This is the first time that camera traps at Land of the Leopard National Park have captured a Far Eastern leopardess nursing her cubs. The footage shows Leo 120F and her two cubs taking a rest in front of a camera trap for several hours. One of the cubs approaches the mother asking for milk.

“Lactating leopardesses require a lot of energy since they have to hunt and at the same time have enough milk to feed their cubs,” said Dina Matyukhina, senior researcher at Land of the Leopard. “So, the sooner the cubs switch to a meat diet the better for their mother. In the photographs, you cannot see the nipples and the leopardess’ stomach is flat, which means that the period of lactation is nearly over.”

According to scientists, the cubs in the footage are about six months old. It is approximately at this age that leopards stop feeding on their mother’s milk and switch to their main food, that is, meat that their mother brings to them.

Leo 120F is the first recorded cub of Leo 38F – also called Pamela after Hollywood actress Pamela Anderson, who named the cub.