00:03We're really fortunate here at the San Diego Zoo to actually have three of these Amur Leopard cats
00:08because there's estimated to be fewer than 40 left in the wild. They are the most endangered
00:13of all the cat species that we have. The three Amur Leopard cubs that we have came from the
00:19exotic feline breeding compound and they're only 11 months old so they still have at least another
00:23year of growing to do. They definitely were experiencing a little bit of hesitation when
00:30we first brought them to their new exhibit but their natural curiousness I think took over and
00:35as I'm sure the footage shows you can see them rolling around in the plants they're climbing
00:40everywhere on the structures and definitely pouncing and tumbling around with each other
00:45but that's all normal cat behavior that you'd expect to see but that's good because that means
00:49we're doing something right. There's two brothers and a sister and I would say the two boys are
00:56definitely acting like you would expect young boys to act like. The female seems to be a little
01:01more polite and a little more nice if that was the correct term to use and out of the brothers
01:07we have one with a little more feisty of a personality and one that's a little bit on the sweeter
01:11side.
01:13Amur Leopards come from a southwestern region in Russia where there's estimated to be probably
01:19about only 25 left in the wild and then maybe another dozen in the northern borders of China.
01:24So you're looking at less than 40 left in the wild altogether for the total population.
01:30Worldwide we have about 300 individual Amur Leopards in the captive program. Captive programs are
01:36really important to mainly increase public awareness about the plight of the Amur Leopards and how close
01:42they are to extinction. So by having more exhibits available to house the leopards and potentially
01:49participate in breeding programs is really important for the species as a whole.
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