A camera has captured one of the world's rarest cats 'playing like a kitten' on a hillside in the Russian Far East.
The wild Amur leopard was filmed by a camera trap in Land of the Leopard National Park in Primorsky Krai in rare footage released on Friday.
According to the press service of the National park, "despite his old age, the male leopard showed excellent health and a playful Friday mood. In front of the camera, the predator played like a domestic kitten."
The Land of the Leopard National Park has 400 such camera traps, which help experts monitor the animals’ health and behaviour.
The park was set up in 2012 to save the Amur leopard, which was on the verge of extinction. There only 120 Amur 'Siberian' leopards living in eastern.
Earlier this month, an Amur leopard was captured on camera as it demonstrated its extreme
The Siberian leopards often owe their survival to their ability to hide so well among the trees.
But tragically there are only 120 living in the wild in their natural habitat in eastern Russia after decades of poaching.
The rare animal was snapped at the Land of the Leopard Nature Reserve, a national park set up by the Kremlin to save this species, reported The Siberian Times .
At the last count, there are only 86 adults and 21 adolescents known to be living in the wild.
A century ago, this big cat roamed the Korean peninsula, several provinces of China, as well as regions in eastern Russia.
But by 2007 only 30 Amur leopards were counted in the wild in the Russian Far East and extinction seemed all but inevitable.
But the species had an unexpected population boom in 2016 after 16 cubs were spotted in a nature reserve set up by Vladimir Putin .
Camera traps in the 1,000 square mile Land of the Leopard National Park counted the new arrivals, including three born to a leopardess named Queen Borte - after the famously fertile first wife of Genghis Khan - by Hollywood action hero Steven Seagal.
The flurry of births and also tougher penalties on poachers have helped the population grow.
Penalties were imposed against poachers seeking the skins of leopards and also Siberian tigers, also an endangered species.
