998�1999) did not find the presence of leop�ards. Nevertheless, based on local reports, thereis a possibility that 3–5 leopards live in thatprovince.
Research in the area of Pektusan of LyanganProvince of North Korea (1998) failed to detectthe presence of leopards although local reportsspeak to leopards attacking domestic animals.
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Leopard distribution (based on censuses for 1997–2000)
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H o w d o e s o n e c o u n t a l e o p a r d ?
Three methods are used to estimate the numberof Far Eastern leopards. One method (expedi�tion) is to place a small group of professional
surveyors in the field during January–February tocount leopards at model areas that, in fact, coveralmost all leopard habitat. Tracks are recorded asbelonging to different animals if the distancebetween tracks of identical freshness exceeds 15 kmfor males and 5 km for females. A second method is asimultaneous (frontal) survey that records tracks in arelatively short time frame (ideally, in one day) byusing a large group of mobile counters who can coverlarge distances. In contrast to the expeditionmethod, where counters travel and walk leopardhabitat over the course of a month, the simultaneoussurvey gives a «cross section» of the existing situa�tion at one specific time. Leopards are not going totravel a significant distance in two days.
A leopard survey using tracks in the snow (more pre�cisely, imprints of those tracks) has the drawbackthat it is not always possible to precisely determinethe origin of tracks of similar size and shape, especial�ly if the animal’s boundaries repeatedly overlap.Also, southwest Primorskii Krai is very inconvenientfor this kind of survey work because snow cover isvery unstable. So as soon as there is a continuousblanket of snow, even for a short period, leopardcounters rush to their vehicles and head for the for�est. The accuracy of this survey method, however, isreduced considerably as soon as the survey extendsbeyond five days. Also, steep slopes, rocky slopes and
Sergei Bereznyuk (Fund «Phoenix»), Dmitrii Pikunov (TIG DVO RAN), Yurii Darman (WWF), above; Aleksei Kostyrya (BPI DVO RAN / WCS)
and Vladimir Aramilev (TIG DVO RAN / ISUNR), below;at a meeting on the results of a leopard census
cliffs make searching fortracks and following fixedtrails difficult.
A third technique used bythe Wildlife ConservationSociety (WCS) and theInstitute for SustainableUse of Natural Resources(ISUNR) is to rely uponautomatic cameras set upin leopard habitat. Picturequality makes it possible toidentify different animalswith a confidence thattrack survey methodolo�gies do not always pro�vide.Nevertheless, onemust recognize that a trulyscientific based surveymethodology for countingthe Far Eastern leopard hasyet to be developed.
Photograph – V. Solkin
Photograph – V. Solkin
Фото В. СолкинаLeopard tracks in the snow
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L e o p a r d r e s e a r c h
European culture first showed an interest in leopardsduring the Roman Empire. Emperor Commodus,during the infamous gladiator games, put as many as
fifty leopards into the arena. Fortunately, our hero, the FarEastern leopard, was not among those who entered thatarena.
Marco Polo brought Europe its first reports of leopards inthe Far East. He told about tamed leopards that lived in thecourt of Kubala, in eastern Mongolia and Peking.
F. Schlegel, in his 1857 manual for hunting deer, was the firstto identify the Far Eastern leopard as a subspecies, thisbased on a skin and skull from Chosen (North Korea).Later, in 1935, the Russian scientist Sergei Ognev refined itssystematic status and the subspecies has not undergone any
substantive changes since. Field research on leopard ecolo�gy began only in 1960s; prior to that, zoologists showed nointerest in the most beautiful cat in the Far East. Scientistsbegan gathering data on our hero with the first leopard sur�vey conducted in 1971–1972. In 1976 Dmitrii Pikunovdefended his dissertation on the biology of the Far Easternleopard and ten years later Victor Korkishko generalized, inhis dissertation, observations of this rare predator in theKedrovaya Pad Zapovednik. In a joint effort, these tworesearchers produced a monograph entitled the «FarEastern Leopard» that was published by the Far EasternBranch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1992.
