On Wednesday, 5 November, voting results were announced for the new name of a Far Eastern leopard who had been designated Leo12M. Visitors to the Russian Geographical Society Festival had the privilege of naming the spotted predator, with almost a thousand people voting for the winning name Typhoon.

Using two touchscreens, visitors could vote for one of the names submitted for the male leopard known as Leo12M – or suggest their own. Almost 2,000 names were suggested, with about 10,000 people voting. In the end, the name Typhoon won by a margin of 400 votes.

“Typhoons as well as Far Eastern leopards are features of the Primorye Territory,” said Yelena Salmanova, deputy director of research and environmental education at Leopard Land National Park. “Just like typhoons, leopards appear unexpectedly and then quickly disappear. We hope that Leo12M and the whole population of leopards will only exhibit the good features of the name – power and strength.”

A picture of Typhoon was presented at a ceremony to Natalya Sokolova, deputy executive director for news and media at the Russian Geographical Society. Initially, voting was only open to RGS members, but it was later expanded to all festival participants.

“It is a great honour for us to become the leopard’s guardians, because as everyone knows, the society supports projects to protect rare animal species. The vote for the leopard’s name drew the attention of many people to the problems facing that species,” Sokolova said.