Research overview: conservation genetics of the Amur leopard

The Amur leopard, surviving in the Russian Far East and adjacent China, is one of the rarest cats, having dropped to a few dozen individuals. This overview surveys genetic studies documenting its very low diversity and signs of inbreeding, the relationship of the wild population to captive animals in zoo breeding programs, and concerns about hybridization in captivity that complicate reintroduction. It discusses how genetic monitoring tracks the slowly recovering wild population, the role of the captive insurance population in maintaining diversity, and how the Amur leopard exemplifies the genetic challenges of conserving a big cat reduced to a critically small number.