New evidence suggests the species could be on the path to recovery

May 18, 2013 19:11 GMT  ·  By
Progress is being made in terms of safeguarding tigers and leopards in China
   Progress is being made in terms of safeguarding tigers and leopards in China

As reported on several occasions, efforts to save big cats from extinction need necessarily go hand in hand with efforts to up the population of their prey.

In other words: conservationists would do best to make sure that the cats they are trying to rescue from extinction have what to eat.

Because of this, the news that the body of a deer has recently been discovered fairly close to the Changbai Mountain in China is regarded by many as a particularly good one.

More so given the fact that the deer appeared to have been preyed upon.

The WWF explains that, in an attempt to safeguard the Amur tiger and leopard population, such captive-bred deer have been released into the animals’ natural habitats.

Conservationists hope that the presence of these herbivores will convince the cats that the Wangqing area is worth inhabiting.

“This indicates that the prey recovery project has made preliminary progress and it has been proved to be very important for the survival and settlement of Amur tigers and leopards in Wangqing,” conservationist Wang Fuyou argued.

Backing up his statements, Zhu Jiang, head of WWF Northeast China Office, argued as follows:

“Through the prey recovery project, WWF looks to establish a self-recovery red and sika deer population there, so as to provide sufficient food for wild Amur tigers and leopards as well as realize their settlement and reproduction habitat.”