Wildlife Alliance

Amur Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis)

Status: Critically endangered

Description: Also known as the Far Eastern leopard, the Manchurian leopard, or the Korean leopard.

Habitat Range:

They are found in the mountainous taiga forest and grasslands on the southern tip of the Russian Far East, sharing a border with China and Korea. Much of Amur Leopard's preferred remaining territory is now surrounded by farms and villages, making poaching easier.

Numbers Left in the Wild: 25-34

Primary Threats:

The Amur leopard's extremely low population levels could be catapulted into extinction by any of the following threats: Loss or destruction of habitat; due to logging and/or burning of the forest, poaching for their skins and body parts sold for use in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) trade, reduction in the leopard's natural prey due to illegal hunting, and human encroachment, for example, the development of a coal mine or an oil pipeline into the Amur leopard's habitat.

What we are doing to help:

• Our partners, Phoenix Fund, along with additional NGOs, convinced Russia and Transneft Corporation to relocate a proposed oil pipeline. The pipeline would have delivered oil from Siberia to the Pacific Ocean directly through the last remaining Amur leopard habitat.
  
  
• Phoenix Fund's fire-fighting team fights seasonal forest fires that have destroyed large areas of Amur leopard habitat, a huge threat to their already small population.
  
  
• The Inspection Tiger anti-poaching team patrols the last remaining Amur leopard reserve in the world; to preserve the last surviving Amur leopards.