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North Chinese Leopard (Panthera pardus japonensis)
North Chinese Leopard (Panthera pardus japonensis)
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North Chinese Leopard (Panthera pardus japonensis)
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This thread is dedicated to the North-Chinese Leopard. Share photos, videos, data and all information about these leopards.
The North-Chinese Leopard (Panthera pardus japonensis) is an endangered leopard subspecies that inhabits the internal lands of the central and north eastern China. In 1998 the population was estimated around 1000 individuals; in 2015, is estimated a total population of 174-348 individuals (Laguardia et al., 2015). Unfortunately, the distribution is highly fragmented and few leopard are isolated in nature reserves and in a remote areas. In 1998 the population is estimated about 1000 individuals. This subspecies have lost the 98% of his historical range distribution. The habitat destruction and fragmentation, the killings due to conflict, a low prey base and poaching for wildlife trade, is the causes of his decline. China is the nation (the only nation) that hosts the most number of subspecies of leopards:
This is a map provided by Laguardia et al., 2015 with the current distribution of leopards in China: *This image is copyright of its original author North Chinese Leopard from Zhouzhi National Reserve, Qinling mountains (Shaanxi province).  *This image is copyright of its original author North Chinese Leopard caught with camera trap in Shuishui River Reserve. Credits to Zhou Zhefeng.  *This image is copyright of its original author North Chinese Leopard. I found in this chinese site this locality: "Nanjing Xi'an Nature Reserve - Tin Mountain National". Anyone can confirm me? Peter, you know information about this area? @peter  *This image is copyright of its original author North Chinese Leopard caught with camera trap in Guanyinshan Nature Reserve (Shaanxi province).  *This image is copyright of its original author
NGALA
As to your question. I didn't find anything on the 'Nanjing Xian Nature Reserve'. Doesn't mean it isn't there. The Chinese have created quite many reserves in the last decade in particular, so it could be a completely new reserve. While you're at it, try to find a bit more on the 5-10 Chinese tigers in the southern part of Shaanxi. Their presence was confirmed by researchers in 2011 (...), but there was no follow-up of any kind. Good thread and interesting lead post!
Leopards of Northern China - PART 1
By Song Dazhao Photographs by Song Dazhao & Wang Buping Translated by Trevor Padgett(CAN) The Taihang Mountain Range is a sprawling stretch of rugged geography running almost 400 kilometers down the northeastern edge of China. From afar, they appear covered in green but the continued fragmentation of their coniferous forests has brought the survival of the region’s most mysterious creature, the North Chinese leopard, into question. Found only in this region, it is estimated that there are less than 2000 individuals left in the wild. Volunteer zoologists with the Chinese Felid Conservation Alliance (CFCA), driven by their passion for the understanding and conservation of these leopards, have delved into the remaining untouched land in an attempt to understand these magnificent creatures– while there is still time. Summer is about to end and a lonely North Chinese leopard wanders slowly along the mountain path, patrolling his territory. Soon, to live through the coming winter, it will have to start hunting frequently to store enough body fat and energy.  *This image is copyright of its original author Leopard–the mere mention of the word is likely to rouse images in people’s minds of both majesty and ferocity: an august snow leopard pacing through the Himalayan alpine, a clouded leopard silently stalking its prey in the underbrush or a sleek jaguar weaving its way through dark and humid lowland forests. However, while closely related to these, the true leopard is actually a separate species called Panthera pardus. Evolving in Africa some eight hundred thousand years ago and radiating out across Asia, it is now one of the most common of the ‘big cats.’ Fierce and beautiful, alert and mysterious, the leopard is an opportunist – an apex predator that will feed on almost anything. Nothing, from the smallest rodent to the largest ungulate, is safe when a leopard is hungry. It seems that their prey is anything that moves. Despite the varied diet and their seat atop the food chain, leopards are struggling. And, compared with other Pantherinae – a taxonomical nesting of these big cats that includes tigers, lions, snow leopards, clouded leopards, jaguars, and leopards, all of which are experiencing population declines –leopards have perhaps suffered most of all. A figurative (though unfortunately sometimes literal) slaughter of leopards over the past few decades has led to a heartbreaking decline in their population. Hunted for their fur, in retaliation by farmers, or for traditional medicine, and because of the encroachment of humans into their territory and the resulting loss of habitat, leopard populations are being whittled down. This imbalance has pressed leopards to the limit and, while hunting and habitat loss continue to wreak havoc, their ecology and population numbers remain a dark secret known only to the cats and the forest. To date, more than half of the global leopard