Land of the Leopard National Park

The Amur leopard was down to around thirty animals in the wild by the 2000s, all in a strip of south-western Primorye against the Chinese and Korean borders, which made it the rarest big cat in the world. The national park was created in 2012 by merging existing protected areas into about two thousand eight hundred square kilometres covering essentially the whole Russian range, with anti-poaching enforcement, prey management and a camera-trap network that identifies individuals by their spot patterns. The population has risen to somewhere over a hundred, with animals also recorded crossing into China where a matching reserve was established. A road tunnel at Narvinsky was built to take traffic under a key movement corridor rather than through it. The park runs ecotrails, a visitor centre and a leopard rehabilitation centre; the cats themselves are not seen, and camera-trap footage is what visitors get.

What you actually see

• The recovery - a population from around thirty animals to over a hundred since 2012.
• The camera-trap work - individuals identified by spot pattern across the range.
• The Narvinsky tunnel - a road put underground to keep a movement corridor open.
• The ecotrails - marked guided routes with a visitor centre and interpretation.

When to go

May to October. A day for the trails and centre, several for more. Permits and guides through the park.

Honest expectations

Leopards are not seen by visitors - the park is honest about this and shows camera footage instead. Trails are guided and fixed. Ticks in this region are severe and carry disease. Parts of the park are border zone with additional restrictions.

Nearby

Vladivostok is east; Lake Khanka is north.