A network of camera traps will be installed along the А370 Ussuri motorway from Vladivostok to Ussuriysk to monitor the migration routes of the Far Eastern leopard. The project is being implemented by the staff of the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Far Eastern Leopards autonomous non-profit organisation and Land of the Leopard.

Places for 100 camera traps have been chosen along the motorway to record leopards and other animals. The cameras are protected by tamper resistant metal covers and will be regularly checked by the staff of Land of the Leopard and the neighbouring Ussuri Nature Reserve.

The goal of the project is to identify the places where animals cross the motorway and the frequency of such events. The region's main motorway is the biggest obstacle to the Far Eastern leopard settling further east. Scientists are already installing the camera traps and expect to receive the first results in the spring of 2018.

"Only lengthy and comprehensive monitoring can provide facts to identify the sites where animals cross the motorway. If we find leopards east of the motorway, we will use this fact as a reason for advocating the creation of a special wildlife crossing structure," said Sergei Naidenko, deputy director of the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution and a member of the Land of the Leopard research and technical council.

The largest part of the Far Eastern leopard's range is located west of the motorway in Land of the Leopard National Park. Scientists point out that the population of these rare cats in the protected area is approaching the top limit, which is why leopards have begun returning to the regions where they have not been seen for decades.

"We must know if the Far Eastern leopards can settle throughout Russia without our assistance," said Tatyana Baranovskaya, director of Land of the Leopard National Park.

The Ussuri and Lazovsky nature reserves are where the leopards used to live in the past, but they cannot return there without human assistance because of a large number of obstacles. Scientists have proposed building ecoducts, that is, green bridges or overpasses that allow wildlife to safely cross motorways.