China's complex and changeable terrain and climate have resulted in extremely high biodiversity. China is one of the countries with the largest number of wild cat species in the world. There are 12 species of cats that are definitely distributed, plus one fishing cat whose distribution is uncertain. What is the current situation of these cats? In order to understand them and help them, what efforts have been made by the Cat Alliance and other conservation organizations?

Tiger

First of all, let’s start with the most familiar ones Speaking of cats - tiger. China is the country with the most tiger subspecies, including Siberian tiger, South China tiger, Bengal tiger and Indochinese tiger.

The Siberian tiger is the tiger subspecies with the best condition in the wild in China. According to 2024 data released by the Siberian Tiger and Leopard National Park, there are 60 wild Siberian tigers in China. The number of Siberian tigers has been rising in recent years, which shows that our protection is effective.

A wild Indochinese tiger was photographed in Xishuangbanna in 2007. Since then, no Indochinese tiger has been found in China. Indochinese tigers are now extinct in China, Vietnam, and Laos, and the few remaining Indochinese tigers are distributed in Myanmar and Thailand.

A Bengal tiger was photographed in 2022 in Medogedang Township, Tibet. The Bengal tiger is the tiger subspecies with the largest wild population, but it is only distributed in Tibet in China. Today, there is no stable Bengal tiger population in China.

The South China tiger is a truly native tiger subspecies in China. It is very old. It was the tiger population in the southwestern mountains of China during the late Quaternary Ice Age and spread northward from the south. formed by the collection of tigers.

But the South China tiger is extinct in the wild. There are currently more than 200 South China tigers in captivity, and there is severe inbreeding genetic depression. Tigers need tens to hundreds of square kilometers of forest and enough large prey. Most of the historical South China tiger habitats have now been developed or the ecosystems have been severely degraded and cannot support tiger survival. The few nature reserves that exist are too small and isolated to support tiger populations.

Leopard

Then there are those that our Cat Alliance pays special attention to Species, leopard.

Leopards are the most important predators on the second "step" of China's three-step ladder. In China, except for Taiwan, Hainan, and Xinjiang, leopards were once distributed in all provinces and municipalities directly under the Central Government. Today, its distribution range has been greatly reduced. Leopards are now mainly distributed in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei, Ningxia, Gansu, Sichuan, Qinghai, and Tibet.

China is also the country with the most leopard subspecies, including four subspecies: Indochinese leopard, Indian leopard, Far Eastern leopard, and North China leopard.

The distribution range of Indochinese leopards is similar to that of Indochinese tigers. There are some Indochinese leopards in Yunnan, my country. In 2016, Maomeng and Shanshui Nature Conservation Center photographed an Indochinese leopard in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan.

my country's Indian leopards are distributed in the Mount Everest region of Tibet. Their distribution area is very small, and we know very little about them.

The Amur leopard, or Siberian leopard, may be the smallest of all leopard subspecies. According to a paper published in 2018, there are only 84 Amur leopards on the China-Russia border. After our country established the Tiger and Leopard National Park, the protection has been very effective. There are now more than 60 Amur leopards living in the Haw Par National Park and surrounding forest areas in China alone.

The North China leopard is the most familiar leopard in the Central Plains, and it is the subspecies that our cat alliance pays most attention to. There used to be leopards in Beijing. Mr. Tan Bangjie's article recorded that in the 1950s and 1960s, more than 30 leopards were killed in Huairou and Miyun, Beijing. The last leopard in Beijing was recorded in Fanzipai Township in Miyun, and was killed by poachers in 1989.

Heshun, the current "base camp" of the Cat League, is home to about 40 adult North China leopards in an area of ​​about 800-1,000 square kilometers. This is already a relatively large population in the Taihang Mountains, but It is still too few for a population to be stably maintained. In the forest near Xibaipo, Pingshan County, Hebei, one or two leopards have been observed every year from 2019 to now. We hope that these leopards can spread out, go all the way north along the Taihang Mountains, and return to their former habitat in Beijing.