What is happening
Not many people ever see an Amur leopard. It is a cat of deep forest and far distances, awake mostly at night.Source 1
It lives and hunts alone in the vast temperate forests of the Russian Far East and northeast China.Source 1
Winter is written into its body. In the coldest months, the hairs of its black-ringed coat grow up to seven centimetres long, and its long furred tail wraps around it for warmth.Source 1
For decades it was hunted mercilessly, while logging, forest fires, road building and farming broke its homeland into fragments.Source 1
It remains one of the rarest and most endangered leopard subspecies in the world.Source 1
And yet the recent story bends toward hope: research shows conservation work is having an effect, and wild numbers are believed to be rising in Russia and China.Source 1
To witness the Amur leopard is to hold both truths at once—how close the edge came, and how much a protected forest can still return.Source 1