New hope for the survival of the Amur leopard in China

Guangshun Jiang; Jinzhe Qi; Guiming Wang; Quanhua Shi; Yury Darman; Mark Hebblewhite; Dale G. Miquelle; Zhilin Li; Xue Zhang; Jiayin Gu; Youde Chang; Minghai Zhang; Jianzhang Ma

doi:10.1038/srep15475

New hope for the survival of the Amur leopard in China

Guangshun Jiang
, Jinzhe Qi
, Guiming Wang
, Quanhua Shi
, Yury Darman
, Mark Hebblewhite
, Dale G. Miquelle
, Zhilin Li
, Xue Zhang
, Jiayin Gu
, Youde Chang
, Minghai Zhang
, Jianzhang Ma

W. A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

39 Scopus citations

Abstract

Natural range loss limits the population growth of Asian big cats and may determine their survival. Over the past decade, we collected occurrence data of the critically endangered Amur leopard worldwide and developed a distribution model of the leopardâ €™ s historical range in northeastern China over the past decade. We were interested to explore how much current range area exists, learn what factors limit their spatial distribution, determine the population size and estimate the extent of potential habitat. Our results identify 48,252 km 2 of current range and 21,173.7 km 2 of suitable habitat patches and these patches may support 195.1 individuals. We found that prey presence drives leopard distribution, that leopard density exhibits a negative response to tiger occurrence and that the largest habitat patch connects with 5,200 km 2 of Russian current range. These insights provide a deeper understanding of the means by which endangered predators might be saved and survival prospects for the Amur leopard not only in China, but also through imperative conservation cooperation internationally.

Original language	English
Article number	15475
Journal	Scientific Reports
Volume	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/srep15475
State	Published - Dec 7 2015

Funding

We thank the support of the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (2572014EA06) from the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China (31272336; 31572285) and the Study on Tiger and Amur Leopard Population Resources Monitoring Technology from the State Forestry Administration. We appreciate funding from the WWF–China Amur Leopard Potential Habitat Identification Program. We thank the Jilin and Heilongjiang Provincial Government Forestry Departments for their permission to conduct surveys. We thank Q. Yu of Yanbian District Forestry Department of Jilin Province, J. Jiang of Department of Wildlife Conservation and Management of Jilin Province, X. Jia and Y. Guang of Department of Forest Management of Heilongjiang Province, for support in coordinating of the project. We thank H. Dou, Q. Sun and Z. Liang for the support of field data collection. We thank X. Li and C. Yan for their useful help on modeling methods used in this paper.

Funders	Funder number
National Natural Science Foundation of China	31572285, 31272336
2572014EA06

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10.1038/srep15475

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title = "New hope for the survival of the Amur leopard in China",

abstract = "Natural range loss limits the population growth of Asian big cats and may determine their survival. Over the past decade, we collected occurrence data of the critically endangered Amur leopard worldwide and developed a distribution model of the leopard{\^a} €{\texttrademark} s historical range in northeastern China over the past decade. We were interested to explore how much current range area exists, learn what factors limit their spatial distribution, determine the population size and estimate the extent of potential habitat. Our results identify 48,252 km 2 of current range and 21,173.7 km 2 of suitable habitat patches and these patches may support 195.1 individuals. We found that prey presence drives leopard distribution, that leopard density exhibits a negative response to tiger occurrence and that the largest habitat patch connects with 5,200 km 2 of Russian current range. These insights provide a deeper understanding of the means by which endangered predators might be saved and survival prospects for the Amur leopard not only in China, but also through imperative conservation cooperation internationally.",

author = "Guangshun Jiang and Jinzhe Qi and Guiming Wang and Quanhua Shi and Yury Darman and Mark Hebblewhite and Miquelle, \{Dale G.\} and Zhilin Li and Xue Zhang and Jiayin Gu and Youde Chang and Minghai Zhang and Jianzhang Ma",

note = "Funding Information: We thank the support of the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (2572014EA06) from the Ministry of Education of the People{\textquoteright}s Republic of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China (31272336; 31572285) and the Study on Tiger and Amur Leopard Population Resources Monitoring Technology from the State Forestry Administration. We appreciate funding from the WWF–China Amur Leopard Potential Habitat Identification Program. We thank the Jilin and Heilongjiang Provincial Government Forestry Departments for their permission to conduct surveys. We thank Q. Yu of Yanbian District Forestry Department of Jilin Province, J. Jiang of Department of Wildlife Conservation and Management of Jilin Province, X. Jia and Y. Guang of Department of Forest Management of Heilongjiang Province, for support in coordinating of the project. We thank H. Dou, Q. Sun and Z. Liang for the support of field data collection. We thank X. Li and C. Yan for their useful help on modeling methods used in this paper.",

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AU - Jiang, Guangshun

AU - Qi, Jinzhe

AU - Wang, Guiming

AU - Shi, Quanhua

AU - Darman, Yury

AU - Hebblewhite, Mark

AU - Miquelle, Dale G.

AU - Li, Zhilin

AU - Zhang, Xue

AU - Gu, Jiayin

AU - Chang, Youde

AU - Zhang, Minghai

AU - Ma, Jianzhang

N1 - Funding Information: We thank the support of the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (2572014EA06) from the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China (31272336; 31572285) and the Study on Tiger and Amur Leopard Population Resources Monitoring Technology from the State Forestry Administration. We appreciate funding from the WWF–China Amur Leopard Potential Habitat Identification Program. We thank the Jilin and Heilongjiang Provincial Government Forestry Departments for their permission to conduct surveys. We thank Q. Yu of Yanbian District Forestry Department of Jilin Province, J. Jiang of Department of Wildlife Conservation and Management of Jilin Province, X. Jia and Y. Guang of Department of Forest Management of Heilongjiang Province, for support in coordinating of the project. We thank H. Dou, Q. Sun and Z. Liang for the support of field data collection. We thank X. Li and C. Yan for their useful help on modeling methods used in this paper.

PY - 2015/12/7

Y1 - 2015/12/7

N2 - Natural range loss limits the population growth of Asian big cats and may determine their survival. Over the past decade, we collected occurrence data of the critically endangered Amur leopard worldwide and developed a distribution model of the leopardâ €™ s historical range in northeastern China over the past decade. We were interested to explore how much current range area exists, learn what factors limit their spatial distribution, determine the population size and estimate the extent of potential habitat. Our results identify 48,252 km 2 of current range and 21,173.7 km 2 of suitable habitat patches and these patches may support 195.1 individuals. We found that prey presence drives leopard distribution, that leopard density exhibits a negative response to tiger occurrence and that the largest habitat patch connects with 5,200 km 2 of Russian current range. These insights provide a deeper understanding of the means by which endangered predators might be saved and survival prospects for the Amur leopard not only in China, but also through imperative conservation cooperation internationally.

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New hope for the survival of the Amur leopard in China

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