One of the oldest representatives of the species of Far Eastern leopards Leo 69F, inhabiting the Leopard Land National Park in the Russian Far East, came out of the forest close to the road and was caught on camera of a car passing by, the park's press service reported.
"Unique pictures of the world's rarest large wild cat were captured by a lucky eyewitness who drove along the borders of Leopard Land," the statement read.
The representatives of the park said that such calm behavior by the cat is not unusual.
"We have seen a similar reaction to transport by a leopard before," they stated.
The staff of the National Park repeatedly met animals in the forest that looked at the cars but did not run away. They explained it by the fact that wild animals perceive cars as something less dangerous and threatening than other animals or humans.
"But when they see a living creature in the car, they hurry to hide, which we observed in this case as well," the park's director Tatiana Baranovskaya said.
The video was shot on the road near the forest, presumably near the village of Barabash, Khasansky district. Thanks to the footage, scientists received valuable data on the state of one of the Red Book predators, which has been observed by experts over the last decade. For the first time the appearance of the Leo 69F was captured by a photo-trap back in 2008.
