Amur Leopard

Visitors to zoos are usually thrilled to see big cats including the leopard. Few however, in zoos such as Colchester, Edinburgh and Marwell,  realise that the animal they are looking at is not the successful predator of the African plains and forests, but the rarest big cat in the world, the Amur leopard.

The Amur leopard, also known as the Manchurian or Far Eastern Leopard, is superbly adapted to life in the harsh environment of a temperate forest habitat. It has longer legs and a thicker fur coat than other sub species and can  cope with the snow it encounters. In colour, it has a pale coat with wide rosettes with darker centres, and its eyes are light blue-green. As such, it is one of the most attractive leopard species.

The Amur leopard used to be widespread, being found in Russia, China and Korea. However, it has suffered many threats leading to a substantial decrease in its range. Whilst there may still be occasional animals in China, it is thought to be extinct in Korea and has only one known viable breeding population of approximately thirty animals in Primorsky Krai, Russia. It is officially designated “critically endangered” with less than fifty remaining in the wild.

Poachers, hunting for its skin, are only one of the problems it faces. It is also caught in snares set for deer and other mammals. Its prey, primarily Roe and Sika deer supplemented by boars, hare, badgers and racoon dogs are also hunted by humans whilst its habitat is frequently damaged by fire and deforestation. The leopard increasingly faces the threat of incursion into its forests by companies drilling for oil and gas, as well as the construction of pipelines and roads. There are also fears that, due to the few animals still in the wild, inbreeding could become a problem.

Mother and daughter

All photographs Copyright of Jon Isaacs 2011

However, all is not lost. There are approximately three hundred Amur leopards held captive within zoos in Russia, the rest of Europe including the U.K. and North America. They breed reasonably well and stud books are held to try and keep the gene bank as diverse as possible. This is important as all of the captive animals are thought to be descended from only nine individuals. There is talk of some wild bred leopards being caught to help widen genetic diversity. Another possible conservation idea is to reintroduce captive born Amur leopards to a reserve in Russia, such as Lazovsky. The W.W.F.runs an “Adopt an Amur Leopard” campaign to raise money and secure habitat for the species, as well as create anti -poaching teams and to establish educational programmes. As it is vital that people who live in close proximity to the leopard are also encouraged to support it, funds are being made available to recompense farmers for livestock killed by Amur leopards.

Within the world of wildlife art the Amur leopard is a popular subject. David Dancey Wood has superbly captured, in exquisite detail, a typical Amur leopard pose and this sought after print can still be obtained direct from Wildlife Sketches.

Jon Isaacs

.........................................................................................................

To view more of David Dancey-Woods drawings please click the banner below

As we descended from the airbus onto the tarmac at Jo’burg International Airport, the warm air of an African Spring morning enveloped us. I allowed myself a grin. We were back in Africa and the new quest to see and photograph a King Cheetah was truly under way. 

Passing swiftly through baggage reclaim and passport control, we were soon in transit to Cheetah lodge, our accommodation at the Ann Van Dyk Cheetah Centre.

We arrived an hour and a half later, up a dusty track at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountains. In front of us lay beautiful gardens and an extended farmhouse, the Cheetah Lodge. Warmly greeted by the assistant manager and Sebastian, the blue and brown eyed dalmation, we were given a conducted tour of our accommodation. The lounge walls were filled with prints and originals of the big cats, whilst on the coffee table lay a selection of mammal and bird books. Meanwhile the highly polished parquet floor was covered with rugs depicting cheetah and other cats. The whole place was my idea of heaven. The quest was getting better all the time. 

We spent the afternoon relaxing in the garden, watching a myriad of birds ranging from woodland kingfisher to sunbird flying from bush to bush. Camera equipment was checked and settings decided upon, my fastest memory cards installed and lenses cleaned to perfection. Now all we had to do was wait.

