Russia is working hard to save a uncommon leopard mintage that populate on its Siberian border with China . The country ’s government has have decisive and dramatic action , building an enormous tunnel to reroute traffic away from the leopards , Atlas Obscurareports .
The Amur leopard is critically endangered , so much so that only 70 are acknowledge to live , and 56 of those are struggling to make a life for themselves on a Russian national park called Land of the Leopard . Take Partexplains that the Amur leopard are indigenous to Siberia , but in late years , a vast four - lane main road was construct across their habitat , break their migration routes and set a threat to weave leopard . Officials hope rerouting the highway through the proposed tunnel would leave the prominent cat a clear path .
An tremendous ( and belike expensive ) construction projection , the burrow is the outcome of more than a decade of research on the rarified leopards . Scientists spent years go after their migrant habit , garner information on the elusive beast both for general enquiry purposes and to develop a strategy of conservation .
“ [ They were ] actually out trying to track and collect scat singing for deoxyribonucleic acid analytic thinking and noticed animals move repeatedly across this ridgepole , ” researcher Dale Miquelle told Take Part . “ It ’s a really effective example of how basic scientific research can help define necessary preservation actions . The work was being done for other purposes , but the burrow was by far the most worthful outcome of that inquiry . ”
The 1900 - foot - long burrow , which opened in March , replacing the unsafe highway , is also symbolically important . While standardised construction projects , designed to spare endangered panthers , have been build inthe U.S. , the Narvinsky burrow is a first for Russia . It is also one of the governing ’s first steps towards hit the preservation of endangered species a high-pitched priority .
“ This will be the first ecological burrow in the Russian Federation , ” Sergey Ivanov , the Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office , excuse in astatement . “ We have made road traffic safer because now the drivers will have to use a snaky road to climb up on the … pot on the one hand ; on the other hand , wild animals have start free accession to a migration road in the national park ’s territory . ”
[ h / tAtlas Obscura ]
