Most of you probably have never heard of the beautiful creatures. I'll tell you why.
Because there are only 30 left in this entire world.
Think about it. This world is sooooooooooooo huge!! So vast and wide and there are so many countries and so many undiscovered places. And there are only 30, ONLY 30 Amur leopards left. Some of you may have been in a classroom with 30 students. Imagine each of those students as one Amur leopard. It might seem like a lot but compared to the rest of the endangered animals on the menu, Amur leopards are so few. That's why they're in the "Critically Endangered" category.
Let's take a look at the beautiful Amur leopards in a moment. So little is known about them to the public. I didn't know about them for a long time until something sparked in me to look up the endangered species on Wikipedia. There, I noticed for the first time that inside "Endangered Species" there were different categories.
All together there are seven categories. We have, in order, "Least Concern (LC)", "Near Threatened (NT)", "Vulnerable Species (VU)", "Endangered Species (EN)", "Critically Endangered (CR)", "Extinct in the Wild (EW)", and finally "Extinct (EX)".
"So what is the difference between the last two?" you might ask. Well, "Extinct in the Wild" and "Extinct" seem somewhat similar to each other but, "Extinct" means that you won't even find those species in the zoo or conservation parks. "Extinct in the Wild" means just that; they are extinct only in the wild but you can find them in zoos and/or conservation parks.
Then, we have the Red List, the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List. All species are measured on population by experts like conservation biologists and people of specialty in those sort of fields. The Red List covers three of the threatened categories; EN, CR, and EW. Once the species passes EW, there is no going back. Unless maybe if clone technology is improved... but that's just a random thought.
So, let's get back on topic. Amur leopards are in the CR category. Can you see how close they are to extinction? CR is only one category away from complete extinction!
Now, to get a sense of what these creatures look like, here are some pictures.
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| A picture of an Amur leopard from the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens. |
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| An Amur leopard in the snow. |
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| Amur leopard cub. |
I'll go into more detail later on. If you don't feel compassionate about conserving the Amur leopard, think about your favorite animal. Maybe a dog? Maybe a cat? Maybe a frog or a pelican or something? Now, think about the what-if. What if there were only 30 of your favorite animals left in the whole entire world? What if your favorite animal was doomed to become extinct unless we did something about it?
Here's something you can do to help; adopt an Amur leopard. You can send an invitation to your friends, or you can get one as a gift for them or a family member. The more people help out, the better chance we have in saving these beautiful creatures. If you're too young to adopt anything, talk to the parents about your passion for helping to keep the Amur leopards in this world. If they say "no", like my mother did for some weird money reason, act. Take action. Help me promote this to the world. Your help will be greatly appreciated.
References
Endangered Species Wikipedia
IUCN Red List Wikipedia
Central Florida Zoo: Amur leopards
Marwell Wildlife
ALTA: Amur Leopard and Tiger Alliance (check out this site!)
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