The Great Leopard Rescue: Saving the Amur Leopards
DAnger In the fading light of an autumn day a young male Amur leopard picks his way over a rocky ridge and sets off on his nighttime hunt Earlier in the morning he caught a hare before finding a den to sleep in But one hare isn’t enough daily food for a cat nearly twice as big as a German shepherd So awake again he’s hungry and hunting When his keen nose picks up the scent of blood he tracks it 4
A wounded animal would be an easy kill But this one is another leopard’s prey With a throaty growl the rival warns the young male to stay away He moves on and keeps hunting Able to drag prey three times its weight this leopard dragged a wild goat to a place where it could defend its meal 5
A male Amur leopard’s home range may cover more than 150 square miles 388 square kilometers As a cub he’d spent two years shadowing his mother and learning to hunt During the following winter he hunted with his brother and sister in their mother’s home range the area normally traveled while hunting They searched for prey on familiar ground and helped one another get enough to eat But adult Amur leopards hunt alone so in the spring the trio split up All summer long the young male wandered farther from his mother’s home range At last he found a range of his own Though he sometimes crosses paths with rivals and potential mates this part of the forest is his home Now he takes a path he’s traveled many times But before he picks up the scent of more prey the wind shifts bringing the nose stinging smell of smoke 6
Beyond the stream he’s crossing sparks dance in the air Flames crawl through tall grass and into the dead leaves littering the forest floor If this fire spreads upward into the trees the entire forest could soon be ablaze The leopard leaps over a burning patch of grass and runs for his life He has to survive The wild Amur leopard population can’t lose even one more big cat 7
