Camera trap photos of Amur leopards
© WCS-ISUNR
A camera trap in a protected area in Russia has captured photos of eight Amur – one of the world’s most endangered wild cats. While a "camera trap" might sound menacing, it actually does not harm wildlife. The name is derived from the manner in which it "captures" wildlife on film. Camera traps are not the intricate and elaborate devices you might imagine. These innovative conservation tools are in fact nothing more than everyday cameras, armed with infrared sensors that take a picture or video whenever they sense movement in the forest.
The Amur leopard sits perilously on the brink of extinction.
© WWF-Russia / ISUNR
The leopard is best known in its more familiar home in the savannas of Africa, but the Amur leopard, a rare subspecies, lives in the temperate forests and harsh winters of the Russian Far East. Pictured here is Dalnyaya, a female Amur leopard, in Southeast Russia.
© WCS-ISUNR
Pictured here is Leopold, an old male Amur leopard that WWF has been tracking for a long time. The last photo taken of Leopold was in 2004.
© WWF-Russia / ISUNR
The Amur leopard is habitually nocturnal and solitary. Lying down here is Elduga, a lone female Amur leopard in her home range. She competes with several males for food for herself and her kittens.
© WCS-ISUNR
Indiscriminate logging, forest fires and land conversion for farming are the main threats to the Amur leopards’ habitats. However, not all is lost. Even now large tracts of forest, which are ideal leopard habitat, exist. If these areas can be protected from unsustainable logging, rampant forest fires and poaching of wildlife, the chance exists to increase the population of the subspecies in the wild.
© WWF-Russia / ISUNR
The Amur leopard is poached largely for its beautiful, spotted fur. Filipovskii, pictured here, is at high risk of being poached because he lives very close to a known poaching village nearby.
© WWF-Russia / ISUNR
The Amur leopard is nimble-footed and strong and is able to leap more than 19 feet horizontally and more than 9 feet vertically. The Amur leopard pictured here was first photographed in 2002 when WWF began experimenting with camera traps.
© WCS-ISUNR
The prey base in the forests where Amur leopards live is insufficient for survival. Prey populations will recover if the use of the forests by the local people is regulated and if measures are taken to limit the poaching of hoofed species, the prey of the leopard.
© WCS-ISUNR