The Persian leopards Khosta, Laura and Leo will be in the wild on July 16, the Ministry of Natural Resources reports on its website.
The department has been engaged in the restoration of the population since 2007, when the program for the restoration of the leopard in the Caucasus was approved, and the construction of the Center for breeding and reintroduction of the Persian leopard began in the Sochi National Park.
Leo, Hosta and Laura are about two years old, and, according to experts, the cats are completely ready for a new life.
“Predators will become part of a small group that is now stabilizing in the Central Caucasus,” said the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Alexander Kozlov, whose words are quoted in the department's statement.
In 2019, the Persian leopard was included in the list of priority species of the federal project "Biodiversity conservation and development of ecotourism" of the national project "Ecology". The last release of such cats into the wild was in 2020.