Endangered Species Day

Today is Endangered Species Day. In honor of this I am launching a new series on the blog and joining others by participating in Wildlife Wednesdays. Every Wednesday I will be doing a wildlife spotlight. This spotlight will be a brief overview of the animal. Since today is Endangered Species Day I will be spotlighting an endangered animal.

                                                               

Today's Wildlife Wednseday is about the Amur leopard. The Amur leopard is an extremely rare subspecies of leopard that lives only in eastern Russia; they also once lived in Korea and northern China where they are now extinct. It is estimated that only about 20-40 adult leopards exist in the wild. Amur leopards are listed as critically endangered. Amur leopards have long hair that is especially thick during the winter. They feed mostly on hares, roe and sika deer, badgers, ad raccoon dogs. They are also phenomenally athletic with top speeds of 37 mph and the ability to jump 19 feet horizontally and 10 feet vertically. While Amur leopards are generally solitary animals it has been observed that some males will stay with the females after mating and may even help raise the young. They will also move and hide their kills so that other animals do not steal them. Amur leopards may live up to 15 years in the wild

While there are about 150 supposedly Amur leopards in captivity, they suffer from inbreeding and breeding animals of unknown pasts together. Due this only about 12 contain pure genetics. This is also a problem faced by wild populations which have low reproduction rates and low genetic diversity.



These animals face habitat loss from logging, road building, and encroaching civilization. People also poach these animals for many body parts that are used in traditional eastern medicine. Global climate change is also an issue as these animals can not with stand the increased temperatures. Amur leopards also face a different threat from humans, being ignored. While a lot of money and publicity has gone toward saving Amur tigers, very little attention has gone to Amur leopards.

Articles

Endangered Species Day

WWF: Amur Leopard

Amur Leopard

All About Wildlife: Amur Leopard

Pictures

Leopard Staring

Leopard in Snow

Leopard Laying: Justin Hohlen