population has disappeared from their natural habitat. Despite this loss, their land continues – legally – to be dissected by roads and dug up for its mineral wealth, and it seems that nobody is guarding the interests of the leopard. Conservation biologists fear that leopards are sneaking away to extinction in obscurity. Quit to Begin: My Personal Quest to Know the Leopard Recent genetic analysis currently separates leopards into nine sub-species. These are nine groups of the same Panthera pardus species that are different enough to be different, but not different enough to be their own species. Not yet, at least, because the evolutionary pressures that have pried them away from their ancestral leopard are still at work. If time and nature permit, these sub-species themselves could one day become unique leopard species. These nine sub-species are strewn across both Africa and Eurasia, and four of them can be found within China. Together, their combined habitat once occupied more than half of the entire Chinese territory. However, in the last three decades, a stunning realization surfaced that rocked conservationist biologists. The leopards are gone; it appears that the land of the leopards is missing its leopards. For over thirty years almost nobody – researcher, farmer, hiker, road worker, miner, tourist, or forester alike –reported a credible sighting of a leopard. Tracks in the mud or snow, scat, or kill sights are absent, and populations of their prey are starting to rise. Not only are leopards missing, also their ecosystems are starting show the negative ramifications of this loss. In China, the North Chinese leopard is more often known as a “golden coin leopard.”“Golden” refers to its fulvous fur and “coin” comes from its black spotted patterns that are similar to copper coins circulated in ancient China.  *This image is copyright of its original author As desperate as this seems, out the darkness comes hope: recent wildlife surveys in the Taihang, Liupan and the Qinling Mountains, as well as reports from more distant and forgotten recesses of China’s deep mountainous regions, have provided reliable evidence that one of these sub-species, the North Chinese (Panthera pardus japonensis),is still present. There is evidence that a straggling remnant of a once mighty (and the only sub-species that is actually endemic to China) population exists. Though the North Chinese leopard has been imperiled for some time, it was less than a decade ago that it became a fixture in my life. And, as fixtures are wont to do, leopards have remained as my focal point over the intervening years. Growing up in China, I became accustomed to the stories of wild leopards roaming the rocky ridges and forested valleys of places unknown. But I, like those who passed the stories along, had never actually seen one or even had the opportunity to hope to do so because they were animals inhabiting a far-off land I could never reach. Then, in 2008, everything changed. Though I lacked any actual wildlife ecology skills, I jumped at an opportunity to volunteer with a team of environmentalists as they ventured out into the wilds of Shanxi in search of the mighty and mystical North Chinese leopard. It was a fruitful trip, too. To this day, I get shivers remembering the moment I saw my first leopard print. It was fresh and clear, a perfect impression set upon the dark muddy soil. Until that moment, the leopard had only been a thing of daytime television and stories handed down by generations of people who had never seen one. Leopards live in Asia, Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, which seems to be a vast habitat, but the fact is that this distribution map is only an optimistic estimate. Take the North Chinese leopard (one subspecies of leopard) as an example. Due to excessive hunting, its natural population has declined drastically since the 1960s.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author After that initial contact, I was determined to find more. In the following years, I returned many times to the same region, spending all my vacation time in search of the elusive North Chinese leopard. Initially armed only with binoculars and a notebook, I later entered the leopard’s world armed with infrared camera traps. What the camera traps revealed was not just the cold and sparse evergreen forest that I saw during my leopard quests, rather it was a living ecosystem. The memory cards filled with images of roe deer, red foxes, ocelots and other smaller animals too numerous to list and, to my delight, two leopards! The forest was alive. What was hidden from our human eyes was vibrantly displayed through the silent eyes of the camera traps. More importantly, I had a fugitive. Before I had only a print and now I had a face to the print. I allowed my growing obsession to pull me to the Taihang Mountains repeatedly over the years, until one spring morning that I will never forget. I woke with clarity and determination, knowing that what had been festering in my mind for some time was finally too strong to ignore: holiday excursions would never satiate my desires, nor would they be able to provide tangible help to the leopards. So, I quit. In a rash move that sealed our fates even closer, I left my job and everything I knew behind and worked to establish the Chinese Felid Conservation Alliance (CFCA), which has since taken a leading role in the research and conservation of the North Chinese leopard. Continues later..........
