Rare Leopardess Killed — Only 6 Remain

– Sometimes I think this planet would be better off without human beings. We are so vicious to the other poor animals who’ve had the misfortune to be here on Earth at the same time our species has ascended to global dominance.

– A while ago, I wrote about the elephants being slaughtered in Africa . Just the other evening, Sharon and I watched part of the beautiful series currently running on the Discovery Channel called Planet Earth and they had some first-time-ever video of the extremely rare Amur Leopards in the wild. Strange and beautiful creatures so worthy of our respect and admiration.

And now this article.

– It was utterly criminal to have killed one of these last few beautiful leopards. But it wasn’t enough – the bastards had to beat the animal as well.

– Yeah, I think humans – maybe most of us – may be the worst plague ever unleashed on this planet. I cried when I read this. Eden is slipping through our fingers and most of us are too stupid to know it’s even happening.

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Amur leopard killed and beaten - only six females remain.

April 23, 2007—An Amur leopardess has been found dead a mere two days after a new census reported that just 25 to 34 Amur leopards remain alive in the wild—only 7 of them female.

The 77-pound (35-kilogram) cat, seen in this newly released photograph, was discovered on April 20 in Russia‘s Barsovy National Wildlife Refuge.

The animal had been shot in the back and beaten with a heavy object, according to the international conservation group WWF.

The killing of a reproductively capable female puts the threatened carnivore even further from the hundred or more individuals scientists say are needed to sustain its wild population.

Now the world’s rarest big cat, the Amur leopard once roamed across the Korean peninsula, in the Russian Far East, and in northeastern China. But human impacts have pulverized its population.

“This year’s census showed a desperate situation, with just seven female Amur leopards left in the wild and four rearing cubs,’ said Darron Collins, an expert in the species based at WWF’s Washington, D.C., office.

“Now we’ve lost a mature, reproductive leopardess and her potential cubs in a senseless killing.”

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