WHAT’S THE RAREST BIG CAT, AND WHY?
Gavin Peterson
The rarest big cat is the Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis). The most recent count put the population at 70 left in the wild and declining, which means they are critically endangered. They face various threats including habitat loss, poaching and climate change. The Amur leopard is a subspecies of leopard that includes the more familiar African leopard, which as a whole species is not as rare. At the species level, snow leopards (Panthera uncia) are rarer, with an estimated 4,500 to 7,500 remaining. You can find out more at the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List website, found at iucnredlist.org.