Experts at Land of the Leopard have determined the age of the oldest Far Eastern leopard ever spotted in the national park. It is a female named Dunya (Leo 5F), who has been living in the wild for 17 years.

Experts made the discovery while working with archival data from camera traps. When analysing information obtained by the Wildlife Conservation Society at the beginning of the century, experts found out that Dunya was first detected by camera traps in 2003, almost ten years before Land of the Leopard was established.

Since then, the unique predator has appeared often on the cameras at the national park, which has conducted photo monitoring since 2013. With the help of more than 400 camera traps at Land of the Leopard, researchers can follow all the movements of the spotted felines, as well as changes in their appearance and life cycle.

Dunya is the fourth Far Eastern leopard whose life span far surpasses the species’ 12-year average earlier predicted by researchers.

According to the recent count, there are 97 adult Far Eastern leopards in the park. At the beginning of the century, there were 35 of them.