Corridor capacity building program in north east China for Amur Leopard

Ying LI

The far eastern, or Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis; Schlegel, 1857) is probably the most threatened large felid subspecies in the world, and has been listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1996 (Jackson and Nowell, 2008; Mark Hebblewhite et al., 2011).

The first Hunchun tiger nature reserve was established in 2001, generated the start of conservation efforts in Hunchun, which also boarders Russia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The leopard population grew steadily and their distribution expanded to main-land China.

To achieve the long term goal for the leopard to naturally expand its habitat to the forest in the Changbai Mountains, conservation capacity along the corridor area needs to be built. The main activities of our project will be to increase cooperation from stakeholders, research the distribution of the leopard and their prey through camera trapping and field surveys, and increase community awareness through education programs. After one year, these activities will have helped us determine measures for the long term conservation success of wild Amur leopard to survive in this area.