Kiska, our two year old Amur leopard will shortly be moving to Dortmund Zoo. 

We expect her move to take place during the last two weeks of September 2009. Born as part of a European breeding programme, Kiska will now be able to breed her own cubs and continue to play an important role in helping save Amur leopards from extinction.

There are only around 35 Amur leopards left in the wild, making them one of the rarest big cats

in the world. Amur leopards used to roam a wide area, living in theforests and mountains of Russia, Korea and China but over the last few years their range has become smaller and smaller and they now only live in the Far East of Russia.

The Amur leopard, like most big cats, has suffered due to trophy hunters and poachers killing them for their beautiful fur coats and for their bones for the wildlife trade – leopard bones can be passed off as tiger bones for use in Chinese medicine. Other major reasons include loss of habitat and depletion of their prey species due competition with humans.

Kiska was born on 18 November 2007 to mum Ascha and dad Akin. With Kiska’s move we will be able to bring in a new female to hopefully mate with Akin. We expect this to take place during the next few months.

Kiska, a Russian girl’s name meaing pure, was chosen following a public vote on our website. Over 10,000 votes were cast, nearly half of which were for Kiska.

15 September 2009