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Lizzie Rohs

Mr.Phillips

English III H

08 May 2017

The Evanescing Amur Leopard

Are we doing anything to help save the Amur leopards who are considered to be critically

endangered? Because of forest fires, inbreeding problems and the rise of illegal poaching, the

Amur leopard advanced to the critically endangered status according to the IUCN Red List.

Since 1996 this Russian leopard has been thought of as an endangered species, and as of 2016

there are only 40-60 left in the wild, in addition to 170-180 in captivity (Bove). The

conservation status report by the IUCN Red List ranges from data deficient to extinct. In the

1950s there were thought to be about 2400 leopards living in the eastern Russian wild (Markle).

In order to stop the population decline of these big cats, a solution is to become aware and help

preservation groups like World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Amur Leopard and Tiger Alliance

(ALTA) to be able to continue their efforts to save the Amur leopards species.

Poachers are doing whatever they can to get to the coats of endangered animals and trade

them on the black market to make a substantial profit, due to the leopards beautiful pale cream

colored coats with spaced rosettes, thick black rings, and darkened circles. All commercial trade

with any parts of the Amur leopard is prohibited, according to the appendix 1 of the Convention

on International Trade on Endangered Species. Another reason they are so desirable to poachers

is for their bones. People kill these wonderful creatures to take their bones and make traditional

Asian medicines (Hotte). Sergey Aramilev believes that The killing of the most peaceful
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predator in Russia is an act of outspoken barbarism. Even in the time of an economic hardship

there are easier ways to make money than kill an innocent animal and put it on the black market.

Activists have been pushing for harsher laws for years. Unbelievably, before the law

was updated, it previously stated that anyone caught poaching or illegally selling endangered

species would only be considered to be prosecuted (Darmen) It was later changed to, anyone

caught selling an endangered animal worth more than 1 million rubles which is 30,000 American

dollars would be prosecuted by criminal law. Sadly, the Russian government had no way of

knowing how much an endangered species was worth. As a result, nothing happened to the

poachers or smugglers. This brought about a push of organizations trying to save the endangered

species including the Amur leopard and many other almost extinct animals (Arkive.org). The

Russian and Asian governments convened and made the crime of killing an endangered animal

punishable up to two years in prison and a fine up to 500,000 rubles, which is 8,611 American

dollars(WWF).

After poaching and smuggling, the largest threat to the Amur leopards is forest fires,

natural fires and human caused fires. Previously the range of the Amur leopard was the Amur

River basin and the mountains of northeastern China and the Korean peninsula, which is where

the leopards lived and hunted (arkive). Following the major fires and loss of land, breaker

systems were built about 41 km in length (approximately 25 miles long) to try and prevent the

fires from going into the far east Russian lands and destroying the home of many creatures.

According to the WWF, within the last 13 years, approximately 80% of the leopard's range has

been destroyed by forest fires. Many of these fires are caused by land owned by farmers (WWF

UK). Farmers try to improve fertility for livestock by killing bugs such as ticks, and stimulating
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fern growth by burning land. These fires help the farmers but create a wide open space with a

mass amount of grass and oak bushes which the Amur leopard will not approach.

Inbreeding has been found as another leading cause to deformations in the Amur leopard

species. The leopard population has been depleting, which causes reproduction to slow down.

This leads to mating within the family. Jennifer Bove said The Amur leopards are particularly

vulnerable to extinction because they have the lowest level of genetic variation of any leopards.

This limited amount of genetics is another main cause of deformations within inbreeding

situations. The most recent example of inbreeding has been seen by the ALTA who has said that

they have seen leopards with shorter than normal tails and a different color of their normal

creamy hue.

Many farmers, like Tamara Habiryanova, see the Amur leopard as unacceptable, because

the leopards are killing livestock on farmers land. Due to the livestock deaths, farmers have

been accused of killing leopards to save their animals. Tamara has claimed that an Amur leopard

jumped her fence and attacked her horses. She claims, We do not just have horses here. We are

breeding rare Vladimir heavy draft foals. The damage from the loss of two foals was 330,000

rubles (roughly $5,683) and no one will compensate us for that. Unfortunately, Tamara was not

involved in a compensation livestock program which reimburses her for any killing of her

livestock by an endangered species.

There also was an Amur leopard caught at a deer farm. Unlike Tamara, Eugene Stoma, a

staff member of the Gamov sika deer farm, was involved in a compensation livestock program.

In absence of wild prey and land to hunt on, leopards are going into private farms trying to catch

one of their most sought after prey, the Sika deer (Hance). Sadly, the most immediate threat
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comes from these leopards just trying to get food which leads to the killing of the leopard by the

owner of the farm to protect his livestock.

