Leopards arrive from Turkmenistan to Russian Caucasus

19 September 2009

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Press-release, DOC File, 113.5 Kb

September 19, Sochi. Today two leopards were moved to spacious pens in Sochi national park in South-Western Russia. They will take part in the species reintroduction programme implemented by WWF and Russian state agencie

The big cats are feeling well in spite of the long trip and anesthesia.

From Turkmenistan’s Ashkhabad to Sochi by plane, from Sochi to Sochi national park by car – leopards made a long trip before WWF, park staff and Russian Prime-minister Vladimir Putin released them into big pens of the special center created for them in the park.

Leopards are already actively moving around. They drink a lot of water, which is normal after anesthesia, and one of them even ate last night a slab of meat given to him by veterinarians.

Leopards will take part in the Programme for Persian leopard reintroduction, developed by experts from WWF and Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and approved by the Russian Ministry of natural resources and ecology.

“There are very few leopards in the whole of Caucasus, only a few dozens. They exist with the help of some inflow from Iran, which has several hundreds remaining. We want to create a new, Northern-based nucleus of the population, so that together with the Southern nucleus in Iran it can guarantee sustainability for the leopard population both in the Russian Caucasus and neighboring countries”, says Igor Chestin, WWF-Russia CEO.

Both leopards are males. “They will have time to adapt to the new conditions and start to feel ownership of the territory by the time females arrive from Turkmentistan”, says Umar Semyonov, deputy director of the Sochi national park. “And it will be easier for females to adapt with support from males”, he jokes.

The leopards from Turkmenistan will live in the Centre for breeding and rehabilitation in the Sochi national park. Only their descendants will be released into the wild in the Caucasus strict nature reserve.

“Areas for future release were carefully chosen to resemble as much as possible leopards’ habitat in Turkmenistan, both in terms of relief and prey (with porcupine as the only exception). Conditions in the Caucasus will be even more comfortable in some ways than in Turkmenistan. Ungulate density is higher here”, says professor Anatoly Kudaktin, expert of the programme.

Environmentalists believe, that the Northern nucleus of the leopard population will be created in 10-15 years.

Financially, the Programme is supported by WWF-Russia, “Rosa Khutor” Company, VympelCom Group, and Russian government.

For additional information please contact

Masha Vinokurova, Press officer, tel: +7 (495) 727-09-39, tel/fax: +7 (495) 727-09-38, send e-mail or , , tel: +7 (495) 727-09-39, tel/fax: +7 (495) 727-09-38, send e-mail

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