World's rarest big cat could be making a comeback

[n2doc]

Things are starting to look up for the rarest big cat on the planet: The critically endangered Amur leopard, which is indigenous to southeastern Russia and parts of northeastern China, has doubled in population since 2007, according to a new report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Census data from Russia's Land of the Leopard National Park, which covers about 60 percent of the Amur leopard's habitat, puts the number of these wild cats at 57. That's up from the 30 leopards counted in the area in 2007, according to the WWF.

Eight to 12 additional cats were also counted in adjacent areas of China during the census, which means the total population of Amur leopards has, in fact, doubled in less than a decade.

more

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/0224/World-s-rarest-big-cat-could-be-making-a-comeback

[mopinko]

1. wonder how many are in zoos.

with numbers that low, i would think some genetic diversity would be needed at some point.

[NickB79]

5. Around 176, per Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amur_leopard#In_captivity

But it appears that some of them are actually descended from a hybrid of a related Chinese leopard subspecies.

The local zoo has a breeding pair of Amur Leopards:

[kickysnana]

2. Our zoo lost a 22 year old lioness today. This comeback is good balancing news about cats.

[NickB79]

4. Como Zoo?

We just saw the lions there last year, and read about the lioness's death this morning

[Judi Lynn]

3. So beautiful. Hope they can be saved. Thank you. n/t