The Persian Leopard Project in Northeastern Iran

On December 6, 2015, the first female Persian leopard was successfully captured during the Persian Leopard Project in Northeastern Iran. The project team carefully immobilized, examined and measured this 3-year-old female of about 40 kg. The team called her “Iran”, fitted her with a GPS satellite collar, and then released her.
Led by Mohammad Farhadinia from the Iranian Cheetah Society and WildCRU, and in collaboration with Iran Department of Environment, Panthera, and University of Tehran; this project seeks to answer a variety of conservation-oriented questions about the persistence of Endangered Persian leopards in fragmented mountainous habitats in a number of protected areas in northeastern Iran. Another four male Persian leopards have been previously fitted with collars during this study.

Led by Mohammad Farhadinia from the Iranian Cheetah Society and WildCRU, and in collaboration with Iran Department of Environment, Panthera, and University of Tehran; this project seeks to answer a variety of conservation-oriented questions about the persistence of Endangered Persian leopards in fragmented mountainous habitats in a number of protected areas in northeastern Iran.

One key aspect of this project is studying the movement ecology of Persian leopards on this rugged landscape. Five Persian leopards have been so far successfully fitted with cutting-edge GPS satellite collars, which are providing invaluable data about movement patterns, kill rates and social structure of Persian leopards. This information is also very important to increase our current knowledge about human-leopard interactions and leopard-livestock conflict.

Among the four male and one female leopards captured during this study, two of the male leopards have been monitored for one year and their collars have been successfully recovered.

The project team is now busy with an intensive camera-trapping survey and prey assessment in multiple reserves, in order to better understand the population dynamics of the enigmatic Persian leopards and patterns of predator-prey relationships. The project is expected to continue until 2017.

One of the collars recovered near the leopard kill, a Persian ibex!

Kave:

Another kill belonging to one the young male leopards fitted with GPS satellite collars during this study. Wild sheep appears as one the Persian leopard’s preferred prey on this landscape.

Map showing movement patterns of one of the male leopards which is monitoring during this project. This old male has trespassed the border between Iran and Turkmenistan for several times during the past two months.

A camera-trap photograph of an unidentified male leopard within the territory of the collared male leopards.

On October 5th, 2015, one of the four male Persian leopards GPS-collared within the Persian Leopard Project in north-eastern Iran crossed Iran-Turkmenistan border. “Borzou”, an old male of over 10-years-old, has been continuously monitored since 22st of February 2015, when he was captured in Tandoureh National Park, Razavi Khorasan province. Bordou has been roaming outside the national park since September 26th, and has walked around 20 km through several villages and human development areas to reach the border with Turkmenistan.

The yellow circle in left shows the first GPS location of Borzou in Turkmenistan that the research team received after he crossed the border (white line).

The research team led by Iranian Cheetah Society’s senior research Mohammad Farhadinia, has been closely working with local wildlife authority and decision makers during this period to minimize the risk of human-leopard interactions. There has been no claim of livestock loss or attack to human due to leopards by local people during this period. Interestingly, Borzou remained unspotted within this human-dominated landscape before crossing the border into the Turkmenistan’s Kopet Dag Mountains.

Borzou photographed in Tandoureh National Park, northeastern Iran, before starting his journey to the nearby Turkmenistan

The Borzou’s successful dispersal to Turkmenistan is the first verifiable record of leopard movements between Iran and Turkmenistan, stressing the need for transboundary cooperation and conservation initiatives between these two countries. The research team now tries to contact Turkmen authorities to ensure Borzou’s safe journey inside this country.

GPS locations and track lines show Borzou movement pattern around two mounths ago when he left the national park

This is not the first time that Borzou leaves its territory in TandourehNational Park. Around two months ago he left the reserve and spent 23 days in the surrounding villages, where he killed several domestic dogs and one wild ewe.

Remains of domestic dog killed by Borzou on the outskirts of a village in periphery of Tandoureh National Park, northeastern Iran

The Ecology and Conservation of the Persian Leopard in Northeastern Iran Project is Mohammad’s PhD with University of Oxford’s WildCRU, and is running in collaboration with the Iranian Cheetah Society, Iran Department of the Environment, Razavi Khorasan Provincial Office of Iran Department of the Environment, and Panthera.

The yellow landmark shows location of the domestic dog killed by Borzou near a fruit orchard next to a local road to the village