Research overview: the Amur leopard, recovering from the brink

The Amur leopard, a cold-adapted subspecies of the temperate forests of the Russian Far East and northeast China, became one of the rarest cats on Earth, falling to only a few dozen wild individuals. This overview surveys research documenting its precarious status and subsequent recovery. The establishment of Land of the Leopard National Park in Russia consolidated protection of its core habitat, and camera-trap monitoring has since recorded a roughly doubling of numbers, a rare positive trend for a big cat at such low abundance. Studies examine the threats of poaching, prey scarcity, habitat loss to fire and development, and inbreeding in so small a population. The overview frames the Amur leopard as both an extreme case of rarity and an encouraging example that focused protection of a key landscape can pull a subspecies back from the edge.