More than a thousand people voted for the best name for the Far Eastern leopard Leo 225M that settled in the Kedrovaya Pad Nature Reserve. A majority of subscribers to the Land of the Leopard’s Telegram channel voted for the name Barkhat (Velvet).

Leo 225M, an unnamed Far Eastern leopard, set up home in Kedrovaya Pad, the oldest reserve in the Russian Far East, occupying the grounds of the leopard Typhoon, the only resident male leopard in that area for the past seven years.

According to Telegram users, the name Barkhat reflects the texture of the Far Eastern leopard's fur, the sound of its roar and its peaceful nature. In addition, this name reminded subscribers of another local endangered species – the Amur cork tree (Amur velvet). Like the leopard, the Amur velvet is a subtropical species, which survived the Ice Age and became a living monument of nature in ancient times.

"The main attribute of velvet is its softness, and this is what our subscribers saw in Leo 225M," said Maria Okulova, head of the public relations department at the Land of the Leopard. “Despite the fact that the Far Eastern leopard is a predator, it has a relatively peaceful nature. There has never been a documented case of it attacking a human unprovoked. In many respects, caution and peacefulness are the qualities that helped the Far Eastern leopard survive despite nearly going extinct due to mass hunting in the 20^th century. So we think that Barkhat is quite an appropriate name for this animal.”

The Land of the Leopard staff hopes that the new name will allow the leopard to stay in the Kedrovaya Pad Nature Reserve for a long time and delight scientists and professional photographers with his pictures.