Meet The Amur Leopard

STATUS: Critically Endangered
POPULATION: ~84

The Amur leopard, also known as the Far East leopard, is quite possibly the world’s rarest cat with only about 90 left in the wild. The Amur leopard is one of the eight subspecies of leopards and while big cats are usually associated with the savannas, these leopards live in a much colder environment in the Russian Far East and in Northern East China.

The Amur leopard’s average lifespan is 10-15 years in the wild and in certain cases has lasted up to 21 years in captivity. As a wonderful sign of adaptation to the cold, snowy climate, their fur can be as long as three inches in length and they have a paler coat than most leopards providing an important camouflaging effect. These nocturnal beings are solitary — they live and hunt alone — however, in some occasions the male will stay with the female after mating and may even help with rearing their young.

The Amur Leopard has become known as the world’s rarest cat.

Photo by Kevin Law via Wikimedia Commons

What’s the danger?

There are several threats harming the Amur leopard and its habitat.

HUMAN RELATIONS

With less than a hundred left in the wild, the cause of their rapid decline over the past decades are primarily a result of human activity, as they are still being poached mercilessly. According to change.org, the bones of the Amur Leopard are sometimes used in traditional Chinese medicine despite having no known medicinal properties and in Russia it is not uncommon to see their fur on the black market in the form of carpet or clothing.

ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES

The Amur leopard plays a crucial role in the health of the ecosystem. As top predators, their presence is essential in maintaining a healthy balance of species in their habitat. However they continue to be threatened by habitat loss due to the industrialization of their origin countries, and they also suffer from prey scarcity since the animals they feed on are hunted by the local communities in order to eliminate prey competition. With the number of remaining Amur leopards being so low, they are also subject to inbreeding which can be another threatening factor for the species, making them more prone to health problems that can further decrease the population size.

There are 7.7 billion humans on Earth. There still might be 9 million bicycles in Beijing, but there are only about 90 Amur leopards on Earth.

Photo by Abrods55 via Wikimedia Commons

How can we help?

There is some good news.

As a result of continuous conservation efforts the number of Amur leopards are slowly rising. One big milestone in turning this page was the declaration of a 650,000 acre land area in Russia, now called Land Of The Leopard National Park. WWF had lobbied for this project since 2001 and the final declaration was successfully made in 2012. The species still remains critically endangered, and even with a long road ahead of us it is important to pay tribute to the ones who have begun paving the path.

WWF also works with TRAFFIC, the world’s largest wildlife trade monitoring network to support all anti-poaching efforts, and a number of international and Russian NGOs are partnering up to help the Wildcat’s Conservation Alliance to help committed conservationists protect the species.

Everybeing gives 100% of our proceeds to beneficiaries, consisting of non-profit organizations working on conservation efforts just like these.

Make a Pledge For THOSE IN NEED

When you purchase limited edition Everybeing shirts, 100% of net proceeds go directly to organizations working on conservation efforts that are helping stop the sixth and support endangered species in need. You are also contributing to the health of our environment as each of our shirts uses yarn made from eight recycled plastic bottles. Please help us support animals in need and the artists who are bringing it all to life.