The next morning dawned brightly, with not a cloud in the cobalt blue sky and the sound of Africa all around us. Having had breakfast, we were picked up at 7.45a.m by our guide Erika, an ecologist who had lectured at Pretoria University. She transferred us to the Cheetah centre, ready to witness the cheetah runs which were conducted in the cool of the early morning. I needn’t have worried about the problem of too many tourists as there were only about fifteen others, and after an introduction to the work of the centre, we made our way to the sloping meadow which contained the course where the lure of feathers and fur would travel, hopefully with a cheetah in hot pursuit. We stationed ourselves behind a wicker fence, the majority of the tourists close to where the three cheetahs would start their run, the three of us, with digital slrs, spaced equally, further down the course, where we hoped to get our action shots. The tension mounted as we were informed that the first cheetah to run would be Shaka, a King cheetah who was the slowest of the three and would allow us to get used to trying to photograph a speeding cheetah.

 Photo Copyright Jon Isaacs 2011

Shaka cautiously emerged from the back of the land cruiser and, with the leash off, we waited for action. The lure hurtled off down the track and Shaka ambled after it. With me shooting at high speed he trotted past, and then cut the route so he was ahead of the lure on its return up the slope. Deciding that he would at least get some exercise, he suddenly looked mildly interested and moved into second gear to complete the run. His handler said she was really embarrassed by his performance and that he was sulking because she’d only returned that morning from holiday. Either way, I had witnessed and successfully photographed my first King Cheetah. Two spotted cheetahs followed. The first was a small female who rapidly went up through the gears, obviously loving every second of the exercise. The final cheetah, Graca, was the star of the show. With the land cruiser now turned end on we were told to expect an explosion and that’s what we got. The cheetah charged out of the back of the vehicle and reached sixty miles per hour in less than three seconds, even faster initial acceleration than an F1 racing car.  The lure was in danger of being caught and destroyed. Hurtling around the course, Graca used non-retractable claws, specially designed pads and its lengthy tail to stay upright. Trying to keep up with it in the viewfinder was nearly impossible and I ended up with pin sharp shots of the tip of its tail as it thundered back up the track, finely powdered soil flying in all directions. Having completed its run Graca sank onto the ground, temperature off the scale and craving oxygen. It really was breathtaking and the crowd fell silent in appreciation.

We left the running area, met up with Erika and continued our tour. Enclosures of honey badgers, including an albino named Blizzard, (Who had been rescued from the Cape where he would undoubtedly have died due to his visibility), caracal, wildcat, and brown hyena followed. At each enclosure we learnt much from Erika and enjoyed photographing the creatures exhibited. Then it was on to the wild dog packs, which were being bred for release, and an enclosure containing rare vultures, also part of an endangered breeding programme. Entering a large enclosure in our vehicle, we were pursued by one of the wild dog packs who knew we had their dinner. Running swiftly on either side of the vehicle, and jumping in mock attack from behind, it gave us a really good idea of how successfully they hunted. Eventually they received their food which disappeared under a mass of bodies, tails and dust.

To conclude our tour we were privileged to be amongst the first that season to be allowed to drive quietly down Lovers Lane, the area of smaller enclosures where the females are mated and raise their young. Stopping, we could see a small bundle of fluff at the rear of one of the enclosures. Using my longest telephoto I could just see the dark bodied youngster staring nervously at me. It was a young king, the first born that season. Further down the lane were two spotted cubs, and the difference in the coat could be clearly seen, even at that young age. Then it was on to see another female adult king who chose to ignore us, turning her back on us as she ate. However, even this was useful as it allowed me to get shots of the triple line pattern on her back, which is so characteristic of King Cheetah.

At the end of the tour Erika asked us if we wanted to see anything else, as she had a few spare minutes before her next appointment. I decided immediately that it had to be another meeting with Shaka and I enjoyed a happy ten minutes, on my own, photographing one of the rarest and most beautiful cats in the world.

As we poured over our photos during the afternoon, an elderly lady was introduced to us at the Lodge. It was Ann van Dyk, the owner and guiding light of the centre. Despite being eighty she still works with a passion to protect and breed her beloved cheetah. It was a privilege to meet her and made me determined to contribute in some small way to her charity which is entirely self funding. Consequently, my wife and I are now the proud adopted parents of Jongozi, a handsome and extremely large male cheetah who resides at the cheetah centre. So, if you get the chance to visit the centre, or stay at the Cheetah Lodge, take it. You will have a fantastic time, be warmly welcomed by all the staff and the loveable Sebastian, and be contributing towards a breeding programme which will help ensure the survival of the fastest mammal on earth.

