Forest fires threaten rarest big cats in Far East

VLADIVOSTOK, April 22 (Itar-Tass) -- Forest fires in Russia's Far East
this year threaten the rarest big cats on Earth - Far Eastern leopards, a
wildlife expert said.
"The situation in nature preserves is very alarming," spokeswoman of
the Amur branch of the World Wildlife Fund Yelena Starostina told Tass on
Friday.
She explained fires destroyed over 10 thousand hectares of forests in
the Leopard preserve in the south of Primorye region and over 690 hectares
in Kedrovaya Pad preserve.
"The two territories in the southwest of Primorye region are the
habitat of the last 35 Far Eastern leopards," she said.
Fires are most frequent in the southwest of Primorye and annually
destroy forests there. To cope with the problem environmentalists will
carry out a month-long action in summer to restore forests and plant up to
one million cedars in the area.