Posted on 18 July 2013
Sochi, Russia: For the first time in 50
years two Persian leopard cubs have been
born in a Russian national park in a major
effort to reintroduce the endangered species
back to the wild.
The kittens were born
in the Persian Leopard Breeding and Rehabilitation
Centre, Sochi National Park in south-western
Russia last week.
“They will be released
into the wild after learning surviving skills
and will start a new population of the leopards
in the Caucasus Mountains”, said Natalia
Dronova, WWF-Russia species coordinator.
“It is too early to
tell the sex of the cubs. They’re in the
den with their mother and centre staff don’t
want to disturb them”, said Umar Semyonov,
head of the breeding center.
The parents, Zadig and
Andrea were brought to the park in 2012
from Portugal`s Lisbon Zoo.
An average newborn leopard
is 15cm long and weighs between 500 and
700 grams.
The kittens will gain
sight by the seventh or ninth day and by
the second week of their lives will start
to crawl around the den, leaving the den
after two months. At first the mother is
responsible for feeding the kittens half-digested
meat but as they grow they start to eat
prey themselves.
The Persian leopard
(Panthera pardus tulliana) population, once
widespread throughout this mountainous region
between the Black and Caspian Seas, declined
drastically throughout the 20th century
due to poaching and habitat loss. It is
believed that only a few leopards now live
there.
It is endangered according
to the IUCN Red List with fewer than 1,290
mature individuals believed to live in Iran,
eastern Turkey, the Caucasus Mountains,
southern Turkmenistan and parts of western
Afghanistan.
The Persian Leopard
Reintroduction Program is run by the Ministry
of Natural Resources and Environment of
the Russian Federation with participation
of the Sochi National Park, Caucasus Nature
Reserve, A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology
and Evolution, WWF and Moscow Zoo.
+ More
Rangers saved Black-shanked
douc langur
Posted on 22 July 2013
A young male Black-shanked douc langur was
rescued by members of the Mobile Enforcement
Unit in Mondulkiri province and will be
placed in the care of authorities at the
Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre. On Sunday,
a local found the baby langur injured and
abandoned in the forest not far from his
village while he was collecting non-timber
forest product (NTFP).
“Soon after he saved
the douc langur, the villager reported his
find to the enforcement team, who quickly
transferred the animal to the Forestry Administration
Office in Sen Monorom for immediate care,”
said Mr Chay Sokha, Chief of the Mobile
Enforcement Unit and Official of the Forestry
Administration. Given the vulnerable conditions
of the animal and risks, the team will not
release it back to the wild but will transfer
it to the national Phnom Tamao Wildlife
Rescue Centre in Takeo province, 30km southeast
of Phnom Penh capital.
Mr Chay Sokha said the
Mobile Enforcement Unit also rescued and
have already transferred to the Phnom Tamao
Facility an adult Black-shanked douc langur
and two other rare baby pygmy slow loris,
all discovered last week at a local household
situated 20km from Sen Monorom town.
The Mobile Enforcement
Unit is supported by WWF and was established
in 2009. On call to operate all over Mondulkiri
province, the team consists of officers
from the National Gendarmes and the Forestry
Administration. The Black-shanked douc langur
is classified as rare species in the Cambodia’s
forestry law and is red-listed as endangered
by IUCN.
