Some San Diego Zoo babies from early April 2023.

7-week old Amur leopard.

~4 month old Andean bear with mom

4 day old wattled jacana.

Clover looks the part for International Leopard Day!

Thought I would post this a bit early, I hope you enjoy :)

Happy International Leopard Day!

Leopards (Panthera pardus) are the most widespread of the big cats.

SciArt by Friedrich Wilhelm Kuhnert for Richard Lydekker, Wild Life of the World, Vol. 2 (1916).

View more in the Biodiversity Heritage Library with thanks to the Gerstein Science Information Centre of the University of Toronto Libraries for digitizing.

Explore more public domain illustrations uploaded by Biodiversity Heritage Library in their Flickr account and gathered into my gallery.

Amur Leopard

by Sondre Eriksen

Music: Cover Kid - Married Life (From "Up")

Amurleopard Blijdorp G52A3026 by safi kok

“ Zino is taking a look at your soul “ // © Sondre Eriksen

Music:  Skott - Overcome

“More frequent appearances by wild animals have been observed in the part of the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park located in Hunchun, Northeast China's Jilin Province, by a comprehensive air, space and land system, showing an increase in the amount of wildlife in the area and an improvement in the ecological environment after years of efforts to protect Siberian tigers and Amur leopards in northeastern China, the Global Times learned from the park on Tuesday. Now Siberian tigers can be seen nearly every day, according to Li Wanlu who works at the monitoring center and observes wildlife in the park via an air-space-land comprehensive monitoring system. The more frequent appearance of Siberian tigers captured by the system demonstrates the improvement of the ecological environment in the park, which has led to an increase in the number of wild animals in the area, Li told the Global Times. According to data released in October 2021, the number of wild Siberian tigers in the park has increased from 27 to 50 since the start of the pilot program, while that of Amur leopards has increased from 42 to 60, with more than 10 tiger cubs and seven leopard cubs discovered. As one of the first national parks in China, the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park started pilot operation in January 2017, covering a planned area of 14,065 square kilometers.”

Big Cats @ St Louis Zoo featuring one of the new leopard cub girls

Commission Info | DeviantArt | Twitter

Commission for TheRustyPine on DeviantArt! Her Amur Leopard daemon character Adrastos. 💙

“Hemker Zoo and Park in Freeport has taken in an Amur Leopard and three Pallas Cats. Zoo owner and director Joan Hemker told KNSI News that having the animals helps further their goal. “By bringing these endangered species to the zoo, it will help us with our mission of teaching all generations about the importance of caring about animals that are endangered and need help.”

She says only around 100 Amur Leopards are left in the wild and around 180 in captivity. Both species are cold-weather cats native to Russia and China, making them a good fit for Minnesota’s climate. Hemker says the leopard is a large cat breed, and the others look distinct. “The Pallas Cats are smaller. We always say they resemble house cats, but they tend to look like a grumpy old man. And we think kids will really enjoy them a lot.”

The rare cats come from the Exotic Feline Breeding Compound (EFBC), a nonprofit in California that was forced to close its doors in February due to financial hardship.”

“ snow pawtrole “ // Sondre Eriksen

Music:  Classic Piano - Claire de Lune

Leopardess walking on the log by Tambako The Jaguar Via Flickr:

Amur leopard in Korkeasaari Zoo, Helsinki, Finland. November 2022.

“The Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) is the ‘rarest cat in the world’. It used to be found once across the eastern edge of mainland Eurasia — the Russian Far East, the Korean Peninsula and northern China (Manchuria). But a number of anthropogenic factors led its population to crash, also causing loss of genetic diveristy in this subspecies of leopard.

However, all is not lost yet for this enigmatic cat of the taiga. Several individuals and organisations are working to revive it. One of them is Taisiia Marchenkova, a researcher in the Land of the Leopard National Park, Russia.

Her research focuses on population ecology and genetics of the Amur leopard, as well as statistical analysis and optimisation of data processing from camera traps using artificial intelligence.

Marchenkova was a keynote speaker in the recently concluded Global Leopard Conference (March 13-17, 2023). She spoke to Down To Earth on the Amur leopard.”

Read the full interview here: We hope to see Amur leopards back across their historic range in two decades by Rajat Ghai.

“𝓤𝓷𝓿𝓮𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓭, 𝓭𝓮𝓮𝓹 𝓫𝓮𝔂𝓸𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓹𝓮𝓷𝓼𝓲𝓿𝓮 𝓰𝓵𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮… 𝓖𝓵𝓮𝓪𝓶𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓵𝓪𝓼𝓽 𝓱𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓽-𝔀𝓪𝓻𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮…” It’s been six years now, since this character was born, my Bluu Bluuling! Also, even more time passed since I chose a username, by which most people recognize me, nowadays. God, felt like only yesterday I drew her on paper. It was nice having her by my side, throughout all these years… :’) There was quite a rough time in my life, when I lost one of my dearest pets to me. She was in my family before my existence, and there… wasn’t a time when I would forget about her. Ironically, only after a few years, did I notice some of the personality traits in Bluu that were closely related to my cat’s. Maybe that’s why she’s such a comforting character to have, a very kind and eternal soul.💙 Guess our loved ones never truly leave. At least, a part of them still lives on. Deep in the heart, or… Lurking in the sight of a million stars. Always with us, 🙏

“Wondrously” by | Sondre Eriksen

Bjorneparken, Flå, Buskerud, Norway