Tracking coordinators from WWF Russia and Land of the Leopard National Park held a training programme for the park’s inspectors, who will be involved in counting Amur tigers and Far Eastern leopards in the park. The effort is being led by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and subordinate organisations such as reserves and national parks, the Primorye Territory administration, Khabarovsk Territory authorities, the Amur Tiger Centre, and the Russian Academy of Sciences.

A state leopard and tiger census is conducted once every 10 years. This year, about 2,000 inspectors will follow trails and measure paw prints. Skilled researchers are needed, as it is essential that a uniform methodology is adhered to. The Far Eastern leopard’s habitat also includes Amur tigers, lynxes and wolves, which complicates the task for the newly trained trackers, who were taught to measure and distinguish paw prints. The training programme was attended by 15 experienced inspectors of Land of the Leopard.

“Our employees bear special responsibility during tracking, as the park is the main habitat for Far Eastern leopards,” said Yelena Salmanova, deputy director of Land of the Leopard. “Despite the fact that almost the whole territory is covered with camera traps, it is necessary to track prints, as it’s the only method to determine how leopard and tiger populations have changed compared to figures from the 1970s.”

The southwestern Primorye Territory is the only part of Russia inhabited by two rare subspecies of cats, Amur tigers and Far Eastern leopards, so the 2014 census at Land of the Leopard will record tracks of both.