i read that recent tests on the US animals dismissed the bulk from the breedingprogram as there was evidence of hybridisation. still, it implied there was till a bigger genepool in zoos than the wild.
i think in the case of the amur leopards, a more effective result to boosting wild gentics with zoo stock might be acheived by, rather than introducing captive animals intothe wild, instead bring wild animals into captivity temporarily. if you can get a wild female inseminated or bred with a captive male (in an on site facility in the region of course) you could then release her again, where she would no doubt raise her half-captive-stock cubs to be wild, to be wild. this sort of methodology could be achieved with many species that are particuarly difficult to re-train to be wild. the trick is that you have to make sure the species never becomes extinct in the wild or the wild-learnt behaviours could be lost..
