World’s rarest cat captured in remote Russia
World’s rarest cat captured in remote Russia
mongabay.com
November 14, 2006
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) scientists captured a Far Eastern leopard in Southwest Primorski Krai in the southern Russian Far East, less than 20 miles from the Chinese border. With a wild population of 30, the Far Eastern leopard is the world’s most endangered big cat.
The leopard was captured in a “trapline”, examined, and released. During the examination, researchers took sperm samples to asses its capacity to reproduce. Researchers will use the samples to help determine whether the wild leopards suffer from the effects of inbreeding by closely related individuals. According to WCS, until now no information on the Far Eastern leopard has been available to assess the risk of disease or inbreeding.
The leopard was captured just a mile from where a large male Siberian tiger had been caught days earlier. The tiger is part of a subpopulation consisting of about 20 individuals in Southwest Primorye. Researchers conducted medical evaluations on the tiger as well.
 Melody Roelke of the Laboratory for Genomic Diversity, of the National Institute of Health — a specialist in large felid genetics and disease — conducting a thorough medical exam of the captured Far Eastern leopard. Photo credit: John Goodrich/Wildlife Conservation Society |
“This capture represents a milestone in our cooperative efforts to save the Far Eastern leopard and Siberian tiger from extinction,” said Dale Miquelle, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Russia Program, which has led coordination of this project. “With the information gained from these animals, and others to come, we will be in a much better position to determine appropriate conservation actions.”
WCS says that if inbreeding proves to be a significant problem, new genetic material may be introduced into the population, by bringing in big cats from other part of the species’ range, as was done for the Florida panther. A media release from WCS explains: “In that situation, when poor reproduction and physical abnormalities suggested that inbreeding was the culprit, pumas from Texas were introduced into Florida, resulting in increased reproductive rates and greater vitality of the Florida population.”
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