As a footnote to this article, Ann Van Dyk has written her own account of how she struggled to create the cheetah centre, save the South African cheetah from the edge of extinction, and accidentally bred the King cheetah for the first time in captivity. Entitled “The Cheetahs of De Wildt,” the book makes fascinating reading for anybody interested in cheetahs or general conservation and contains many superb colour photos. The ISBN is 978-0-620-38483-4 and the second edition was published in 2007. I’m afraid I don’t know the current cost as I bought my copy at De Wildts in 2010, but I think it’s roughly £20-25 or 250 Rand. The centre also has a website which can be accessed through googling Ann Van Dyk Cheetah Centre.

East Africa's Worst Drought in 60 years!

Please Help!

The Disasters and Emergencies Commission

Donate online now - Text ‘APPEAL’ to 70000 to donate £5

DEC East Africa Appeal | dec.org.uk

To discover a new species, or rediscover an animal thought to have become extinct, must be the highlight of many naturalists’ lives and an experience which I can only dream of. To meet people who have devoted years to trying to find such a creature is a rare privilege, and one which came my way at the Romsey Town and Country show in Hampshire one September.

I was in the craft tent when I came across Lena and Paul Bottriell. They were selling copies of a book Lena had written. Having talked to them about their quest and been inspired by their enthusiasm, I was hooked, and promptly bought the book. It was entitled “King Cheetah. The Story of the Quest” and was about their efforts to confirm the existence of a new big cat species, the King Cheetah.

Having always been interested in wild cat species, their brilliantly written book made fascinating reading. Their aim, in the 1970’s, was to prove that the King Cheetah, also known as Cooper’s cheetah and originally labelled as a separate species by Reginald Pocock in 1927 (but retracted due to lack of evidence in 1939) actually existed, as it was only known from a couple of dozen skins. They were to spend years researching evidence of sightings, looking for photos, seeking more skins, and even mounting an expedition to try and prove its existence.

King Cheetah, Copyright Jon Isaacs 2011

The King Cheetah was only known at that time from a few ancient skins, stuffed specimens and reports. No concrete evidence of a living animal was available, although various witnesses were convinced of its existence. It appeared to inhabit land in the north of South Africa, including the Kruger National Park, and then west to embrace an area of Botswana, north to Zimbabwe and east to Mozambique. In most cases the habitat it was seen in tended to be woodland. In appearance, it seemed larger than the average cheetah, with long, silky hair, particularly on the neck. It also always had three broad stripes running down the centre of its back onto a striped and ringed tail, and irregular black blotches covering its sides and legs against a creamy background. As such, it appeared to be potentially one of the most attractive looking of the big cats.

The Bottriells eventually mounted an expedition in the Kruger National Park, one of the places where the animal had apparently been seen, to try and provide evidence of its existence. This took place in 1979/80 and included the novel use of hot air balloons as a method of covering the ground. They were largely unsuccessful in their quest, although they did get images on camera of a possible king. The interest in the cat would probably have waned had it not been for a stroke of luck at a cheetah breeding centre in South Africa called De Wildt.

De Wildt was established in 1971 to try to breed and protect the cheetah, whose numbers had crashed to about 600 in South Africa. Linked to Pretoria zoo, the establishment was set up by Ann Van Dyk and her brother, who believed passionately that the cheetah should have a future. Due partly to its almost identical gene pool and low sperm count, the cheetah has always been notoriously difficult to breed in captivity and it was Ann Van Dyk and her helpers who managed to find a successful way of regularly breeding them. In 1981, by chance, two ordinary female spotted cheetah sisters named Jean and Jumper, escaped from their enclosure and mated in another enclosure with a wild caught spotted male named Frik, who was from the area in which King Cheetahs were supposed to have existed. The sisters’ parents had also been captured wild from the same area. Both females produced a king cub within their litter, one being a male and the other a female. All the parents must have contained the King’s mutant or recessive gene which led to the birth of the two King Cheetah. As far as the scientists were concerned, the case was solved. They felt sure that the King Cheetah had a recessive gene which manifested itself in blotches instead of spots, similar to the variations of domestic tabby which can also be in spotted or blotched form. To the scientists, the King Cheetah was no more than a mutant variety of the ordinary cheetah.

