Wildlife photographer Nikolai Zinovyev has captured striking images of the world’s rarest big cat in Land of the Leopard National Park, including the first ever photograph of a Far Eastern leopard by a frozen waterfall.

Zinovyev got the idea for the photo last fall when the beauty of the flooded Kedrovka River captured his imagination  Knowing that leopards sometimes go there, he set out to photograph the rare leopard in this setting in winter. In January 2015, a special shack was built opposite the waterfall, and the waiting began.

“One morning, a young female leopard came down the bare mountainside. She sat on a rock and curiously gazed at the shack. It appeared that she could smell something unfamiliar in the air and knew there was a human hiding inside,” the photographer wrote on his blog.

Zinovyev showed his photos to the staff of Land of the Leopard, who identified the leopard in the photographs as Bary, the daughter of Kedrovka.

“We are very glad to work with professional photographers like Nikolai Zinovyev,” Tatyana Baranovskaya, director of Land of the Leopard, said. “The photos are very helpful in our work. At the same time, photo shacks set up across the national park will soon allow everyone to take pictures of the world’s rarest big cat.”

Nikolai Zinovyev is known to wildlife photography fans for his emotionally charged and technically challenging work. He has been photographing nature in the Primorye Territory for two years now. He took his first photos of the Far Eastern leopard in November 2013 at the Kedrovaya Pad Nature Reserve, and he has returned repeatedly to Land of the Leopard.