Today the bibliography of scientific literature on this sub�species totals about eighty titles. If summaries, spottingguides and endangered species lists are excluded from this
Photograph – A. Petrov
Dmitrii Pikunov doing field studies of the leopard
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list, there are no more than sixty titles. Of these, twentyhave been published recently, after the problem of preserv�ing this species in the wild became a concern for interna�tional conservation organizations like WWF and WCS.
In the period immediately following the lifting of borderrestrictions in the Far East and during the subsequent rise ofinterest abroad in the problems of conserving large preda�tors in Russia, several attempts were made to radio trackleopards. But subsequently the leopard took a second seatto its larger comrade, the Amur tiger.
A new push to study the leopard appeared in 2001 when aninternational conference entitled «Conservation of the FarEastern Leopard in the Wild» was held in Vladivostok.
Biologists working in leopard habitat
Simultaneous leopard survey in progress Aleksei Kostyrya (BPI DVO RAN /WCS) during a photo trap census
Winthrop Staples (Hornocker Wildlife Institute, USA), Vladimir Aramilev and Vasilii Solkin (TIG DVO RAN) during the collaring of the leopard named Leopold in 1993. The latest survey of the Far Eastern leopard, using a
photo trap methodology devised by WCS and ISUNR, shows that the leopard still exists!
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Photograph – D. Pikunov
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L e o p a r d g e n e t i c s
Despite what mightappear to be thecase at first glance,
questions of Far Easternleopard genetics are notjust an abstract academicissue. The population’ssmall size speaks directlyto the possibility of degen�eration, of a reducedcapacity for individuals tosurvive in the wild and ofan increased likelihood forpernicious hereditarydeviations. The most dis�turbing research resultsindicate that the currentwild population is actual�ly genetically depleted.The Northern Chineseleopard is systematicallythe closest to the FarEastern leopard, some�thing that Sergei Ognevwrote about in 1935.
© WWF�Сanon / Martin Harvey © WWF�Сanon / Martin Harvey
© W
WF
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arve
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Photograph – V. Solkin
© WWF�Сanon / Frederick L. Weyekhaeuser
The Far Eastern leopard has «relatives» the world over but they areunable to affect the genetic well being of our leopard’s population
A leopard gets ready to jumpФото В. Солкина
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T h e l e o p a r d a n d h u m a n s
In practice the leopard has suffered more from humans thanhumans have suffered from the leopard. Humans havekilled leopards in the forest and along the roads that are
more than abundant in leopard habitat. Humans have killedleopards in and near deer farms. Humans have captured themfor zoos.
Leopards frequently kill deer that humans raise for theirantlers. They drag off dogs and take animals from the lessthan numerous domestic livestock. At the same time, and asbest as we can tell, leopards have not killed a single humanbeing in Primorskii Krai since the mid 1930s. Analysis of theextremely rare cases of leopard attacks on humans show thatit has been injured animals that have attacked hunters andthere is not a single case when the hunter died.
The leopard world over is confidently included in a list of thefive most dangerous large animals. Such authoritativeresearchers as John Hunter and Jim Corbett assertivelyinclude the leopard among the most dangerous cats thathumans can encounter. Despite these ample warnings, the FarEastern leopard appears to be an extremely peaceful being.The general opinion is that the Far Eastern leopard neverattacks humans. Przhevalskii writes that «...local natives aremore afraid of the leopard than the tiger because you can’tescape by climbing a tree... However, I have never heard of aleopard killing anyone in Ussuriiskii Krai, while tigers do thisevery year.»
As research indicates,today most of the FarEastern leopard popula�tion lives not in the back�woods depths of the taiga,as is given to think, but infact lives in one of themost heavily populatedand economically devel�oped areas of PrimorskiiKrai. As such, the animaldemonstrates an enviablecapacity to adapt to a lifenext to humans, some�thing similar to thebehavior traits of itsAmerican cousin, thepuma. It also has the skillto avoid the eyes of thehuge mass of people whouse its territory. A personwho accidentally spots aleopard will remember themeeting for a lifetime!And it is no exaggerationto state that the numberof people who have seen aleopard in the wild morethan five times can becounted on one hand.
