Female Far Eastern leopard Leo 284F, who was resettled from Land of the Leopard National Park to the Ussuri Nature Reserve, was named Narva by research fellows at the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the Russian Academy of Sciences. The scientists named the leopardess after the river near which she used to live. 

“The female leopard grew up on the banks of the Narva, which is a beautiful river. This name will remind everyone of where she came from. We give names to animals spontaneously, focusing either on the animal’s character, if we know them, or the place where the animal was caught. In the case of Narva, it was the latter factor that played a key role,” Jose Hernandez-Blanco, senior researcher at the institute said.

The first pair of Far Eastern leopards was released in the Ussuri Nature Reserve – the historical habitat they disappeared from over 50 years ago – on 26 May 2023. Male Leo 270M and female Leo 284F would hardly have been able to return to their “homeland” from the national park, where the core of the Far Eastern leopard population is located. To help rare wild cats, a reintroduction programme was developed and implemented by scientists under the scientific guidance of the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, together with specialists from Land of the Leopard and with the support of the autonomous non-profit organisation Far Eastern Leopards.