Amur leopards live in the mountainous border region between Russia and China. They take refuge in caves and dens. They can run 37 mph and jump 19 feet horizontally and 10 feet vertically. They are an endangered species which means they are close to extinction with only about 100 of these leopards left. In fact, they are the rarest big cats in the world. Their prey includes roe deer, sika deer, wild boar, badgers, and hares. They hunt by stalking their prey and then ambushing. They sometimes hunt by climbing trees,waiting for prey to walk by. Then they jump off the tree and on to the prey. It may sound crazy but they actually do it! Each leopard has unique rosettes, like human fingerprints. They can use them to recognize each other. The leopard’s spots are named rosettes because they look like roses. Adult Amur leopards have no natural predators but they can and are killed by Siberian tigers for food and territory  but babies can’t defend themselves so they are sometimes hunted. The fact that they are endangered is very serious. If they went extinct the amount of deer and boar would get unbalanced so they would eat a lot more plants and would eventually run out of food.Then they would probably go extinct and their other predators would lose their food and so on. That would  lead to the extinction of many other animals too. Since they only live between 10 and 15 years, if they don’t reproduce enough they will be closer to extinction.

Amur Leopard Facts

• They are strong and can drag heavy prey up a tree to eat it and to keep it safe from other animals.
• Their feet are wide and act like natural snowshoes for walking in the snow.
• The oldest living amur leopard turned out to be 21 years old.