The best proof of its skillto adapt to surroundingconditions is its use of theNezhinskii HuntingSociety grounds that
Villages located in Far Eastern leopard habitat long ago were given the almost official, but sad status of «poaching villages»
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The Far Eastern leopard’smain enemy is the extreme
poverty of regional rural communities
Federal wildlife reserve «Barsovyi» is home for the leopard
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belongs to the Pacific Fleet. Despite hundreds ofhunters who use the Societies’ grounds on a regularbasis, leopard density remains stably high.
The leopard is much easier to kill than a tiger.Especially if that’s the plan! The leopard, like mostother large cats, is uncomfortable in areas where there isa permanent snow pack; the exceptions being the lynxand to a certain extent, the tiger. Owning to the lowsnow levels in what is the leopard’s current range, this isalso the most densely settled part of the Russian FarEast and it is an area where the probability of it encoun�tering a human is tens times higher than in other areasof Primorskii Krai.
Traps and poisons are among the dirtiest of tricks that ahuman can play on a leopard. But the meanest of instru�ments to kill a leopard has been and remains a bradedwire snare.
The leopard keeps to a very limited territory and if it istaken into account that its range is hundreds of timessmaller than that of the tiger’s, two to four persons areall it could take to move this animal’s entire populationto the brink of an extinction in the wild from whichthere is no return. Thus, the leopard is immeasurablymore vulnerable than the tiger, which has a much largerange and that is capable of moving a fair distance in theevent that it is hounded by dogs or other nuisances.Though the leopard can climb a tree, in a tree it becomesan easy target for a poacher.
The leopard in the Russian Far East has, by and large,three enemies.
The spotted cat’s first enemy is the ruthless, inventiveand impoverished Russian poacher. The poacher inPrimorskii Krai has no moral compunctions about therights and wrongs of killing things. You can kill any�thing as long as it brings in some cash. And the Russian
poacher in southern Primorskii Krai, in contrast to theregion’s indigenous peoples, has no moral taboos. Noneat all! Neither a female with young nor a stressed ani�mal has any guarantee that such a person will pursuedit. He could care less about the animal being on theendangered species list. He also doesn’t limit himself inhis choice of hunting tools. Everything is an option:dogs, stealthy snares, home made guns and a lot ofother things also!
Hand in hand with the ruthless, inventive and impov�erished Russian poacher goes the greedy and unscrupu�lous Chinese buyer. These two are in constant contact.Even when there is only a faint hope of demand, theChinese buyer is there prodding the Russian poacher,pushing him, «... let’s go, let’s go...»
The third and most dangerous enemy of the FarEastern leopard, one uniting under its authority all therest, is the scandalous poverty of Far Eastern ruralcommunities.
Hats made of leopard skins
Hunting inspector checking a local resident
Weapons confiscated in the Land of theLeopard
A gate to the wildlife refuge that has suffered the «attention» of local residents
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Chinese poachers detained at the border
Inspection «Tiger», Viktor Paletskii; WWF,s staff , Yurii Darman and Pavel Fomenko, with a confiscated leopard skinJoint anti�poaching raid with border guards and local residents in Khasanskii Raion
Claws are one of the Far Eastern leopard’s main «instruments» Far Eastern leopard skin
Weapons used by Chinese poach�ers. These kinds of collections canbe found at every border guardpost in Khasanskii Raion
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S n o w a n d f i r e
Unfortunately, the rich Far Eastern environment isalso not especially kind to its son, the Far Easternleopard. The region’s natural features present at
least two threats: snow and fire.
The leopard, less than other Far East predators, is poorlyadapted to a life on snow. In winter it tries to use other ani�mals’ trails. It moves along ski trails and tramped downroads. These conditions only make things worse whenharsh winter conditions with abundant snow squeeze sikadeer and roe deer out of their ranges and the region witness�es massive die offs. Because the leopard is territoriality andhas a limited habitat, we can expect an increase in popula�tion only by increasing ungulate density, the leopard’s mainprey.
