Amur leopard - A Zoo Where You Never See The Exhibit

I’M BACK!!!

So it’s been a while but here’s another post I hope you’ll enjoy.

I recently saw this post about the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s Highland Wildlife Park and thought I'd bring it here. They are about to receive a pair of Amur leopards which they hope to be able to breed from, and in turn release these cubs into the wild in Russia.

This article in particular caught my eye as the article went on to say that the society was planning on keeping these animals off show in a specially designed enclosure. The aim of this isolation is to be able to rear the cubs wild so as not to familiarise them with humans, making it possible for reintroduction into Russia to be an option. This is a brilliant concept and isn’t the first time a strategy such as this has been employed but it does help to signify the commitment the society has to conservation. As although many Zoos do focus on conservation and education they are business and so need to make money and receive charitable donations to remain open. Restricting access to exhibits particularly large carnivores which are usually attract large crowds will reduce the revenue. So it does help to reinforce a zoos commitment to conservation as well as getting them a lot of good advertisement through it.

So a bit of information on the Amur leopard and the reasons why the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s Highland Wildlife Park has taken these step in an attempt to help in the survival of the species.

Currently there are believed to be fewer than 70 wild leopards. This is an extremely low number but believe it or not the population has actually doubled in the last seven or so years , with the estimated population in 2007 being 30. As a species they were driven to almost extinction due to human activities putting them under pressure through, unsustainable logging, forest fires, farming, and industrial developments. Along with being hunted mercilessly for many years for many products such as highly prized fur, and to make up parts of traditional Asian medicines.

Amur leopards mainly inhabit mature forests in the far east of Russia and north-east china, it is also possibly that a few animals might also exist in North Korea but clearly due to diplomatic issues its hard to conduct surveys to confirm this.

They feed mostly on roe deer and sika deer but will also take other mammals such as badgers and hares.  To feed on their prey carcasses they have evolved specially adapted tongue which has been covered in denticles. These are tiny hook shaped structures which are used to help the leopard scrape meat from bones and so effectively making the most out of every kill.

Thanks for reading!

The news article from BBC 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-39666713

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