Why is this a big deal? Well only 30 to 35 Amur leopards exist in the wild. Zoos are interested in raising numbers and seeing a baby amur leopard born in a zoo is a triumph.

Check out this slide show of the Amur leopard (by WWF International).

You can learn more about Amur leopards at Wikipedia or Amur Leopard Conservation.

On September 23, 2000 a few dozen school children and parents dressed up as tigers and endangered wildlife to parade in the streets in Vladivostok. Their aim was to educate people about the dangers facing tigers and other wild animals in the Russian Far East. What they did not know is that their efforts would strike such a chord with the people of Vladivostok and others around the world that just 5 years later, their festival would be an annual city holiday with over 3,000 participants in Vladivostok alone and that every year their efforts would inspire many similar public displays of affection for tigers around the world.

Tiger Day was started by The Phoenix Fund, a Russian non-governmental organization sponsored by Save The Tiger Fund and other international donors. Since then it has been a rallying point for other tiger conservation efforts around the world. In 2003, 21st Century Tiger and AMUR encouraged European and Russian zoos to adopt and promote the concept as an awareness creation and fundraising tool for tiger conservation. In 2005 the Campaign Against Tiger Trafficking was launched on international tiger day, while ceremonies around the world drew diverse public support, including a group of local Shamans on the Indonesian Island of Sumatra. In the Russian Far East, Tiger Day is as popular as ever, just last year, during the month of September, tiger day celebrations occurred in 6 different cities in the province of Primorye.

Learn more…

Save the Tiger Fund

21st Century Tiger

AMUR

Native to southeast Asia, the endangered Fishing Cat has webbing on its paws and doesn’t mind jumping into the water to snag small fish.  They’ve even been known to dive underwater and sneak attack birds floating on the surface.

The male kittens will be on display while they grow and when they are big enough, will be sent to other zoos around the country. This has been a great year for breeding cats at the zoo, with cheetahs, lynx, tigers and now fishing cats all being successfully raised.

Source

This ocelot kitten is one of a pair of females born at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo in January, the first birth of the endangered nocturnal cat at the zoo in 15 years.

“Ocelots are still in high demand for the fur industries in Europe and Asia, which leads to abuse of the already existing laws protecting ocelots and other small cats,” the zoo says on its blog. “Ocelot numbers are also decreasing rapidly as a result of habitat destruction and the black market pet trade.”

Threatened throughout their entire range from Argentina to the United States, ocelots are also becoming exceedingly rare in several areas. In the U.S., the zoo notes, ocelots once ranged throughout the southwest from Arizona to Louisiana, “yet now less than 100 ocelots are estimated to be left in the U.S.”

The kittens born at Woodland Park Zoo, named Novia and Corisandra, are the first offspring for mother Bella, 7 years old, and father Brazil, 12 years old. Read more.

Learn More…

• Facts on Ocelots.

• Zoo’s website

• Zoo’s blog

• Zoo’s photo gallery