An adult sika deer in winter conditions Photograph – G. Shalikov
Rescuing deer in a heavy winter snow at the Federal
Wildlife Reserve «Barsovii»
The remains of a deer thatdied in heavy winter snows
Leopard tracks in the snow
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The land of the leopard burns almost year round. Fire isthe biggest natural threat to the Far Eastern leopard insouthwest Primorskii Krai. Almost year round a grayishsmoke spreads above fields and the sparse forest land ofKhasanskii Raion. Local people burn the forest usingrhetoric like: «the grass will grow better» or «the tics willget wiped out» or «the ferns will be more dense and wecan earn more money» or «scrap will be more visible andwe can collect metal» or «what burns doesn’t rot».
Intentionally set fires are especially characteristic in fieldsand along the railway, this despite the fact that most ofthe region is declared to have a high fire danger.
Fire causes the forest to retreat, reducing the area of quality leopard habitat. And autumnfires destroy the shrub and vegetation in medows, fating wild animals to hungry winters.
27The leopard’s home on fire...
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Photograph – O. Kabalik
Photograph – V. Solkin
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T h e l e o p a r d
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Deer farming is a very specific, Primorskii Krai formof land use that confines several hundred or thou�sand sika deer within large, fenced territories. Each
year these deer have their antlers cut for the velvet that isthen used for medicinal purposes.
An abundance of deer that cannot escape from their enclo�sures will of course attract Far Eastern leopards. The pred�ators use these parks as a regular, guaranteed source of prey.Therefore, these facilities are an endless point of conflictbetween the Far Eastern leopard and humans.
According to survey and research data, leopard density ishigher in and near deer farms. Moreover, they prefer tobreed near these facilities. At the end of the 1990s, a femalewith a kitten was discovered near the «Kedrovskii» deerpark. In past years, a different female with two kittens wasfound five to six km from this same deer park. A female witha kitten was found near the «Peschanyi» deer park and anentire leopard family has lived close to the«Bezverkhovskii» deer farm. The importance of deer parks
Sika deer at a deer farm
A leopard on a kill
Sika deer are gregarious animals
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to the preservation of leopards is now difficult to overestimate. Cooperative approaches towork with park owners are needed, for instance, the introduction of a compensation andinsurance program for owners who loose animals to leopards. Conservation organizationsneed to buy out deer farms to breed deer for feeding leopards and to provide them convenientplaces to breed and raise young.
There are seven deer parks in Far Eastern leopard habitat with a total population of less thanthree thousand deer.
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Deer in the snow
Photograph – G. Shalikov
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L e o p a r d p r o t e c t i o n
The leopard is listed in the Red Data Book of theRussian Federation. Hunting has been forbiddensince 1956 and in 1966 all capture of live animals was
halted. The animal is also listed in Appendix 1 of theConvention on International Trade in Endangered Speciesof Wild Fauna and Flora – CITES.
Since the beginning of the 1970s, Russian scientists haverepeatedly raised the issue of the critical status of the FarEastern leopard and they have achieved certain successes inprotecting this subspecies. In 1979, by the decision of theFirst All Union Meeting on Rare Mammal Species, theBarsovii Federal Wildlife Refuge was created on 106,000hectares to protect the leopard. In 1990, the Far EasternBranch of the USSR Academy of Sciences developed, andin 1992 the Council of Peoples’ Deputies passed a «Long�Term Program for the Protection and Rational Use ofNatural Resources of Primorskii Krai for the Period until2005 (Environmental Program)». The basis for passingadditional measures to protect the leopard is the decision ofthe Government of the Russian Federation dated August, 7,1995 № 795 on «Protection of the Amur Tiger and OtherRare and Endangered Animals and Plants in Primorskii andKhabarovskii Krais». However, the effectiveness of thesemeasures is low and entirely inadequate to guarantee pro�tection of the leopard.
In 1996 the Borisovskoe Plateau Regional Wildlife Refugewas created, the latest wildlife refuge to be created inPrimorskii Krai. Vladimir Aramilev, a well knownPrimorskii wildlife biologist, developed the rationale forthis wildlife refuge. Mr. Aramilev created the Institute ofSustainable Natural Resource Use and here research on theFar Eastern leopard continues.
