Hi, I am Teddy Koskinas, a naturalist, who writes about endangered animals from all around the world. Some of the species you’ll read about here may only have fifty or less of their kind living in the world. The first animal I will be talking about is the Amur Leopard.
The Amur Leopard’s location is found in the forests of far eastern Russia. The conditions there in winter are extreme cold and snowy. During the summer it is very hot.
Their diet consists of mostly hare and deer, but they are not picky eaters. When this leopard catches big prey, instead of using a “doggy bag” it hangs the prey in a tree, saving it for later and keeping it safe from other predators.
This great cat hunts but is also hunted. Many people hunt them for their fur and their bones. They are also killed by local farmers because they sometimes eat their cattle or goats. There are dangers beyond these such as inbreeding, forest fires and loss of habitat due to building projects.
Although there are plenty of ways to kill Amur Leopards there are also efforts to save them. Some ways are anti-poaching laws and programs to pay farmers for the loss of livestock, or fire fighters preventing fires in their forests. Education and outreach are also important in the effort to save them. In this same area there are efforts to save Amur Tigers but sadly the efforts to conserve the Amur Leopards have not been as successful yet. It took 60-70 years of conservation efforts to increase the Amur Tigers population and efforts have just begun for the Amur Leopard. Hopefully the Amur Leopard is saved as well.
Log on next time to read about our next featured endangered animal: The Tasmanian Devil!
