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Amur leopard's range is a biodiversity hot-spot
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The Amur leopard is a highly endangered animal. We have developed an extensive conservation program in order to prevent its extinction. The main projects are listed on the left. However, before you can effectively protect an animal, you have to know a lot about it. A few facts about the Amur leopard can be found in the fact sheet below.
Amur leopard fact file
The Amur, or Far Eastern, leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) is a subspecies of leopard. There are eight subspecies that range over Africa and Asia. The Amur leopard is only found in the Russian Far East and North East China, and is adapted to this cool climate by having thick fur (up to 7.5 cm long in winter), which is paler than other leopard subspecies. It also has a longer tail than other leopards. The Amur leopard’s spots are widely spaced thick black rings with dark centres.
Status: There are fewer than 45 Amur leopards left in the wild, making the Amur leopard one of the world's most endangered cat taxa. For this reason, this subspecies is listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN, and CITES Appendix I for protection status.
Location: Southwest Primorye in the Russian Far East, and along the Russian border in Heilongjiang Province and Jilin Province in North East China. It is possible that a few leopards also exist in North Korea, but so far we have not been able to survey this area.
Click here for maps of the Amur leopard’s range.
Weight: Males generally weigh 32-48 kg, but can weigh up to 75 kg. Females are smaller than the males at 25-43 kg.
Breeding: Females first breed at an age of 3-4 years. After a gestation period of around 12 weeks cubs are born in litters of 1-4 individuals, with an average litter size of just over 2. The cubs will stay with their mother for up to two years before becoming fully independent. Amur leopards in zoos show some evidence of breeding seasonalilty with a peak in births in late spring/early summer.
Longevity: In the wild, leopards live for 10-15 years and they may reach 20 years in captivity.
Habitat: Amur leopards live in the temperate forests of Far Eastern Russia, that experience harsh winters with extreme cold and deep snow.
Prey: Amur leopard hunt a very wide variety of species including roe deer, sika deer, badgers and hares.
Competition: Whilst it has been found in other regions that leopards do not do well in areas where they share territory with tigers, this has not proved to be the case in Russia. Studies have indicated that an increased tiger population in the Southwest Primorye area has not adversely affected the leopard population.
Threats: Poaching (hunting of leopards and their prey), loss of habitat due to forest fires, inbreeding, development in their territory, lack of political commitment to conservation
Zoo support: There are approximately 300 Amur leopards in captivity, mostly in zoos in Europe, North America and countries of the former Soviet Union. Most, but not all, of these leopards are in zoos participating in managed conservation breeding programmes.
To learn more about projects concerning the Amur leopard, have a look at the links on the left. If you want to have a closer look at the leopards and tigers, have a look at our photo gallaries.