Beijing and neighbouring provinces Hebei and Shanxi have started an ecological-restoration project aiming to bring the North China leopard back to the capital.
Trees will be planted to provide a “green channel” to encourage the return of Panthera pardus japonensis, which was last seen in Beijing in 1995, China City News reported. To reach Beijing naturally, the animals would need to pass through the northern section of the Taihang Mountains in Hebei.
In the next 10 years, Beijing, Hebei and Shanxi will plant 10 million oak trees in wildlife habitats and migration corridors in the Taihang Mountains and Yanshan Mountains. Acorns are a rich food source for roe deer, squirrels and rabbits, which North China leopards thrive on, China City News added.
The leopard subspecies, unique to China, was once widely distributed through North China’s mountain forest ecosystem. But habitat destruction caused its numbers to drop sharply in recent decades. Now the endangered species is mainly to be found in Shanxi and it is a first-class protected animal in China. Though in recent years, the leopard has shown a trend of recovery, a team of scientists from Beijing Normal University found.
Leopard habitat is highly fragmented and the connectivity between core habitats is very fragile, stated a Peking University study published last year. The study recommended strengthening cooperation between protected areas and administrative regions.
Beijing, Hebei and Shanxi will “also connect and repair the four habitat corridors and five habitat areas of the North China leopard to reduce human interference and promote the exchange of leopard populations”, according to China Environmental News.
Beijing Evening News said the leopard has frequently appeared relatively near Beijing in recent years, with the most recent sighting being just over 20 kilometres from the west of Beijing, in Hebei.
In 2016, the non-governmental China Cat Conservation Alliance started a project to bring the leopard back to Beijing, with the goal of “restoring the wilderness and people’s hearts in North China.”
The alliance said that the leopards must be allowed to spread naturally and only when female leopards reproduce successfully in Beijing can the species be considered to have returned. “This stage will take 10 years, maybe 50 years, maybe even longer.”
Read Dialogue Earth’s previous analysis of China’s wildlife protection law.