The World Wildlife Fund and the Amur Leopard and Tiger Alliance are coming together

to bring awareness and to try to help the Amur leopards. One initiative is a classroom campaign

that has lessons to teach to children in grades 5-8. The students are being asked discussion

questions, learning why endangered species are important to protect, and what they can do to

help (Bove). In 2015 an additional action taken to help was the Russian government giving the

leopards a safe haven. This sanctuary has about 650,000 acres and is named Land of the Leopard

National Park. The WWF has special cameras set up through the wild to capture pictures and

collect data on them, and monitor how many are in the area. The WWF also tries to preserve the

special land. Recently, the WWF lobbied the Russian government to reroute an oil pipeline that

could have caused major problems to the cats and their habitat. In order to contribute to

conservation projects, the ALTA is working in conjunction with scientific communities, zoos,

international conservation organizations and individuals. ALTA, working with Wildlife

Conservation Society in Russia, is planning a network and database to analyze the total

population outside the Land of Leopard National Park in Southwest Primorski Krai (ALTA).

Ultimately, the Amur Leopards are on the verge of extinction but the ALTA and WWF

have worked to cause Russian people to become more aware of the critically endangered species.

From forest fires to illegal poaching, new laws and fire breakers have been put in place to assist

the leopards to having a livable home. Not only has the government tried to help, but scientists

and even small school children want to help stop the endangerment of these magnificent animals.

Amur leopards are teetering on the brink of extinction. With the establishment of Land of the
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Leopards National Park, in conjunction with other conservation efforts, we can just now start to

focus on how to begin bringing them back Dr. Sybille Klenzendorf (WWF)

Work Cited

Arkive. "Amur Leopard Videos, Photos and Facts." Arkive. Wildscreen, 10 Mar. 2016.
Web. 05 May 2017.
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Bove, Jennifer. "Save an Endangered Species Classroom Campaign." ThoughtCo. About Inc, 28

Mar. 2017. Web. 07 May 2017.

Bove, Jennifer. "This Russian Leopard Is One of the World's Most Endangered

Cats."ThoughtCo. About,Inc, 7 Feb. 2017. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.

Brown, Paul. "Endangered Siberian Tigers Flee Forest Fires." The Guardian. Guardian

News and Media, 05 Oct. 2016. Web. 05 May 2017.

DARMAN, YURI, and LAURA WILLIAMS. CONSERVATION ACTION PLAN FOR

THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST ECOREGION COMPLEX." CONSERVATION

ACTION PLAN FOR THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST ECOREGION COMPLEX. NGO

Joint Action Plan, n.d. Web. 27 May 2017.

Goode, Erica. "Leopards Not as Plentiful as Believed, Study Finds." New York Times,

05 May, 2016, pp. A.10, SIRS Issues Researcher

Hance, Jeremy. "Rare Amur Leopard Photographed for the First Time with

Kill."Conservation News. Article Published by Rhett Butler on 2016-10-08.,

08 Oct. 2016. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

IUNC. "Panthera Pardus ." Panthera Pardus (Leopard). IUNC, 25 Apr. 2017. Web. 26

Apr. 2017.
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Liesowska, Anna. "Amur Leopard Suspected of Attacking Rare Horses on Farm." RSS.

The Siberian Times, 8 June 2016. Web. 26 Apr. 2017

Markle, Sandra. The Great Leopard Rescue: Saving the Amur Leopards. Minneapolis:

Millbrook, 2017.

McMarlin, Shirley. "Zoos of the Future may be Animals' Last, Best Hope."

Tribune-Review; Pittsburgh Edition, 28 Aug, 2016, SIRS Issues Researcher,

Morgan and Kaila. "What Is Being Done to Save This Extraordinary Animal from

Extinction?"What Is Being Done to Save the Amur Leopard. ALTA, 16 Nov.

2016. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

Natures Crusaders "Critically Endangered Amur Leopard Only 35 Left in Wild." Nature's

Crusaders. Wordpress-Nature's Crusaders, 27 Jan. 2017. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.

World Wildlife Fund. "Amur Leopard." WWF. Creative Commons Licence, 9 Feb. 2017.

Web. 21 Apr. 2017.

World Wildlife Fund Amur Leopard." WWF. World Wildlife Fund, 15 Mar. 2017. Web. 21

Apr. 2017.
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World Wildlife Fund. "Human - Leopard Conflict." WWF. World Wide Fund For Nature,

20 Aug. 2016. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

World Wildlife Fund. "Skin of Rare Amur Leopard Discovered in Car." WWF. WWF

Global, 21 Apr. 2017. Web. 26 Apr. 2017

World Wildlife Fund, United Kingdom. "Amur Leopards." WWF. Wwf-uk, 17 Apr. 2017.

Web. 23 Apr. 2017.