The Ann Van Dyk Cheetah Centre, as De Wildt’s is now called, has raised over 800 cheetah cubs since its creation, including a number of King Cheetah. It is acknowledged as a world expert on cheetah breeding and conservation. Due to its success, the cheetah has been removed from the South African list of critically endangered mammals. The centre has also released some cheetah back into the wild in protected areas. However, despite its excellent work, the cheetah is still persecuted in South Africa and Namibia by some farmers. In the world at the present time there are approximately fifty King Cheetah in captivity, these being descended from the De Wildt’s Kings and perhaps up to ten in the wild.

So, is the debate about the origin of the King Cheetah complete? Not totally. Scientists still discuss many of the odd facts that link to this animal ie. why its guard hair appears similar to that of a leopards and apparently different to that of the ordinary cheetah, and why the skin patterns of  King Cheetah are almost  identical.

In the concluding chapter of her book, Lena Bottriell makes a strong case for the argument that the mutant gene of the King Cheetah is actually a gene responding to a different environment, ie. woodland instead of open grassland. She concludes that the King Cheetah could represent a mammal which is evolving before our eyes into a new species, sacrificing speed for size and strength; a more suitable camouflage for a woodland environment it can safely inhabit.

Whatever eventually proves to be the truth of the debate, there is no doubt that the King Cheetah is a superb looking and very interesting animal. Long live the King!

As a postscript to this article I have discovered an interesting clip on You Tube. Entitled “ King Cheetah” by moonbear 44, the clip shows part of an interview with the Bottriells and includes the only known footage of a King Cheetah filmed in the wild. Enjoy!

King Cheetah. YouTube Video from Moonbear44.

......................................................................................................................................

For more information about King Cheetahs and their breeding program please visit

The Ann Van Dyk Cheetah Centre - De Wildt South Africa

Thank you Jon, really enjoyable article again. The photo's clearly show the coat markings you mention (the three stripes along the back) and they also show how well camoflaged the King Cheetah is in woodland and also in tall grass. The book sounds brilliant too. Might have a look on amazon later for it. To check if it's still available. It's amaing to think that there are probably no more than 60 examples of King Cheetah left though.

Vincenzo De Luca, Wildlife Sketches.

How time flies, I can't believe how long it has last been since I last posted on the blog. I get very wrapped up in my work and when artworks take hold of me I find there is no time for blogs and such. Apologies to all who read my posts and were expecting something sooner.

Sometime ago I mentioned here that I was involved in a commissioned piece of artwork depicting the Chinese Alligator. The picture was originally to be a spectacled caiman but when the opportunity arose to draw one of the rarest reptiles on the planet I could not help myself from getting excited.

I have had a huge love of crocodiles ever since childhood. The highlight for any trip to the zoo was the reptile house and especially the crocodiles and alligators. These wonderful creatures strangely captivated me, (strange as they are not particularly mobile and will often sit for hours without movement,) not for any romantic reason that they reminded me of dragons or even dinosaurs. The reason they captured my imagination so intensely was that they are so exotic, they spoke to me of jungles and far away lands deep in the tropics, they were something completely alien to everything around me.

Becoming a professional artist later in life who specialized in  drawing animals I hoped one day the occasion would arise to put one of these reptiles onto paper doing it justice and giving it the time a picture of this persuasion deserves. Receiving a commission for this subject is as close as I can get to a personal drawing dream come true. I have had an idea in mind for years and now I had the chance to realize it in pencil.

A simple drawing of an alligator would have been nice, but the topic needed more, something to captivate the viewer, maybe an insight into behavior. The perfect representation of alligators was to show the incredibly gentle way a mother alligator carries her young to the water without harming them in her ruthlessly powerful jaws. I was nervous that although I had a clear picture of this in my mind it may not turn out anything like it. Often I will visualize a picture years before putting onto paper with mixed results. Sometimes it ends up looking nothing like I had planned other times it is as though I have had a complete transfer from mind to paper. I must say when it happens like this it is incredibly satisfying.

