Author: Lazette Gifford (South Sioux, USA)
Website: Click here
Photo location: Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo
Category: [nature]  

The beautiful Amur leopard, which once ranged through the wilds of Siberia, Southern China and parts of Korea, has all but disappeared. There are hardly more than thirty or forty left in the wilds, and of the two hundred or so in zoos, as few as twelve may be true, pure bred animals.

I've watched this Amur Leopard over the last five years, a resident of Omaha's Henry Doorly zoo. The first years I was there he was shy and hid back in the corner of his compound, but in later years he's started to come to the glass and watch the world that watches him. What a gift it is to be able to go some place and see all these wonderful animals... but it can bring the painful realization of how fragile their lives can be.

On my last visit, I watched the Amur Leopard as he paces back and forth before the glass, watching the trio of lionesses across the aisle from him. He was clearly fascinated by the huge animals, which are four times his size -- and which, by chance, survived Hurricane Katrina and are now housed in Omaha for the time being.

The bigger cats aren't much interested in the little Amur leopard. And I think that might be a sign of the Amur leopard's fate. Millions of dollars have poured into funds to save the Amur tiger... but the small leopard, facing the same dangers of extinction, only recently has come under the attention of those who want to save the wild.

Eventually the Amur Leopard stops watching and goes to sharpen his claws on tree trunks or bat a ball around a bit. And then, finally, he finds a spot to nap. And looking at him then, I wonder what he sees while his tail twitches and he runs through the wild places of his dreams.

Other submissions by this author: :  Touching History  ::  Life in Siouxland  ::  When the wild things look in  ::  Winter  :

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