Leo 260M, the leopard rescued in Primorye, has been returned to the wild, marking a notable milestone for the region’s conservation efforts. This update comes from the National Park Land of the Leopard’s telegraph channel, confirming that the release occurred in the Ussuriysky Reserve, a site where leopards vanished from the landscape for more than fifty years.
Rescued by staff of the National Park in July 2022, Leo 260M received care and rehabilitation at a dedicated center. Under the supervision of wildlife professionals, he completed a rigorous program that included hunting skill development and health evaluations, all performed to high marks. The assessments indicated that the leopard retained a fundamentally wild nature, even after the rehabilitation process.
Leading zoologists from Russia’s premier scientific institutions, including the Institute for Problems of Ecology and Evolution named after O. Severtsov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, oversaw the decision to reintroduce Leo 260M into the wild in the Ussuri Nature Reserve. This collaboration underscores the strong ties between fieldwork and academic research in safeguarding the endangered leopard subspecies.
Leo 260M’s release adds to a broader success narrative in the region. Earlier in the year, two other Far Eastern leopards made their return to this same landscape, Leo 270M, a young male, and Leo 284F, a female, both released by the same expert team. Their appearance signals a hopeful shift, with multiple individuals reclaiming habitat that had been devoid of their presence for decades.
The release process for Leo 260M proceeded with caution and careful planning. The leopard was introduced through a soft release strategy, using a controlled enclosure to acclimate before full exposure to the wild. Ongoing monitoring relies on camera traps and satellite collars, ensuring researchers can observe behavior, survival, and territory establishment without unnecessary disturbance.
According to the report from the protected area, this event represents a historic milestone: the first documented instance of successful rehabilitation and reintroduction of this rare subspecies to its native habitat. The return of predators to sites they once inhabited a generation or more ago demonstrates both the resilience of the species and the effectiveness of coordinated conservation work in the Far East.
In parallel, the region continues to emphasize habitat protection and long-term monitoring. The ongoing work includes habitat restoration, prey base management, and the maintenance of corridors that support leopard movements across priority landscapes. These efforts aim to sustain healthy populations and to enable future reintroductions where feasible, aligning science with on-the-ground conservation action.
The Leo 260M story stands as a beacon for innovative wildlife management in Russia and the broader circumpolar area. It reflects a growing recognition that rehabilitation, when paired with robust monitoring and habitat protection, can restore ecological balance and offer new chapters for species facing long odds. The partnership among national agencies, research institutions, and field teams provides a model for other regions seeking to reconcile wildlife recovery with human development and land-use needs.