A team of scientists from Wildlife Conservation Society, Wildlife Vets International and Zoological Society of London, has just completed a two month long field trip in the Russian Far East. Their mission was to gather information on the health of the few remaining Amur leopards, if they were lucky enough to catch any that is! Unfortunately they didn’t see any actual leopards although they did successfully catch two Amur tigers Panthera tigris altaica and two Asiatic black bears Ursus thibetanus. In the photo above, you can see the team examining one of the tigers and taking blood samples before it was safely released again.

Gathering information on the health of the tigers and the bears in this area is essential as they share the habitat with the Amur leopards, hence any diseases found in the tigers and bears could also pose a major risk to the leopards, one that could be particularly disastrous as the wild numbers are already so low. It is also important to know what diseases are being carried by species endemic to the area as in the future there may be a second population of Amur leopards released and knowledge of the challenges they may face will be essential, as well as ensuring they do not bring in new diseases to the fragile wild population.

Despite not seeing any leopards in the flesh, new camera trap images of leopards were obtained including this one which shows a leopard with a very short tail, the first seen like this in the wild. It is possible this was caused by an injury to the tail, or more worryingly it could be a sign of inbreeding.