The Persian Leopard project

Project introduction

The Persian Leopard is an endangered species which can only be found in Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Turkey and countries of the Caucasus region. And its numbers does not cross 1300 collars. The largest population of the Persian Leopard is estimated to be 550-850 collars in the mountains and forests. Unfortunately in the past years the species’ number has decreased dramatically and in some areas the species has become completely extinct. Some of the main threats to the Persian Leopard are listed below.

(Direct killing (Poisoning, Direct killing for the protection of cattle and illegal hunting

(Serious decrease in the number of the species’ prey (excessive hunting of goats, ram, ewes, deer and sheep

Decrease in the number of natural habitats

Road accidents

Ever since 2007 plan for the land society has begun a project under the title of “The Persian Leopard project” in some protected areas with the purpose of research and the protection of the species. This project intends to specify the possibilities of the Leopard’s co-existence by doing scientific research and using the most up to date and accurate methods to offer a Practical solution and partnership with the local community to plan long term protection plans. The Persian Leopard project has been very active in certain areas like: Bemo national park, Golestan national park, Qazvin, Hormozgan, Boshehr, And eastern Azerbaijan provinces and more areas will be added in the future.

Goals

The Persian Leopard project follows the main goals listed below ordered by priorities.

 Research about the species in its natural habitats.

 Preparing and implementing long term strategies to protect the species.

 And in order to achieve the stated goals, it will use these methods.

 inspecting the status of the leopard’s population by using trap cameras, icons, and the local communities’ information.

Gathering ecological data about the leopard, other carnivores and their prey.

Identifying the main threats to the leopard’s survival and its prey.

studying the conflict between the leopard and the local communities.

Implementing projects to change the locals’ view about the wild life and carnivores.

empowering the local community, governmental and non-governmental agencies in order to keep a joint protection plan of the natural resources.

Research about the existence of corridors between the leopard’s habitats and how to protect these connections in the habitats.

Time of project

(June 2007- continuing (Long term

Members

Field research department: Amir Hossein Khaleghi Hamidi, Arash Ghodoosi, Taher Ghadirian

Local community training department: Shadi Tavakoli Mehr, Yasaman Talebi, Azar Sedaghati Khayat

Other members: Hamed Moshiri, Mahmood soofi, Delaram Ashayeri, Ali Ghashghayi, Shida Ashayeri, Hamed Abolghasemi, Taher Saadi Zade, Parham Dibaj, Mir Hesam Khaleghi Hamidi, Shiavash Ghodoosi, Ali Farhad Zade, Mona Hamze Poor, Salman Rasooli, Ashkan Danesh

A special thanks to all of those who volunteered and helped us in this project from Plan for the Land society

Project location and approaches

The Persian Leopard project is currently carried out in several protected areas and a few free zones. The projects Criterion to choose these habitats.

 Studying the leopard’s best habitats which need serious protection plans.

 Areas that show no information about the Leopards’ presence or where the Leopards’ state is unknown.

Bemo national park is the first habitat in which the Persian Leopard project has taken place and with records of the leopard’s presence and long term protection plans and low numbers of illegal hunting, it has been chosen for this purpose. In this section of the article we will explain this activity.

With over 1000 night systematic cameras during 6 months, Bemo National park’s leopard population has been estimated for the 1^st time in Iran. The CAPTURE 0.24±6 software analytics results for the leopards that live in the area has estimated that the density in the area is about 1.87 leopards in every 100 sq. kilo which for the mountains and deserts of Iran is an incredible number. Currently the leopard’s habitat occupancy is estimated to be 56% in Bemo National Park, which could be the result of insecurity of the habitat and the low number of preys in the area.

Leopards are territorial species and to protect their territories they leave certain marks. In this research the leopard’s territorial marks have been identified and grouped. These marks include scratches on the ground, tress and other signs which can be found often in winter (mating season). The average of a scratch is about x22.739.3.

An estimated 14000 people live near Bemo national park (population of Shiraz not included) and unfortunately the amount of destroyed habitats in Bemo national park increases daily. One way of dealing with such problems is to f the natives to the values of the environment that they live in. Therefore this project intends to target younger ages like children and teenagers in order to introduce them to the concepts of protecting the environment and the wild and for the last 2 years it has taught the students of ages 7-17 and has met a good reception by the students.

