"We are celebrating the birth of an endangered Amur leopard. With less than 35 remaining in the wild, Amur leopards are one of the rarest big cats in the world.  

The female cub was born on the 18th November 2007 as part of a European conservation breeding programme to help save the species from extinction."

Marwell Zoo Home page. http://www.marwell.org.uk/

"Marwell’s resident Research Programme Manager, Heidi Mitchell is carrying out work to better understand big cat reproduction in captivity and believes that the extremely small wild population size makes the species vulnerable for two reasons: “Such a small wild population means that the species is extremely vulnerable to “catastrophes” such as fire or disease. Secondly, inbreeding also threatens their viability as this can lead to genetic problems including reduced fertility”

Heidi continues: “Because of these risks to the current wild leopards, planning is under way for an ambitious project to reintroduce these big cats to the wild to form a second population in an area that was formerly part of their natural range.”

Sarah Christie of the Zoological Society of London, species co-ordinator for the Amur leopard European breeding programme, adds: “As well as breeding for reintroduction, zoos in Europe and America are funding vital antipoaching, firefighting, education and survey work.  There is no question that without zoo support, the Amur leopard would be a lot worse off than it is today.”

The cub is available to adopt. She costs £50 to adopt, adopters will receive a certificate with a picture of an Amur leopard, an animal fact sheet, 1 admission ticket to the park, a copy of Marwell News and their name will be featured on our adoptions 'Thank You' board for everyone to see!

The cub was born to Marwell’s resident adults, Mum, Ascha and Dad, Akin." http://www.marwell.org.uk/

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If you visit the Marwell website you can vote to choose the new leopards name.

She looks lovely and amazingly the photo from the Marwell Site shows her sitting in much the same way as David Dancey-Woods drawing of an Amur Leopard .

To view many more of David's stunning drawings please click the banner to Wildlife Sketches