Leopard Population Endangered in Russia

EcoLur

Russian officials have decided to seize the potential habitats of the Caucasian leopard and to provide them to business. Works aiming at the recovery of the Caucasian leopard in the Caucasus have been in progress for already 10 years. In 2009 Caucasian Leopard Reproduction and Recovery Center was constructed based on Sochi National Park. Two males were brought here from Turkmenistan, two females from Iran, and a cub was brought here from Lisbon Zoo.

In 2013 the first four cubs were born here and another four were born in 2014. In 2015 Simbad leopard was brought here from French Zoo.

The first danger is related with the construction of a tourist cluster in Sochi National Park carried out by “Roza Khutor” Company. For the implementation of the construction the category of reserve area located in Krasnaya Polyana Region was changed into the category of recreation zone. It’s the section of the Mzitma River, which is the migration corridor of the leopard.

The second danger is the construction of the skiing resort in Lagonak area, which is included in the UNESCO list. A total of 196 red-listed species inhabit here. Now they intend to take out Lagonaki out of this list.

The discussion was held during the second meeting of International Ecological Press club in Krasnodar, where the Armenian team was also taking part. Alexander Malkhasyan, Armenian representative, WWF Leopard Conservation Project Coordinator, said the main habitat of the leopard in Armenia is South Armenia and there around 5 leopard individuals.

As Malkhasyan noted that the aim of leopard conservation program in Armenia is to ensure sustainable population by 2017 through effective conservation of their habitats.

April 18, 2016 at 16:09