Leopards from Turkmenistan, who settled in the mountains of Sochi, received their missing relative back
January 14, 2018 | 21:56 |3676
The restoration of this rare predator on Krasnaya Polyana was undertaken almost ten years ago. The first specimen in the Sochi National Park, we recall, were two male leopards, transferred from Turkmenistan. Then the family of spotted cats was joined by two females from Iran and a couple from the Lisbon zoo. And in November last year, as already reported by Orient, for the first time in seventy years leopards were seen in other regions of the Caucasus .Leonid KIYASHKO, journalist, Ivanovo, Russian Federation
I heard about this in the pavilion of North Ossetia at the exhibition of the World Festival of Youth and Students in Sochi. The center of the exposition was the figure of a leopard.
At the same time, one of the spotted predators named Viktoria, having crossed one hundred kilometers, was in Abkhazia. Here, a resident of a mountain village, extremely surprised by the appearance of a leopard, caught it with the help of a cage. Lured on a live chicken. Interestingly, the leopard did not hurt the prey . Both animals sat next to each other quite peacefully, as if repeating the history of the tiger Amur and the goat Timur.
As for Victoria, she was released back into the wild. With the help of a helicopter, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, a special transport cage with a leopard was taken to the ridge of the Akhatsarhwa mountain.
A group of field monitoring landed simultaneously with the leopard, which is now wearing a satellite collar. They will inspect the territory, photo traps and the state of the food base in this area in order to be sure of the upcoming successful wintering of the predator.
Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the RF Murad Kerimov noted that the collar, worn by the predator, will allow monitoring of its movements and take measures if Victoria will approach settlements. "We expect that the program of reintroduction of the Asiatic leopard will restore a stable population of this predator within the historical range on the territory of the Russian part of the Caucasus," he said.
By the way, the Asiatic leopards, including those brought to the Red Glade from Kopetdag, can be considered prototypes of the mascot of the Winter Games in Sochi. On an excursion to the ski resort in the area of the national park, I often heard about how the leopard has returned to these places. And then it became known to the whole world thanks to plush toys with Olympic symbols. Also, in the days of this grand event there was a photo exhibition organized by the World Wildlife Fund.