Through a WWF initiative that was financially supportedby WWF / USAID in late 1996, an international confer�
ence was held in Vladivostok at which a working group todevelop a national strategy to protect the Far Eastern leop�ard in Russia was established. This working group pro�duced a document entitled «A Strategy for Conservation ofthe Far Eastern Leopard in Russia»(http://wwf.ru/resources/publ/book/eng/35/). ThisStrategy considers the full spectrum of threats listed above.The Russian Federation Committee on Ecology approvedthis document in 1998. Unfortunately, government inertialeaves its key recommendations largely on paper.
Economic development plans for the Tumen River water�shed and southwest Primorskii could so substantially dis�turb or degrade leopard habitat that its future survival inthe wild could be compromised. Only an integrated pro�gram to protect these areas, one that incorporates leopardprotection into the region’s economic development plansand that includes creating a reserve population in thesouthern Sikhote�Alin mountains, will make it possible topreserve this subspecies from extinction.
The Far Eastern Branch of WWF Russia is developing andpromoting such a program with government officials andbusiness structures.
In collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society(WCS), Fund «Phoenix» and the Center for the Protectionof Wild Nature «Zov Taigi», a Conservation Action Plan forthe Russian Far East Ecoregion Complex has been devel�oped and approved to coordinate the activities of civil sec�tor organizations. Part 1 of this plan contains a detaileddescription of the issues in the region and Part 2 describesthe measures planned to protect the Far Eastern leopard(http://wwf.ru/resources/publ/book/eng/47/).
31
Conservation Action Plan for the Russian Far East Ecoregion Complex (fragment)
MEDIUM TERM TARGETBY 2020
SHORT TERM TARGETS BY 2012
IMMEDIATE ACTIONBY 2007
The protected areas network in south�west Primorskii Krai supports at least50 leopards by 2015
Create large, unified protected area(Barsovyi National Park) based onexisting zapovednik and wildliferefuges by 2005
Establish and support coordination unit for administration for Kedrovaya PadZapovednik, Barsovyi Federal Wildlife Refuge and Borisovskoe Plateau WildlifeRefuge by 2003
Grant federal status to Borisovskoe Plateau Wildlife Refuge
Establish an environmental corridor along the Russian Chinese border by 2005
Launch international transboundaryprotected area for leopard conserva�tion in border region of Russia, Chinaand North Korea by 2007
Work out scientific justification for transboundary protected area in leopard habi�tat in collaboration with scientists from North Korea and China by 2004
Formulate agreements with relative government agencies in all three countries by2005
Cooperative efforts of ranger servicescontrol poaching, forest fires, andunsustainable land use in all leopardhabitat by 2015
Strengthen protection measures inborder areas by 2006
Organize effective protection service in existing reserves, wildlife refuges and hunt�ing estates in leopard habitat
Coordinate anti�poaching operations among all reserves, refuges and ranger servic�es and carry out joint raids
Carry out training courses for border guards
Sign agreement between border guards and ranger services for joint protection ofleopards behind boundary fences
Work with customs agencies and border guards to halt poaching and transport ofillegal leopard skins and derivatives
Create fire prevention system inleopard habitat by 2006
Elaborate fire prevention management plan for all land users in leopard
Create a mobile fire fighting inBarabashevskii Forest ManagementUnit
Change local land use practices of local land users to prevent forest fires by 2007
Create and maintain a system of mineral belts used for prescribed fires
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D e f e n d e r s o f t h e l e o p a r d
Asignificant effort is being made to protect the leop�ard. Its fate is the concern of numerous internation�al and regional conservation organizations: WWF,
WCS, Tigris Foundation, Fund «Phoenix» and «Amur».The hunting inspection services of the Primorskii KraiDepartment for the Protection, Monitoring and Managingof Hunting Resources, including its well know «Leopard»group, the Inspection «Tiger» team from the Ministry ofNatural Resources, wildlife rangers from the Society ofHunters and Fishers of Primorskii Krai and the PacificFleet are all involved in the effort to protect the leopard.
The effort to protect rare and commercial animal species insouthwest Primorskii Krai goes on year round, irrespectiveof holidays or weekends. This effort uses different methodsand means. 400–450 raids have been carried out by gov�ernment services in southwest Primorskii Krai in the lastthree years, with an equal number carried out by huntingsosieties. Around 300 infractions are uncovered annually,and 30–40 weapons are confiscated. Violators pay nearly100,000 rubles a year in fines and an additional 60,000rubles is sought through the courts.
