Amur leopard cubs have been born at Korkeasaari Zoo in Helsinki for the first time in 11 years, giving the critically endangered subspecies two new additions to a European conservation breeding programme.
A male and female were born at the end of July and are now around five weeks old. Each weighs about 2.5 kilograms and remains inside the den with its mother, where zoo staff continue to monitor their development.
The birth was observed through a camera after the mother entered the den. Three cubs were born, although only two survived.
Veterinarians have since examined the surviving cubs, treated them for worms and implanted identification microchips. Keepers also photographed the distinctive coat patterns of each cub, allowing the animals to be individually identified as they grow.
For now, the cubs remain largely hidden from visitors. Korkeasaari expects them to start venturing outside the den at about two months old, when they become more active and increasingly independent.
Their arrival follows years of work to find a suitable breeding partner for Korkeasaari’s male leopard. The search lasted five years and was carried out through the European EEP conservation programme, which coordinates the breeding of threatened species in European zoos.
Two previous attempts to establish a breeding pair were unsuccessful. The third female, however, produced a very different result.
The animals reportedly mated during their introductions, and the female became pregnant after their second meeting. “This Amur leopard pair found common ground the second they were put together,” keeper Jonne Stenroth said.
The new cubs are considered particularly valuable to the breeding programme because of their genetic background. Their paternal grandfather was born in the wild and was later rescued after suffering an injury that prevented his return to its natural habitat.
The leopard went on to breed at Moscow Zoo, where he fathered only two male offspring. One of those males was transferred to Korkeasaari in 2021 and has now become the father of the two new cubs.
That lineage matters because maintaining genetic diversity is one of the central challenges facing Amur leopards, one of the world’s most endangered big cats. Around 130 are estimated to remain in the wild, primarily in the Russian Far East and northeastern China.
The population was in an even more precarious position in the past. Numbers fell to an estimated 35 animals before beginning to recover during the 2010s. Despite that improvement, the subspecies remains vulnerable to poaching, disease and the loss of suitable habitat. Its small population also leaves it exposed to the problems associated with limited genetic diversity.
The European breeding programme is intended to help maintain a genetically diverse population in captivity, giving conservationists a better chance of preserving the species over the long term.
The possibility of returning zoo-born Amur leopards to protected areas in Russia has currently been put on hold because of the geopolitical situation. Conservation work has not stopped, however, with international projects continuing in China.
For Korkeasaari, the arrival of the two cubs represents both a rare moment for visitors and a contribution to a much broader effort to keep one of the world’s rarest big cats from disappearing. After more than a decade without an Amur leopard birth at the Helsinki zoo, the two young animals now carry an importance that extends well beyond their den.