Leopards of Northern China - PART 2
By Song Dazhao Photographs by Song Dazhao & Wang Buping Translated by Trevor Padgett(CAN) King of the Mountains In all the places that leopards are found – from Africa to Asia – they are renowned as vicious hunters. A terrace-like array of cliffs girdles the sides of the Taihang Mountains. Covered with tall grass and largely treeless, it is along the tops of these cliff that the North Chinese leopards do their hunting. There, settled within the tall grass of the flat cliff edges, they lie in wait for their next meal to wander by. Volunteers from the CFCA (Chinese Felid Conservation Alliance) use infrared camera traps to monitor population status and behavior of North Chinese leopards. Photo No.1 shows a young female and in Photo No.2 there is another female accompanied by her cub. Every adult leopard has its own territory: a female usually occupies several dozens of square kilometers while a male owns a larger place of over 100 square kilometers.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author For the North Chinese leopard, their next meal usually comes in the form of roe deer. This species of deer is commonly found within the same grassy terraced cliffs and is a stable food source for the leopards. But, being opportunists, it is not only deer that sustain the leopards; wild boar and hares have also been known to find their way on to the leopard’s dinner plate. Most of this information comes directly from images taken with the infrared video cameras we mounted throughout their range. These images tell stories. They have shown leopards stalking wild boar and, interestingly, in many cases it seems that the boars are acutely aware of the leopard’s presence but do not flee in defense. The leopards are not stalking the boar as much as they are following them. Though both predator and prey are aware of each other, there is rarely evidence of a pursuit, or of a violent attack that would be expected from leopards of the savannah. They appear to follow the valley instead, boar then leopard, as if partners on their own excursion, ignoring the evolutionary algorithm that should tell the leopard to attack and the boar to flee. In Shanxi, the decline of North Chinese leopard’s population was caused by habitat loss and fragmentation. In those limited habitats that remain intact, leopards usually show up on the southern slopes of the mountains because these places provide wide vistas for hunting.  *This image is copyright of its original author Like so much of the life of the North Chinese leopard, this phenomenon was previously unknown. Another empty page in the conservation biologist’s notebook was: what are they doing? It was not until my colleagues and I walked into those deep valleys that slice through the Taihang Mountains and came across two pieces of evidence that we finally had an answer: a dead end and a boar carcass. Though the leopards may be pressed by the trimmings of evolution to pounce and to kill, here their ways have been updated by Taihang topography. Charging and chasing an animal in such rugged terrain, despite the flat savannah-like cliff tops, takes energy and is rife with opportunities for injury. In comparison, a leisurely stroll with a boar to the dead end of a valley is somewhat of a free lunch. Patience trumps ambush, as the leopards follow their prey into a corner and then attack the helpless boar. This works, of course, only until the boars catch on. However, the North Chinese leopard is not all patience and strategy. When their prey is startled or when the geography does not lend itself to entrapment, their stalking turns to attack. Often found perched upon the edge of the terraced cliffs, when a roe deer or boar makes it was along a lower terrace, the leopard reacts with immediate, yet controlled, violence. It may stay seated and wait for its prey to approach or it may choose to slowly slink behind its prey and then pounce. Comparing these hunting habits to that of their savannah-born cousins, perhaps the differences are not so striking. African leopards have been known to climb trees and sit motionless with complete patience until an animal wanders by below. Then they do just what the pouncing North Chinese leopards do – they jump from a height and surprise the prey. On the savannah, it is a tree and, in China, it is a cliff’s edge, but in both cases it is a vicious vertical assault, meaning that perhaps these sub-species are more alike than we realize. Spring is the time when farmers start to herd their cattle in the mountains. North Chinese leopards do not risk attacking adult cattle; they prey on those inexperienced, defenseless calves instead.  *This image is copyright of its original author This similarity can be seen not only in their hunting strategies, but also in their post-kill habits. In the savannah, leopards face intense competition for their kills from both lions and hyenas. To protect their hard earned meal, they carry their meal up a tree and consume it in relative peace. Tucked away in the Taihang Mountains, in the northeast of China, there are no lions or hyenas to compete for fresh kills. Here, the leopards are top of the food chain but they are not without their annoyances – not all top predators are left alone to eat in peace. Though lacking lions and hyenas, both of which will happily scavenge a freshly killed meal instead of hunting for one themselves, here there are a host of birds, particularly red-billed magpies, which play scavenger. So, while the North Chinese leopard sometimes eats its kill out in the open, if magpies become bothersome, they retreat, just, like their savannah cousins, to protected ground. In the Taihang Mountains, this means heading up a small tree, to a rock overhang, or eating within a thicket of brush at the forest edge. In Shanxi and Hebei provinces, North Chinese leopards were hunted due to their threat to livestock. For local people, these big cats are as dangerous as wolves.  *This image is copyright of its original author Though we have learned the leopard’s habits over the course of many expeditions, we still find ourselves at a loss as to how they survive. The Taihang Mountains are a vast region and the leopards seem to be squeezed out of the forest to the grassy terrace cliffs. Thought they provide adequate hunting topography, these terraces are only slivers of land within the massive matrix of the Taihang Mountains. It is immediately obvious that the North Chinese leopard habitat is not the Taihang Mountains, but rather these terraces – a habitat within the Taihang Mountains. Sequestered on these terraces, the survival of such a large predatory cat in this limited habitat raises countless questions that we are only beginning to be able to answer. Continues later..........
Leopards of Northern China - PART 3
By Song Dazhao Photographs by Song Dazhao & Wang Buping Translated by Trevor Padgett(CAN) Snow Pursuit The Taihang Mountains are not only an arduous place for apex predators, such as the leopard, to survive, it is also difficult for humans– even those equipped with off-road vehicles. One winter, while attempting to set up camera traps deep within leopard range, my colleagues and I met with an impassable road en route to our base camp. The snow had fallen thick and heavy over numerous days and the roads were too steep and too winding for even our off-road vehicles to manage. Unfazed, we set off on foot, bounding up the steep mountain slope with cameras and gear in tow, leaving our now helpless vehicles alone in the vast blanket of white. Following the ridgeline we eventually approached our target valley and started to keep track of the trail ahead, in search of our study area. But in the clean untouched snow, a more interesting story played out before us. At our feet was an increasingly diverse array of other feet, or at least what those feet had left in the fresh snow. Had we driven, the story told in the snow may have been missed. But walking, taking the time to slow down and concentrate on the land itself, gave us an opportunity to learn more from the land that the leopard calls home. Pressing on through the snow, we reached a fork in a ravine and decided to take a break from the burden of our packs. The impassable road had added distance to our day, and we were well deserving of a break. Though it was winter, the sky was a crisp blue, barren of clouds, so the sun beat down on us all day. On this winter day, we were ready, ironically, to get a chance to cool down. Settling down on some snowless rocks, we each faded away into our own inner thoughts as we slowly ate and rehydrated. It was not long into our rest that, as if as a reward for our efforts, we all noticed paw prints. They were decidedly not ungulate or ocelot; they were unmistakably the prints of a large cat – the leopard! A leopard’s fresh footprint, especially one in mud, is quite a valuable clue, indicating that there was a leopard passing by no long ago.  *This image is copyright of its original author In silent euphoria, we all gazed at the prints, then at each other, then back at the prints. We congregated beside a clear set of prints and were shocked by something else that accompanied them. The clean white snow gave us more stories about the ocelots, the deer and the leopards and also provided a canvass on which color could tell a story. In this case, the color was crimson red and was dribbled upon the white ground in step with the prints of the leopard. This story involved blood. Bloody paw prints mean one of two things: an injured leopard or a successful hunt. Summoning our best amateur blood splatter analysis skills, we excluded the possibility that the leopard was injured. The blood must have been from fresh prey hanging from its mouth. This made sense – usually female North Chinese leopards make the kill and, instead of consuming it, return to the den to share the meal with her cubs. This provides food to the cubs and also teaches an important childhood lesson for the kings- or queens-of-the-mountain-to-be. We packed up and cautiously followed the tracks in hopes of photographing a leopard with prey or of a mother feeding her cubs their first fresh kill. Either would have awarded us great insight into the life of the leopard. However, upon reaching an exposed rocky outcrop, the snow and tracks disappeared. The sun had melted the snow away and with it went our hopes of finding the leopard. Usually volunteers place infrared cameras on trees or rocks. These cameras do not disturb the animals and their high-storage batteries guarantee their endurance in the wild. Thus, during recent decades, such cameras are more and more frequently used in wildlife monitoring.  *This image is copyright of its original author Returning to our original task, we made it to our study area and got to work setting up camera traps. The silence was eerie, with only the crunching of the snow beneath our feet. In this silence, with the sun pouring down on our backs, weretrieved memory cards from cameras we had set up earlier and fixed new ones to the trunks of trees. Then, suddenly, from the top of one of the terrace cliffs we heard a hoarse roar. It was a short but distinct sound beacon that cut through the empty silence of the mountains. It must have been a leopard, somewhere on top of the cliff, peering down and watching us working on the ground below. Wherever it was, it remainedinvisible, proving that even in winter the leopard is a master of disguise. At the sound, each of us immediately forgot about the cameras and fumbled through our packs for binoculars. The silence seemed amplified as we scanned the land above us – the sound of crunching snow was replaced by the sound of our hearts beating – but the leopard remained invisible. Just as we lowered our gaze in defeat, another roar filled the air. This second one was louder than the first but it was not followed by a third. An infrared camera captured a leopard attracted by another camera. The sound of shutter must have aroused the leopard’s curiosity.  *This image is copyright of its original author Later, after viewing the pictures captured on the memory cards, we found that this region is home to a female, and that she is a mother. We are lucky to have pictures of not onlythe mother, but also her cubs. Was it her blood stained tracks we followed? Was it she that beckoned us from above as we worked to set up cameras? I like to think that it was and that we were not only taking turns tracking each other, but also taking some time to get to know one another. Working in these mountains is a dream, leopards or not. Aside from the rare dreary days of winter where the cold bites you to the bone, spending so much time in the mountains is an absolute pleasure –northern China is an exceptionally beautiful place. After the break of the winter, the warmth and wetness of spring causes the hillsides to erupt in colorful blooms. Then summer brings the peak of animal activity and soon the forest is awoken and filled with life. Even the winter, with its blanket of untouched white snow, is a calming sight to behold. Recently,on a hot summer day in 2012,I was sitting on the ground taking my lunch break. With my back against a tree, I ate slowly in silence when I was ratcheted out of my daze by a noise coming from behind me. I was surprised and excited, for as far as I knew only leopards wereactive at that time of day. As the noise became louder, I froze in place – the desire to see a leopard was playing off against the fear of seeing one so close and alone – I waited. As I waited, the noise grew, a crescendo of snapping sticks and crunching leaves until finally I could hear it breathing. In what must have been a second, but felt like a year, I waited. Then a head poked out of the brush, dispelling all my eagerness and fear. It was decidedly not a leopard. With its distinctive white and black striped head, I realized that it was nothing more than a curious badger. It must have been attracted to my food and it continued to approach me. However, when I threw a small piece of my bread towards it,the badger seemed to have no interest. Instead, it walked by the bread, and by me, and continued on its way. Continues later..........
