VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Zookeepers say the two female leopards, which have not yet been named, are part of the programme to restore the population of this rare species in the North Caucasus.
Only one leopard has been released into an open-air enclosure so far. The other is ill and will remain in quarantine until it recovers. Prime Minister Putin went to see it, and also visited one of the male leopards that he released into Sochi National Park's enclosures last September.
Prime Minister Putin heard that the leopards are in separate enclosures but that they can see each other across the wire. Zookeepers will be able to watch them getting to know each other day by day.
The programme reintroducing leopards to the North Caucasus was launched in Sochi in 2009. Two male Anatolian leopards from Turkmenistan successfully acclimatised to conditions at the breeding ground created at Sochi National Park. They have been waiting for female leopards, which had to be brought in from Iran. One of them is three years old; the other is eight months old.
When the leopards produce offspring they will be released into the Caucasus Biosphere Nature Reserve.
