The Persian leopards at Nordens Ark in Bohuslän have had an addition. The cubs will now contribute to saving the strongly threatened species.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), only 800-1,000 Persian leopards live in the wild.
As early as 2020, Nordens Ark sent a breeding pair of Persian leopards to the Leopard Recovery Center in Sotji National Park in Russia. Since then, they have had cubs in two rounds, and the first cubs have been released into the wild. The leopards are equipped with GPS collars so that they can be closely monitored and their adaptation to their new environment can be observed.
This year's cubs at Nordens Ark were born the day before Midsummer and are still keeping close to their mother in the den.
"So far, we don't know the sex of the cubs. We disturb the leopards as little as possible, and it takes a while before the first veterinary visit," says Jonas Söderholm, animal keeper at Nordens Ark, in a press release.
The Persian leopard is the largest of the five threatened subspecies of leopard and lives in small populations, mainly in Iran and a few places in Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and Armenia.