This drawing was also another opportunity to raise the profile of yet another very endangered animals, the Chinese Alligator. The Chinese alligator is listed as a CITES Appendix I species, which puts extreme restrictions on its trade and exportation throughout the world. It is IUCN Red Listed as a critically endangered species. Efforts are underway to reintroduce captive-bred animals to suitable wild habitats, but thus far have not met with much success.

I had the chance to view Chinese Alligators up close and personal through a contact with a private crocodile collection this gave me invaluable time to sit and study these creatures to make sure if I was going to draw it I would get it 100 percent anatomically correct which I hope I have accomplished.

Prints will be released of the alligator in glclee form in an edition of just 100 with a percentage being given to the chinese alligator conservation fund. They should be available for purchase some time in june.

Panda Crazy

(The Giant Panda, Global Megastar)

By Jon Isaacs

Whilst Aleksandr Orlov of meerkat.com fame may be heading for worldwide domination, there is little doubt that the Giant Panda still remains, for the present at least, at world number one in the animal popularity stakes. Ever since I’ve been alive, the Giant Panda has been an animal known and loved by nearly all of humanity. There are probably more fluffy toy giant pandas in existence than any other toy creature on the planet, and in terms of having a good press, the Giant Panda can do no wrong. You only have to look at the furore caused by Chris Packham with his suggestion that the money spent on preventing the Giant Panda from becoming extinct could be better used in conservation, to realise that the Giant Panda has got us exactly where it wants us, absolutely besotted.

And yet, it’s only since 1869, when the explorer/ naturalist Pierre Armand David sent the first skins to Europe that most of the world knew that such an animal existed. Apparently, even large areas of China knew little of the mammal because it was rarely depicted on Chinese art, and unless living in the mountains where it occurs, was never seen by the majority of China’s population. For scientists too it caused quite a stir, as they couldn’t quite work out how to classify it and which branch of the tree of life it should fit into. Most scientists now agree that it is a bear, if an odd one in that it is a carnivore which eats vegetation, but it appears also, in some of its characteristics, closely linked to racoons.

Whatever its origins there is little doubt that the Giant Panda has been heading down an evolutionary dead end for thousands of years. It is now incredibly limited in what it can eat and how much time it needs to eat ie. 12 hours in a day, in order to survive. The failure of the bamboo crop is a disaster for it, and in the 1970’s, when large areas of bamboo died, many pandas starved to death. The female also suffers from only being receptive to breeding for about 72 hours in a year with a window of 12 hours for successful impregnation. If she doesn’t find in that time a mate that she actually wants to mate with, another year has been wasted. Consequently, it was hardly surprising that after the 1970’s  bamboo failure, there were thought to be less than a thousand Giant Panda in existence.

My own introduction into the world of Giant Pandas began when my parents took me to London zoo in 1959 to see the legendary Chi Chi. She had been acquired in September 1958 after the United States refused her entry. Initially she was to be kept for three weeks, but Regents Park then bought her for £12000 and made a fortune out of exhibiting her. I remember seeing her sitting on a bank behind a moat with her personal keeper feeding her copious amounts of bamboo. She didn’t do anything other than eat, and although undeniably cuddly looking, I did wish she would at least get up and walk about, but such seems to be the way of pandas. She was to remain at the zoo until her death in 1972. Attempted matings with An An of Moscow zoo failed and she is now to be viewed as a stuffed specimen at the Natural History Museum in London; a sad end to a lonely creature. However, on a happier note, she also lives on as the symbol for WWF, for she was the inspiration for Sir Peter Scott’s original version of their emblem, although that has since been modified

My next encounter with pandas came in the 1970’s, again at London zoo, this time courtesy of Mr. Edward Heath and his diplomatic overtures to the Chinese government. At that time China was heavily into sealing alliances by sending pandas as presents and, whilst on a visit to China as P.M. Edward Heath asked for, and received, a gift of two pandas for London zoo. These two were named Chia Chia and Ching Ching and they arrived in 1974. I remember seeing them in their purpose built, glass fronted and brick internal area soon after. They had an adjacent external exercise area, grassed and planted with bamboo. Whilst I watched Ching Ching consuming bamboo in the normal laid back position, Chia Chia was actually moving around, a first in my viewing of pandas. Unfortunately, Ching Ching was to prove sickly and she eventually died in 1985. Chia Chia  had a better life and he moved to Mexico in 1988 where he sired three cubs.

