Wild leopard spotted in Chinese nature reserve

XI'AN -- An infrared camera has captured six photos and a short video of a wild leopard in a nature reserve in Northwest China's Shaanxi province.

The Changqing National Nature Reserve set up the camera in a pine forest in April and collected the data on Oct 25. Workers of the reserve found the images of the leopard captured at around 8 pm on July 19, according to the provincial forestry bureau.

In the 10-second video clip, the leopard was seen crouching in the grass before it sprang to its feet, apparently being alerted by a flying bird or insect.

It is the sixth time that leopards had been spotted in the reserve since infrared cameras were set up in 2008. By comparing the spots on the bodies of the big cats, experts believed they were different leopard adults or sub-adults, which indicates that there is at least one stable leopard group in the reserve.

Located in Yangxian county of Shaanxi, the nature reserve was established mainly to protect the habitat of wild giant pandas.