The Wildlife
Heritage Foundation in Kent has just announced the birth of two Amur leopard
cubs - the rarest big cat on the planet. After a 90 day pregnancy two cubs were
born on the morning of the 22nd May.
WHF aim to
prevent the Amur leopards going the way of the Tasmanian Tiger by running a
managed breeding program that should eventually lead to the grandchildren of
these cubs being reintroduced into the wild.
The Amur leopard
(aka Far East leopard, Manchurian leopard, Korean leopard) is a rare leopard subspecies living
in the temperate forests and harsh winters of the Russian Far East. They are
facing extinction because of unsustainable
logging, forest fires, land
conversion for farming and poaching for the illegal trade of their unique
spotted coats.
It is a critically endangered sub-species on the IUCN's 2000
Red List of Threatened Species and CITES has listed it on Appendix I. There may be a mere 30-35 left in the wild
and only around 100 in captivity.
The Wildlife
Heritage Foundation have been actively involved in many breeding programs over
the past 10 years, helping to raise funds for conservation projects all over
the world. Previously the charity has raised money for leopard conservation
chairty Amur ALTA, Wildlife Vets International, and Project Life Lion in
Africa.
The WHF is based
at The Big Cat Sanctuary in Smarden, Kent, where they house a small number of
selected endangered big cats with the view to breeding and where possible
re-introduction to their home continents. The WHF is a charity allowing people
from all walks of life, nationalities and countries to join and actually assist
(if they wish) in the long term care, and where possible reintroduce animals
and plants in to their native habitat.
The
WHF is supported by its sister site Paradise Wildlife Park -http://www.pwpark.com