The Persian Leopard festival took place in Bemo national park in 2010 as part of the Persian Leopards protection plan. The purpose of this festival was to teach and inform the children and teenagers of Fars Province about the importance of protecting the environment. There were over children from villages nearby Bemo national park and there were many sections included such as introduction to biodiversity, the cat family, the endangered species of the Persian Leopard, the food chain, Bemo national park, movies, all sort of fun and educational games, auction, speech and etc.

Since the spring of 2011, researches about the leopard’s natural diet has begun in Bemo national park as a university master’s project. In this research experts specify the preys that are a part of the leopard’s diet and their numbers in different seasons of the year.

Illegal hunting is without doubt one of the most dangerous threats to Bemo national park which happens a lot near the park. Luckily with the cooperation of the local community through education and communication, we have successfully managed to reduce the number of illegal hunting in the past few years but still the motivations for illegal hunting requires more research. This research is a first in the country and one of few in the world and has begun under the title of a master’s project in Bemo national park in 2011.

Golestan national park is one of the best habitats of the Persian Leopard, not just in Iran but in the area. Having enough prey and various ecosystems for the leopard, it is one of the few places that is fit to study the leopard. Activities of the Persian leopard project are as followed.

During this running activity (since 2010) and with the help of Wildlife Institute of Persian heritage, the leopard’s population is being monitored by trap cameras. In the project’s first steps, the least of population in the park has been estimated along with its density and how the habitats are divided. In the end after a few years of monitoring the leopards, this project intends to estimate the number of the leopard’s population in Golestan national by the CAPTURE .method

The local communities’ financial and social factors have a direct impact on the number of leopards in the area and identifying these factors is of utmost importance. The Persian leopard project intends to identify the direct threats (Hunting, illegal grazing, wood and forage harvesting…) and indirect threats (Road, unplanned tourism, economic plans…) for the species and its habitats and try to solve these issues.

Qazvin province is one of the unknown habitats of this species in Iran. Therefore the research is conducted in order to prove the presence of the species and to identify different habitats in order to plan better protection plans in the future.

Studying the presence of the leopard in western Alamoot area in the Zagros Mountains, and training the environmental guards on how to monitor the leopards is one of the projects goals. With the use of trap cameras, the presence of the leopard has been proven.

Hormozgan province is also one of the unknown habitats in Iran for the Persian leopard, which in many of its habitats; the leopard is facing the problem of low number of prey. Researching about the species and its basic ecology is one of the project’s goals in one of the southern areas of the leopard’s presence.

This activity which is being supervised by the DoE of Hormozgan province and cooperation of other environmental societies, is to confirm the presence of the leopard and to create a better picture of the dispersion of it. In this project with the use of the Occupancy modeling method, the habitats of the province are divided into a web of equal cells, and the presence of the leopard in them is recorded by trap cameras.

The geno protected area is one of the special habitats in Hormozgan province and the presence of the leopard has been proved but due to the large population in the nearby villages and cities the survival of the leopard depends on the support of local communities. During this project, 1820 students in the nearby villages have been introduced to the concept of protecting the environment and have been taught about the local species such as the Persian leopard and the Larestan ewes.

Booshehr province is one of the few areas where there is no official report of presence of the leopard and proving so is one of the research team’s priorities in the province.

Over the past few years there have always been unofficial reports of leopard sightings in the area and trying to prove so is of utmost importance. After studying the leopard’s habitats and using trap cameras, pictures of leopard’s presence in the Khaiiz area were taken for the first time and so this area has been chosen to upgrade the level of protection because of its biodiversity.

The Caucasus region is one of the areas with high bio diversity in the world (hot spot) and over the past few years, it has been chosen as one of the most important areas in order to protect its species. Although a small part of the Caucasus region is in Iran but the original birth place of the leopard is in the North West and the survival of the leopards in the other 5 regions depends on this area.

After basic monitoring in the Caucasus region, the wildlife shelter in east Azerbaijan, Dorfak and Deilaman areas in Gilan province were recognized as the leopard’s using areas. With the partnership of international agencies and researchers from other countries of the Caucasus region, it has been decided to monitor the leopards with more accuracy in Iran, Armenia and Azerbaijan’s borders and with the extraction of DNA from the Dung and using trap cameras.

Estimating the leopard’s population for the first time in Iran with the use of trap cameras and the CAPTURE method.

Proving the leopard’s presence in Hormozgan and Booshehr for the first time in the country.

rescuing a leopard and two cubs by the local community in result of educating the locals near Bemo national park.

-Increase in herbivore numbers in Bemo national park and reduction in the number of crimes in result of educating the locals nearby Bemo national park.

Printing the leading article about the Persian Leopard in the world.