Advertising: Amur Leopard Tours (Nov,2019 and Feb,2020)

Royle Safaris have two spaces open on an Amur Leopard trips to Primorye, Russia in November 23 – December 1, 2019 and one space left on their February 12 – 20, 2020 trip.

The week long itinerary is centred around one of the least visited and most pristine ecosystems in the world; the Russian state of Primorye may not evoke the same thoughts and emotions as Siberia. But it is this state which harbours the largest areas of intact and protected forests in the Russian Far East. Many parks and reserves have been set up in the last 10-20 years. Mostly down to the love of the big cats and the wilderness that Vladimir Putin has. The rewards for setting up these protected areas, increasing the anti-poaching enforcement and awareness of the problems facing the big cats here are beginning to be seen now. The numbers of both Siberian tigers and Amur leopards have been slowly yet steadily increasing for years.

This is a pioneering tour and you will be amongst the first ever tourists to come here and the first to spend time here during the wonderful winter time to try and find and photograph the Amur leopard. Because of the nature of Amur leopards we cannot guarantee any sightings; however we can assure you all of an adventure of a life time and one that could result in you becoming one of the only non-Russian people to see wild Amur leopards!

We had great success on our first ever trip with clients here in February 2018 where the clients saw two different Amur leopards and got pictures and videos of both individuals. The first was a pregnant female in the day time (10am) and the second was a large adult male who came and fed on the deer all night, we got great viewings over several hours, fascinating behaviour and pictures and videos from both camera traps and night vision – which is available at the hide on request. And on our second trip (March 2018) we had an Amur leopard visit the hide area, which means a 100% success rate so far in leopard sightings for our trips here. In November 2018 we continued our great success with sightings of a male and female leopard around the hide. The female is believed to also have a litter of young cubs and we hope by late winter 2018-19 the cubs will be following the female around and possibly visiting the hide too.

More details are here. The February trip can be combined with a separate Siberian Tiger trip.