PERSIAN LEOPARD PROJECT IN IRAN / Efforts to conserve the Persian leopard

While most attention has been given to the plight of the Iran’s critically endangered wild cat, the Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus), efforts to conserve the Persian leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor), leave much to be desired.
Globally known as one of the largest of many subspecies of leopard, this felid is the only «big cat" nowadays surviving in Iran after the extinction of Caspian tiger (P. tigris virgata) and Asiatic lion (P. leo persica).
Until 40 years ago, the leopard was considered as a common or even pest species throughout Iran by reviewers of the nation’s rich biodiversity.
Leopards are distributed in diverse habitats in Iran, wherever sufficient prey is present, with the exception of vast plains and cultivated lands.
Sporadic reports are received annually on the depredation by leopards on livestock, resulting in poisoning or shooting of the problematic animals.
Unfortunately no proper conservation action has been carried out within the country for this «endangered» subspecies and the population is guesstimated to number 550-850 individuals.
Due to ever-increasing threats to leopard survival from direct poaching, habitat fragmentation and prey loss, this «protected species» (by Iran’s Department of Environment laws) is facing a drastic extirpation in low-density areas.
Since June 2007 research and conservation efforts on leopards in Iran has been coordinated by the «Persian
Leopard Project» with the collaboration of international conservationists and scientists from around the world,
Plan for the Land Society and the Department of Environment in Iran.
The pilot site of the Persian leopard project is Bamu National Park in Southern Iran which has been leopard
habitat for a long time, but is now highly fragmented by human-dominated landscapes.

As a first step, the project managed to implement non-invasive scientific methods to assess the status of leopard in Bamu.
SinceSeptember 2007 a six month intensive camera-trapping survey was carried out.
Seven individual leopards were identified through their unique coat pattern and a density of around 1.8 individuals/100 sq km was estimated.
This is much higher than previous studies on Amur and Arabian leopard (P.p. orientalis and nimr) in Russia and Oman, but lower than previous guesstimates on Bamu leopard capacities. Parallel to this, other scientific studies on leopard signs (scrapes, tracks, scat analyses, etc.) and attractants (lures) have been initiated.