MOSCOW. Sept 6 (Interfax) - Russian Natural Resources and Environment Minister Alexander Kozlov has asked President Vladimir Putin to reach a summit-level agreement with Iran and Turkmenistan on providing four Persian leopards to Russia.
Currently, there are ten leopards living in the wild in the Caucasus, and research centers preparing leopards for release into the wild seek to bring that number to 50, Kozlov said at a meeting with Putin on Wednesday.
Iran has provided one leopard, named Cherry, alongside Alous, another leopard provided by Turkmenistan, at the president's initiative, with the pair giving birth to 13 cubs, Kozlov said.
"They have reached post-reproductive age, so we need more leopards from Iran and Turkmenistan. We would like to get two females and two males. It would be great if you could help us by discussing this with the leaders of these countries," he asked Putin.
The president accepted the request.
Two leopards were released into the wild on July 14 and 22, the minister said.
"These are Achipse (female) and Chilmas (male). Achipse has been released into the woods in the Caucasus Nature Reserve, and Chilmas has been released in the mountains of North Ossetia. They are brother and sister, born two years ago at the Sochi center for restoring the Persian leopard population in the Caucasus. Center specialists prepared them for being released into the wild, using a unique methodology they developed," Kozlov said.
Two cubs born just a week before the release came to replace them at the center and will be raised by the special methodology to release them into the wild in two years," he said.