Leopards of Northern China - PART 4
By Song Dazhao Photographs by Song Dazhao & Wang Buping Translated by Trevor Padgett(CAN) Leopards in the Lens The conservation of any animal, from large mammals to small insects, is a complicated endeavor. It is a science built on data and the most foundational number necessary is the size of a population. Without this number, which is a representation of genetic health and wealth, as well as reproductive potential, any conservation effort is just wandering blindly. For the North Chinese leopard, squeezing this number out of the forest is an ongoing and arduous task. It is not possible to capture or identify each and every individual in a population and the habitats in which many of the worlds endangered species live are simply too unforgiving, and oftentimes impenetrable, and the species themselves are usually secretive and elusive. Badgers are one of the main preys of leopards. This photo shows a badger and its cubs. A female usually nurtures 2–3 cubs during a breeding season.  *This image is copyright of its original author Expeditions tracking large mammals, such as the leopard, need to cover large expanses of time and space. A single leopard can occupy a vastarea, sometimes in the tens to hundreds of square kilometers, so the chance of encountering even one individual is unlikely. Infrared camera traps help remedy this. Triggered automatically when an animal passes infront of the camera, these can see the forest as it really is, by day and by night, and have the benefit of creating almost no disturbance. Camera traps allow our eyes to be spread out over a larger area and to watch for an extended period of time. The small little boxes we strap to the trees become our never tiring eyes in the forest. Unlike some species that are willing to share habitat with conspecifics (that is members of the same species), North Chinese leopards are protectively solitary. With the exception of females and their own cubs, males often force out any other leopard from their territory. Knowing this, to obtain a robust assessment of just how many North Chinese leopards there are in the Taihang Mountains, we divided the region into grids, each unit smaller than the smallest known habitat size. Thenwe set out to fix infrared camera traps at each grid point, ensuring that if a leopard was there, it would be captured on film. Each of our expeditions last between 10 and 15 days and, time being one of the most important commodities for research, we quickly get into a daily routine. I divide the team into pairs and each morning these pairs take off before sunrise and start our trek up the mountain to those different grid points. Even though we have spent a lot of time in the mountains, and have met with much success, there are still problems. We are a small non-governmental environmental organization and suffer a continual shortage of funds. To cover such a vast area with so many expensive cameras is challenging but we remain strong. After years surveying the mountains, my team and I have come to see the leopards as family. In the eyes of people who do not appreciate the beauty and importance of nature, the leopard may seem inconsequential. To their eyes, the forest and mountains may seem all the same, one undeveloped swath of land. To us, the mountains are alive but the life of one inhabitant is on the edge. Memory cards in the cameras often give us unexpected surprises: other animals, also the prey of leopards, such as wild boar and roe deer. The abundance of these ungulates determines whether the population of leopards can be sustained or not. There is also another endangered species in this area–the brown-eared pheasant.  *This image is copyright of its original author Though our research faces obstacles, it is not all bad news. Since 2008, we have identified fifteen North Chinese leopards in our study region in the Taihang Mountains. We also have records of three separate breeding events. We are now focusing on return customers – individuals that have been repeatedly captured by our cameras – in an effort to figure out the longevity and ranges of specific individuals, a key piece in the understanding of leopard ecology. One male, for example, has been photographed continuously for the past 6 years. We have watched this leopard grow from a cub to a teenager, and then to a dominant male. Today, his old face bears scars, wounds fromterritorial battles won in the past but there is a new generation of young males showing up in the images and his dominance may be challenged. It can only be guessed how many more years he will return to our cameras or when a younger male takes over the reign of his land as a new heir to the throne. Will Fear of Predators make them Extinct on the Central Plains? The North Chinese leopard may be one of the world’s most endangered leopards. While we struggle to do