Locals, whose economic conditions leave much to bedesired, are involved in illegal hunting and capture of ani�mals. Most of the poaching is done either on foot or with ahorse. Such cases are difficult to identify and it is not a sim�ple task to detain violators.
A new, dangerous trend has emerged in recent years: leop�ard hunting to meet on order demand in China. This has ledto the shooting of at least three leopards in the Barsovii P
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Everyone together! Inspection «Tiger» team, State Hunting Inspectors and police before journalists
Weapons and Far Eastern leopard skins confiscated from poachers by members of Inspection «Tiger»
Photograph – M. Krechmar
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Anatolii Belov, chief wildlife manager at the Federal Wildlife Reserve «Barsovii» with a detained poacher
Round table: Confiscating a Leopard Skin. Poachers Must be Punished
Federal Wildlife Refuge. According to different sources, in2002 five leopards died at the hands of poachers and thisamount to almost fifteen percent of the total population.And leopard poaching continues in China.
The work undertaken in the last few years to stop poachinghas reduced the number of leopards shot near deer farms.Thanks to the work of the field teams «Leopard», under thedirection of Anatolii Belov, and «Red Wolf», under thedirection of Nikolai Agapov, the sentencing of a poacher tofive years imprisonment for shooting a leopard let the localpopulation know that the government is enforcing environ�mental laws and that punishment awaits those who violatethose laws.
Photograph – Yu. Darman
Photograph – V. Solkin
Photograph – D. Kuchma
Foresters, staff membersat Kedrovaya PadZapovednik and theBarsovii and BorisovskoePlateau Wildlife Refuges,the special forest fire pre�vention team at theKhasanskii Society ofHunters and Fishers areworking to combat fire.
Annual fire�preventionactivities in the land of theleopard include:
Ground patrolling andtimely fire suppression;
Creation of fire�pre�vention barriers, breaks,mineral strips;
Control of spark firesalong the railway;
Restriction of militarymaneuvers at militaryranges during periods ofhigh fire risk;
Maintenance of fire�prevention roads;
Establishing smokingand rest areas;
Construction of park�ing lots;
Hanging of informa�tion posters.
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E n v i r o n m e n t a l
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Until each resident in the land of the leopardrecognizes the uniqueness of southwestPrimorskii Krai and the threat their behavior
poses to the security of the leopard in the wild andthus begins to work to protect the environment, theFar Eastern leopard will remain in danger. Effortshave been made in the last three years to significantlyimprove environmental awareness among the popula�tion. Numerous publications and handouts have beenproduced and distributed: calendars, posters, booklets,training manuals. People have learned about the leop�ard and have come to like him. Children have had theopportunity to use the virtual world of the computerto «rescue the leopard» and to increase its numbers.Special educational programs for «green schools inPrimorskii Krai», lecture tours at border posts, regularpublications in the local and regional media, all theseinstruments are part of a communications strategydeveloped by WWF, Fund «Phoenix», the Center forthe Protection of Wild Nature «Zov Taigi» and theTigris Foundation to expand public awareness aboutthe leopard. Public awareness efforts also includestaging a festival called «Land of the Leopard». Thisfestival is held the last Sunday in August inKhasanskii Raion, in the very area where the last thir�ty Far Eastern leopards on the planet live.
More and more «leopards» show upeach year at the «Tiger Day» festival
held in Vladivostok «Land of the Leopard» Festival in Khasanskii Raion
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Winners in the «Rescue the Leopard» competition at a reception in the WWF office
Start of the contest in Vladivostok. The contest’s authors, Vasilii Solkin («Zov Taigi») and Grigorii Mazmanyants (WWF), answer journalists’ questions
Grigorii Mazmanyanets of WWF Russia and VasiliiSolkin, editor of the magazine «Zov Taigi» came upwith the idea for this game. The idea is to challenge
computer game players worldwide with a complex and fas�cinating problem.