My encounters with pandas then ceased until 2008, when my wife and myself decided on a once in a lifetime trip to China. The trip was amazing, and as well as visiting many of the sights such as The Great Wall, included a day trip to a panda reserve outside Chengdu. For me this was a highlight. We journeyed away from the sprawling city of 24 million, and up a winding mountainous road to the breeding centre. Passing stands of bamboo we arrived at the centre by mid morning, along with many Chinese tourists. The centre was catering for extra pandas that had been removed the previous year from the famous Woolong centre which had been largely destroyed by an earthquake. We soon saw our first adult panda, reclining in a paddock. Needless to say it was eating long stems of bamboo and wasn’t going to move for some time. We walked on past other bamboo planted enclosures containing adults of a fixed age. Consequently one, two, three and four year olds were in separate enclosures, and were to be seen lying or sitting on wooden platforms, sleeping or eating.

 Eventually we reached the crèche where all the young pandas below the age of 8 months were exhibited. This huge area contained climbing apparatus, trees, a pond, grass and the obligatory stands of bamboo. Apart from being incredibly cute, these young pandas were energetic. Forward rolls, chasing pairs, sliding down and falling out of trees, sitting in the pond, gymnastics on the back of a sibling; movement was everywhere. Photographing them made up for the lethargy of all of the adults and it was actually hard to keep up with them, such was their variety of movement. As the time progressed, the humidity soared and with sweat pouring down my face, it was really hard to see clearly through the viewfinder. With their eyes being dark against the black eye patches I was also finding it a problem to get photos in which the eyes could be clearly distinguished from their background. The fact that all the Chinese tourists also wanted to photograph the pandas, but with themselves in the foreground, also added to the difficulty of getting decent shots. Eventually, regrettably, we were asked by our guide to move on as some of our group wished to be photographed holding a baby panda for a £100, the fee going to the panda breeding programme. As this was going to take a bit of organising a couple of us eventually managed to obtain permission to return to the crèche area to take further photos. We were greeted by a transformation in the behaviour of the juveniles. Worn out by the rigorous activity we had witnessed, and possibly sulking because they hadn’t been picked for the photoshoot, they were crashed out on climbing apparatus, in the forks of trees and lying on their backs in the grass. All appeared to be sleeping peacefully, or maybe what I was witnessing was a joint practice for behaving like a grown up panda.

This was my last sight of living Giant Pandas. I think that the cubs are probably the most attractive and photogenic creatures I’ve ever seen. The fact that they made such an impression on me was my excuse for using my remaining yen to purchase a cuddly toy Giant Panda at Beijing airport. Carrying it onto the plane caused much mirth amongst the group members but, secretly, I think many of them rather envied me my purchase. Later, as we flew home I thought about the plight of the Giant Panda and I came to the conclusion that Chris Packham just might have got it wrong. Any creature that can create such a feel good factor and produce so many smiling faces amongst people of such different cultures  is undoubtedly worth saving. The Giant Panda is a global megastar who needs our help but who, in return, is capable of earning vast sums of money as an attraction. Consequently, I believe it can earn its keep in return for the considerable amounts of money that will need to be spent to breed up its numbers. Then hopefully, these captive bred specimens can be successfully reintroduced back into the wild which is where they undoubtedly belong.

Panda Crazy by Jon Isaacs 2011.

...................

All Photo's Copyright Jon Isaacs 2011

This one's my favorite Jon. (Vince)

......................................................................................................

This latest article from Jon Isaacs is so good that I have to apologise to everyone. Jon sent me this article some weeks ago. I am really sorry because this is a brilliant article about Pandas which Jon clearly enjoys so much. I'm certain everyone that saw your cuddly Panda on the air plane was truly envious. Thanks so much Jon, articles like yours make my day. 

Vince De Luca.

Jon's other articles for Wildlife Sketches are listed in the side bar of this blog.