our best with the resources and trained experts that we have, we are always running into barriers. In the past, the Taihang Mountains, particularly the region we survey, was accessible by only one single road, just a thin strip of asphalt that cut through the vast wilderness. Now that lone road is being replaced with a multi-lane highway and a growing traffic load. Our study has shown that leopards can and do cross the existing road at night. With a wider road, we can only shudder at the fate of these majestic cats. And roads beget roads, meaning that this is only the beginning. What was once a small slice through viable leopard habitat will soon be a gaping scar, and then a network of gaping scars, cutting the forest into yet smaller pieces. The leopard we met on the camera forso many years is not only facing the threat of a new male competing for territory, but also the loss of the vary territory being fought over. It is not just the road and the fragmentation that is troubling; it is the development of leopard habitat in general. It is striking to think that one of the first specimens of the North Chinese leopard was recorded in what is now the metropolis of Beijing. Where these apex predators once roamed now sits a new jungle of concrete and pollution, a land stripped bare of any piece of the habitat that once existed there. Despite all these obstacles, our goal remains: to make the conservation of the North Chinese leopard a reality. We have established a group of dedicated volunteers who patrol protected areas of Shanxi, attempting to reduce poaching of leopards for their skin andto stopretaliatory killings by farmers. We go to work every day with our goal in mind and hope that our efforts can at least make one region – the Taihang Mountains of Shanxi– a refuge for the majestic predator that once calledmuch of China home. How many North Chinese leopards are living in the Taihang Mountains? Or in all of China? No one can answer that. Leopards are large, vigilant carnivores living in vast habitats; thus, it is difficult to monitor their population. Speaking of leopards, most people show interest, yet only a few of them step into the deep mountains and devote their life to conservation projects. That is why the work of volunteers from CFCA is so important and meaningful.  *This image is copyright of its original author Perhaps only after a national conservation area is established can these cats be truly protected. Without the teeth of law and the awareness and conviction of the people, their fate remains uncertain. Despite this uncertain future, I will continue to walk in the Taihang Mountains and I will continue to be vigilant in my quest to protect the leopards. Maybe the next time I am in the mountains, I will see the elusive cat for myself, perched upon a cliff’s edge looking back at me. THE END 
Qinghai.
 *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
 (07-20-2017, 03:18 AM)Ngala Wrote: This thread is dedicated to the North-Chinese Leopard. Share photos, videos, data and all information about these leopards. As I mentioned in the main thread, in 2017, the Cat Specialist Group (Pages 73–75) revised subspecies of felids like the leopard, and according to them, the Amur and North Chinese leopards are the same subspecies (Panthera pardus orientalis), partly considering that they both inhabit northern China or northeastern Asia: https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/hand...sAllowed=y (From top to bottom) Amur leopard at Colchester Zoo (by William Warby) vs North Chinese leopard at Tierpark Hellabrunn (by Rufus46):  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author The CSG also said that the Sinai (Panthera pardus jarvisi) and Arabian leopards (Panthera pardus nimr) could be the same subspecies as African leopards (Panthera pardus pardus), and all other leopards in Asia and European Russia (which has Caucasian leopards (Panthera pardus ciscausia / tulliana)), including the Sri Lankan leopard (Panthera parsus kotiya), could be one subspecies (Panthera pardus fusca), with the exception of the Javan leopard (Panthera pardus melas): "Luo et al. (2014) published a further molecular study which included more samples from Indochina and the Malay Peninsula. The phylogeographical patterns are not clear for all putative subspecies. For example, P. p. kotiya is close to East Asian leopards based on mtDNA, but groups with P. p. fusca based on microsatellites (Uphyrkina et al. 2001). P. p. saxicolor also seems to group differently depending on the analysis used (Uphyrkina et al. 2001, Luo et al. 2014). Luo et al. 2014 show that P. p. fusca is diphyletic based on mtDNA, which was not found in previous studies. Khorozyan et al. (2006) analysed the skull morphometrics of southwest Asian leopards, and concluded that saxicolor and ciscaucasica were consubspecific, but retained