The well�known company «Nikita» was contracted todevelop the game. The game is played on the true topogra�phy of the land of the leopard and real people are represent�ed, including the staff at WWF.
The game is in the genre of «strategy creation». One canloose the game but you can win if you come up with theright combination of socio�economic, educational and envi�ronmental protection components.
Winners of the 2003 competition received a prize: WWForganized a trip to the land of the leopard: KhasanskiiRaion of Primorskii Krai where they were able to see withtheir own eyes how our hero lives.
« R e s c u e t h e l e o p a r d »
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I n t e r n a t i o n a l c o o p e r a t i o n
t o p r o t e c t t h e f a r e a s t e r n l e o p a r d
The frontier character of Far Eastern leopard distribution, givenits extremely small range and low numbers, makes internation�al cooperation especially important to protect this subspecies.
Maintaining stable transboundary contacts for leopards are key to thesurvival of this subspecies. Without united Russian and Chinese andNorth Korean efforts to foster transboundary migration of the leop�ard, it will be difficult to maintain the Russian population. The idealsituation will be to create an international nature protection reservethat includes all suitable leopard habitat in Russia, China and NorthKorea. A trilateral agreement is being prepared to protect and pre�serve the unique biodiversity of this area and its very rare cat sub�species.
With the assistance of WWF and WCS, the Hunchun ProvincialReserve has been created in Jilin Province of Chinaalong along theborder with Khasanskii Raion, and negotiations are underway to con�vert this to a national Chinese wildlife reserve. Chinese foresters areactively preparing the infrastructure to service tourists. There arejoint programs to study predators and ungulates, to train Chinese spe�cialists and to hold training sessions for Chinese specialists in Russia.
International cooperation is needed to restore the areas of the leop�ard’s historic range that have been lost to other forms of development.A program to reintroduce this subspecies into former range, one thatcalls for captive breeding, will not be possible without the assistanceof foreign zoos. The suite of activities to preserve the leopard inRussia requires financial investment, and foreign and internationalconservation foundations are necessary for this to be a successfuleffort. Only in Russia has the Far Eastern leopard survived and onlythe Russian government is in a position to save it.
Photograph – D. Pikunov
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Presentation in Great Britain of the WWF Leopard ProtectionProgram. Yurii Darman, Director of the the Far Eastern Branch of
WWF Russia andHer Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan.
One of the first leopards to get a radio collar as part of the international tiger and leopard protection project
Leopard Protection Working group: Upper row (left to right): Vasilii Solkin, «Zov Taigi», DVO RAN; Dale Miquelle, WCS; Michiel Hotte, Tigris Foundation; Pavel Fomenko, WWF; Yurii Darman, WWF; Mikhail Krechmar.
Lower row: Vladimir Aramilev, ISUNR/TIG, Olga Ufyrkina, BPI DVO RAN, Sergei Bereznyuk, Fund «Phoenix»
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C a p t i v e b r e e d i n g o f t h e f a r e a s t e r n l e o p a r d
The wild population of Far Eastern leopards inJilin Province of China is small and extreme�ly vulnerable. Thus, special attention must
be given to preserving this subspecies in captivity.Leopards in zoos will be used to both expand theexisting wild population and to provide animals forreintroduction into its former range. Far Easternleopards have been in captivity since 1961 and aninternational studbook has been kept since 1974.There are 195 Far Eastern leopards (104 males and91 females) in zoos and private collections and allthese animals have come from ten founders cap�tured in the wild. However, European zoos holdonly ten individuals (six males and four females)that are considered thoroughbred Far Easternleopards. Six of these are in the Moscow zoo.
The international breeding program is aimed atproducing thoroughbred leopards, at eliminatingthe genes of other subspecies in the genotypes offuture descendants, and at decreasing inbreeding tomaintain a stable and genetically sound reservepopulation of the subspecies in captivity. The is notan easy task since there are so few leopards. It iscomplicated by the problem that leopards are nowobserved to give birth to defective kittens.
© WWF�UK Photograph – V. Solkin
© WWF�UK
Photograph – V. SolkinLeopards calling out for help
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W h a t c a n b e d o n e ?
