Amur leopards

[johnstoni]

I noticed the following statement on the ALTA website....does anyone know what the 'rogue founder No. 2' means? Does it mean that the captive population has varying levels of purity?

"The Amur leopard is probably the only large cat for which a reintroduction programme using zoo stock is likely to take place in the near future. Concerns about levels of the rogue founder No 2 mean that good numbers of animals with low levels of this founder are needed and the European Zoo breeding programme (EEP) has in place a breeding management strategy with this goal."

 

[Yassa]

The founder no. 2 was not an amur leopard, but of the chinese subspecies. WHich was only discovered a few yeras ago at a time when nearly all amur leopards in captivity were decendends of no. 2. Since that, the EEP has set up a new strategy to pair leopards with the goal to breed young with a low level of no. 2 genes, because it is totally impossible to breed just with those who are not related with him (only a handful left and most of them were old and no longer suitable breeders). So all "amur" leopards in captivity are in reality subspecies hybrids. Which may not be that terrible because just 100 years or so ago, amur and south chinese leopards had overlapping ranges, and some hybridisation has probably always occured. That`s why the hybrids from the zoo population are considered as suitable for release.

 

[johnstoni]

That's amazing, I can't believe the first large cat reintroduction will be with hybrids! But very forward-thinking to take the genes into further generations using hybrid animals, rather than just abandoning all efforts.

 

[dragon(ele)nerd]

i"d love to see how this turns out it the long run, reindroduction with Hybrids is amazing I agree, leopards are such majestic creatures,

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

The hybridisation occurred in one of the founders at Frankfurt am Main Zoo and has entered parts of the captive population. Several other pairs of Amur leopards remain pure-bred, so the hybridisation is only marginal.

The amount of hybridisation in the Amur leopard is being monitored by the EEP studbook keeper in the pairing recommendations and breedings for the species. This will ensure only Amur leopards with low levels of hybridisation will be introduced.

The reintroduction plan entails setting up a satellite leopard population in an area in E. Siberia from where the species has been extirpated. This should go ahead in the next few years. It is by far the most ambitious endeavour in carnivore reintroductions worldwide and to me represents a real and realistic challenge to the zoo community and those endeavouring to apply in situ conservation within their captive-breeding projects.

 

[johnstoni]

It really does create the drive for a meaningful ex situ breeding programme that does more than just attempt to halt the decline of a captive population. I really hope it succeeds, if it does it will certainly provide valuable data to form a template for potential reintroduction of other large cat species further down the line.