The Phoenix Foundation and Land of the Leopard National Park have invited children to take part in the art contest, A Day in the Life of the Far Eastern Leopard in the Wild. The winning entries will be featured in a 2016 calendar dedicated to the animal’s protection.

Land of the Leopard National Park has helped organise the contest for the second year in a row out of a shared commitment to its goal – to raise awareness about the world’s rarest cat and inspire people to get involved.

“We are honoured to be a co-organiser of this event,” says Yelena Salmanova, deputy director of Land of the Leopard National Park for research and environmental education. “We are happy that in addition to the national park, which was created specially for the purpose of conserving and restoring the Far Eastern leopard population, there are also nature conservation organisations and foundations addressing this issue. This competition will make a significant contribution to our efforts to bring the issue of conserving this spotted predator to the public’s attention.”

This is the 10^th anniversary for the contests, A Day in the Life of the Amur Tiger and A Day in the Life of the Far Eastern Leopard, which are held at schools across the Far East. Since their inception, organisers have received over 10,000 drawings, and a growing number of regions have joined in. This year schools in the Primorye and Khabarovsk territories, the Amur Region and the Jewish Autonomous Region were invited to participate in the contest. And for the third time, children from the Republic of Korea will join them in submitting drawings.

For more information about the contest and the rules of entry, please visit the organisers’ websites. Submissions will be accepted until 1 March 2015.