An adult Persian leopard was photographed on late March in Birk Protected Area, near the Iran-Pakistan border. The area has been one of the main habitats in southeastern country where it was supposed to be a leopard refuge. Meanwhile, due to remoteness of the area and lack of security because of drug smugglers, no intensive survey has been implemented in this area.
Since winter 2008, the Iranian Cheetah Society (ICS) initiated the first leopard survey in southeastern Iran to identify the leopard range and probably getting an insight into the leopard population (read more). Preliminary surveys indicated that serious conflict between leopard and local Baluch nomads exist, but due to some local beliefs, the nomads do not shoot the leopards. It was estimated that a total of 10 to 20 livestock, mainly domestic goat are killed monthly by the leopards and since there is no alternative source of income for local nomads, it is a great loss with respect to small size of their herds.
Birk Protected Area is one of few reserves in southeastern Iran which is mainly consisted of a long mountainous chain of around 100 kilometers extending from north to the Pakistan border. This 70,000 hectares area is supposed to hold small number of the Asiatic black bear and the adult leopard was captured by the camera traps in its northern extension.
