A young male Far Eastern leopard was killed in a collision with a car on the Razdolnoye–Khasan road near the village of Kravtsovka in Russia’s Primorsky Krai. The accident occurred during the hours of darkness, the press service of the Land of the Leopard National Park reported.
According to preliminary data from the regional Interior Ministry, the animal ran onto the road through a metal fence. “The driver of a Toyota Corolla Axio, born in 1981, spotted the Far Eastern leopard but was unable to avoid the collision,” the agency said. The car overturned after the impact, and the driver sustained injuries and received medical attention.
The leopard managed to move away from the road but did not survive. Employees of the scientific department of the Land of the Leopard, the state hunting inspectorate and the police who arrived at the scene found the animal dead. The circumstances surrounding the accident are being clarified.
The road runs close to the main population
The section near Kravtsovka lies outside the boundaries of the Land of the Leopard National Park but is in the immediate vicinity of protected forests where most of the rare predator’s population is concentrated. The Far Eastern leopard is listed in Russia’s Red Book and is considered one of the rarest representatives of the big cats.
According to data cited by Interfax, more than 220 Far Eastern leopards were counted during joint Russian-Chinese monitoring in the transboundary Land of the Big Cats nature reserve. RBC gives the specific figure as 223 animals. In 2015, a car killed the leopard Meamur on the same stretch of road, while in 2017 the female leopard Kili was hit but survived.
Sources: rbc.ru, interfax-russia.ru, fedpress.ru