tulliana and millardi as distinct. However, sample sizes were very small for some of these putative subspecies. Rozhnov et al. (2011) examined sequences of mtDNA (NADH5) and 11 microsatellites from southwest Asian leopards. They concluded that all were consubspecific from Afghanistan through Iran to the Caucasus, but no western Turkish specimens (tulliana) were analysed. Here japonensis is included in orientalis; there is no clear biogeographical barrier between these two forms which appear to form a cline in northeastern Asia. As the molecular differences between continental Asian leopards are very small compared to differences in Javan leopards (P. p. melas; Wilting et al. 2016), there could be a case for including all Asian subspecies, excluding melas, in a single Asian subspecies. These conflicting results from different studies suggest that more comprehensive sampling is required from throughout the range, taking advantage of museum specimens of known provenance. Until such a study is carried out, we propose the following conservative arrangement of subspecies: Panthera pardus pardus (Linnaeus, 1758). Distribution: Africa. Comment: Although there are two principal mtDNA clades in Africa, they both occur in southern Africa and appear to be partly sympatric. Thus it would appear that no subspecies can be distinguished within Africa. However, more comprehensive sampling is needed. Panthera pardus tulliana (Valenciennes, 1856; 1039), including ciscaucasica, saxicolor. Type locality: Ninfi, village situé à huit lieues est de Smyrne [near Izmir, Turkey]. Holotype: MNHN-ZM-MO-1849-20 mounted skin (skull inside). Distribution: Turkey, Caucasus, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Comment: This is the earliest name for leopards from South West Asia, and hence includes saxicolor and ciscaucasica. If tulliana proves to be distinct from other southwest Asian leopards, ciscaucasica is the earliest available name. Panthera pardus fusca (Meyer, 1794). Distribution: Indian subcontinent, Burma and China. Panthera pardus kotiya (Deraniyagala, 1949). Distribution: Sri Lanka. Panthera pardus delacouri (Pocock, 1930b). Distribution: SE Asia and probably southern China Panthera pardus orientalis (Schlegel, 1857), including japonensis. Distribution: Eastern Asia from Russian Far East to China. Panthera pardus melas (Cuvier, 1809; 152). Distribution: Java. Comment: Distinct ancient island form (Meijaard 2004, Gippoliti & Meijaard 2007, Uphyrkina et al. 2001, Wilting et al. 2016). Panthera pardus nimr (Hemprich and Ehrenberg, 1832). Distribution: Arabian Peninsula. Comment: Distinctively small form, but may prove to be consubspecific with subspecies pardus, although should be retained as a separate management unit if so." As for Central Chinese leopards, like at Wolong Reserve in Sichuan, where they may attack sub-adult pandas, their exact taxonomic status is unclear, being alternatively grouped under the P. p. japonensis, P. p. delacouri (http://www.biosoil.ru/files/00001386.pdf), or even P. p. fusca (https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article...m=fulltext). Stuffed leopard for testing pandas at Wolong Nature Reserve, Alamy: https://www.alamy.com/panda-keepers-take...47115.html  *This image is copyright of its original author Brakefield noted that just as there is a North Chinese leopard, there is also a South Chinese leopard, which was "much more golden yellow" in colour, had shorter fur, and which people thought might be of the Indian (Panthera pardus fusca) or Indochinese (Panthera pardus delacouri) subspecies, or a subspecies of its own (possibly Panthera pardus sinensis), and Uphyrikina et al. said "Teeth of ancient leopards found in southern China and dated from the Middle of Pleistocene were similar to the recent subspecies P. p. sinensis; this led to the hypothesis of local evolution in eastern and southeastern Asia (Hemmer 1976)." 
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-05-26/Ra...index.html
Panthera pardus record from May 26 2020 in Tibetan Plateau. (09-03-2020, 07:03 PM)Dorgon Wrote: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-05-26/Ra...index.html http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-09...345170.htm Panthera pardus record from Sep 05 2020 in Central China. 
Location unknown
 *This image is copyright of its original author https://www.facebook.com/trendinginchina/photos/a.424475794322576/1656990057737804?type=3 
Leopard and blue bear camera trapped along Nujiang river in Tibet
 *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
@Twico5, this is an Indochinese leopard. Tibet hosts indochinese leopard in it’s southern and southeastern parts (the Nujiang river is next to Myanmar) while southwestern tibet is host to Indian Leopards. Tibet is not home to any North-Chinese leopards.
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