Some specific steps are necessary to rescue theleopard.The first step is to declare all the land inits current range a national park with a uniform
protection system and a unified management infra�structure. This is the simplest step, requiring but aseries of executive decisions by federal authorities.
An effort should be made to increase the effectivenessof the protected territories, to raise their status, toimprove interaction, and to expand their material
base. An effort must also be made to unite these pro�tected territories into a single unit, a national parkthat will make up the central core of an internationalRussian–Chinese reserve. The status, size and man�agement structure of the reserve require developing aseries of international agreements.
The second step is to increase the number of ungu�lates to provide the leopard with plenty of prey.According to the ample research data, ungulate densi�ty could increase ten fold. This is also an easy steprequiring only a few, simple actions at the regionallevel and a certain amount of investment.
The third step is to change the attitude of local resi�dents. They need to understand that the leopard is a«sacred cow» for southwest Primorskii Krai and thatthe presence of the leopard is to everyone’s advantage.And those who think that they can live here by killingand selling leopards will have to learn the punishmentfor such behavior. This is the most difficult elementin the operation to rescue our hero.
One should not forget that the attention paid bynature lovers, by the environmental community, bythe international community to the fate of the FarEastern leopard will grow not by the year but by themonth. One should also remember that countries andregions in which rare species live use these animalsnot just to obtain funding to support environmentalprotection efforts but to also raise awareness of theirlocal economic problems and to attract real invest�ments that stimulate the economy.
Strictly protected Protected areas of national level Protected areas of provincial levelProposed ecological corridor
Proposed system of trans�boundary protected territories
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There is no doubt that the cele�brated anti�poaching activitiesmust continue, that thepainstaking efforts of customsofficers must be supported, thatroad checks are needed... Theseactivities already exist andrequire nothing more than to besupported at current levels.
There is one additional step: cre�ate an artificial leopard popula�tion that includes a breedingcenter for the reintroduction ofthese animals into the wild.Aside from a significant financialinvestment, this plan requiressomeone on the scale of JoeAdamson. Because money, inand of itself, saves nothing! It ispeople who rescue things...
Location of the proposednational park«Barsovii»
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T h e y a r e n o t s u r e o f t h e e x i s t e n c e o f t h i s a n i m a l
These days there are three players on the «leopard field».One player is the specially authorized nature protectionagencies, organizations that have the authority to directly
interdict poachers. A second player is the Russian Academy ofSciences that wants to study the leopard and to receive money fordoing that research. And the third player is that group of envi�ronmental organizations that has access to the funding to financethis work. Their main goal is to draw the local population, region�al authorities and local business into their orbit of activities.
The leopard has the misfortune of living in a region where one canmine poor quality brown coal and harvest fine timber, and wherethere is a need to protect a state boundary. All these circum�stances irritate territorial authorities and the business structuresclosely connected to these authorities.
And there is one final player and that is the federal government.Naturally, for a structure with an operating budget counted in thebillions of dollars, the problem of thirty or forty animals pushedup against a barbed wire fence that separates Russia from China isnot just insignificant, the proolem simply doesn’t exist. Federalauthorities are worried about fires at nuclear waste storage sitesor shifts in the price of crude oil, about terrorist strikes or thethrough capacity and wear and tear on oil pipelines... «So doesthat Far Eastern leopard really exit?» – a federal official living inPrimorskii Krai recently asked. And you get the feeling that hisquestion isn’t some kind of a joke! These officials aren’t even surethat such an animal exists!
So in the end, the fate of the most beautiful Far Eastern cat actu�ally depends on more than a casual glance from Moscow.
The Far Eastern leopard exists! And the leopard is trying to survive in a small strip of land between the Chinese border
and Russian civilization
The fate of the leopard depends on the people in this buildng!
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The price is known: about seven�teen million dollars invested invarious activities in southwest
Primorskii Krai. This is for deer farming,tourism, hunting societies and their sup�port structures. This is funding for edu�cation activities and to support protect�ed territories, anti�poaching teams,customs services and the media. And forthe cost of the land where the leopardlives.
«We have an opportunity to preserve theFar Eastern leopard but only in theevent that we take urgent measures rightnow» says William Eichbaum, vice�pres�ident WWF�US.
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