Critically endangered leopard dies at age 21 in California zoo

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A critically endangered species of leopard has died at age 21 in a Southern California zoo. Officials at the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert say Amur leopard Zoya died of old age last Tuesday after over a decade there. She was one of the oldest leopards in human care in the country. Amur leopards were classified as critically endangered in 1996. In the 1970s their population in the wild dwindled to fewer than 30 individuals. The current population is estimated to be around 100.