We received a staggering 10,000 votes on our online poll to name our Amur leopard cub, and the winning name is…Kiska.

Pronounced ‘Keys-ka’, Kiska is a Russian girl’s name meaning pure. The name was extremely popular and received a whopping 45% of the votes.

The beautiful cub is 4 months and 1 day old today (Wednesday 19th March) and everyday her confidence grows as she explores her new home. Kiska is already practicing her hunting skills and loves to bite her mum’s tail!

Less than 35 Amur leopards remain in the wild, making them one of the rarest big cats in the world. Kiska was born part of a European conservation breeding programme to help save the species from extinction. Kiska’s Mum Ascha and her Dad Akin both live at Marwell.

Amur leopards used to live in theforests and mountains of Russia, Korea and China but they are now only found in the Far East of Russia. They are endangered because they are killed for their beautiful fur coats and their bones are also passed off as tiger bones in the illegal tiger bone trade.  Other reasons include loss of habitat and depletion of their prey species.

If you can’t see Kiska in person you don’t need to miss out as we are offering a special Kiska adoption package. The exciting package contains a certificate with a picture of an Amur leopard, a fact sheet all about Amur leopards, an admission ticket to the park and a copy of our newsletter ‘Marwell News’. The adopters name will also feature on our adoptions 'Thank You' board for everyone to see! For more details click here.

10785 votes were cast and the order they are placed in is:

1st. Kiska with 45% of the votes

2nd Maya received 19%  

3rd Zhanna received 14%

4th Sofia received 13%

5th Tatiana received 9%

A recent census conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society found less than 35 individuals in the wild.  As such the species is listed as Endangered by the IUCN (World Conservation Union) and is on CITES Appendix I for protection status (classified as most endangered and threatened with extinction). Around 200 Amur leopard individuals are in captivity.

It is believed that there are eight sub species of leopard which live all over the world: from Africa and the Middle-East to Indonesia, Asia and over to Russia, the leopards range is truly vast. 

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Top image kindly provided by Dave Hall

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