About 20 new monitoring stations have been added to the network of camera traps for monitoring the life of Amur tigers and Far Eastern leopards in Land of the Leopard National Park. The park’s 400 trail cameras comprise Russia’s largest wildlife monitoring network.

Wildlife monitoring using camera traps began at the national park back in 2013, and the network of cameras now covers 360,000 hectares. Scientists use trail cameras to monitor changes in the life, appearance and physical condition of these big cats, as well as to record the predators’ movement, in particular in the border areas.

“The majority of new trail cameras have been installed beyond the engineering facilities on the border with China. Cameras there often capture the images of wild cats that live in both countries, some of which probably have not been added to the park’s database of animals. The data provided by the new cameras will be analysed in a few months,” said Alexei Titov, a research engineer from the research department of Land of the Leopard.

Wildlife monitoring using trail cameras is conducted at the national park together with the Far Eastern Leopards autonomous non-profit organisation. At the moment, park research department workers are in the process of analysing the data from 2017.