Rare leopard caught on camera in North China

A female North-Chinese leopard has been captured on infrared camera for the first time attempting to attract a mate in the Taihang mountains.

The leopards, which are under national-level protection, are a subspecies only found in northern China.

Little is known about their behavior in the wild, due to the limited amount of research that has been done.

The 15 seconds of footage was captured by a biodiversity research team from Beijing Normal University and the Chinese Felid Conservation Alliance.

It shows an adult female circling a male and rubbing up against him, before being rebuffed.

Feng Limin, an associate professor and big cat expert from Beijing Normal University, said this behavior is indicative of a leopard that is trying to finding a mate

“But the male leopard was looking elsewhere in the video. Maybe something else had his attention,” he said.

It is unknown if the leopards successfully mated after being filmed.