Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Russia Sergey Donskoy took part in the meeting dedicated to completion of the field stage of Siberian tiger and Amur leopard census in Vladivostok. New details about leopard population received during the census were announced.
ANO Amur Leopard, the Russian Geographical Society and WWF have been supporting photographic monitoring in the National Park the Land of the Leopard since 2013.
Amur leopard is one of the rarest cat species on the Earth. At the moment the species is critically endangered.
Trail cameras captured 57 species in 2014. 48 were captured in 2013. Meeting attendees noticed that the census of 2007 made by footprints estimated Amur leopard population to 30-35 species, thus it can very cautiously said that population increased almost twofold. “It can be said now that leopard population has more or less stabilized, - said Director of the National Park Tatiana Baranovskaya. – At that, there is the upward trend. But we cannot be satisfied with what has already been achieved because population size of about 120 animals is needed for species preservation”.
foto_administracii_pk_2.jpg
Recall that field tiger and leopard census works completed in Primorsky Krai in mid-February. Collected data is being processed at the moment.
Large scale tiger studies held every 10 years, leopard studies held every 3 years. According to census of 2005 Siberian Tiger population on the South Far East estimates 423-502 species, what is 95% of the world population. Amur leopard population inhabiting South West Primorsky Krai according to 2013 census is about 50 species.
From there, scientists will be able to compare data received by photographic monitoring and by snow footprints. This will provide wider insight on Amur leopard area and tendencies of possible changes.
Preliminary results on footprints will be available approximately in 3 months.