Persian Leopard

Are leopards wandering around Europe? If you decide that Armenia is in Europe, the answer is yes. Personally, I don’t really consider Armenia to be in Europe but they did enter the European Song Contest. Does that make them European? John Barnes, a well known Times journalist, seems to have coined the phrase “Euro-leopard” and stretched the boundaries of Europe to their limit! Fine. It is nice to think the leopard isn’t that far away from us in the UK.

A leopard has been photographed by camera trap in Armenia. That is quite an achievement.

This where Armenia is:

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The Euro-leopard, that I am writing about, is better described as the Persian leopard or Caucasian leopard. “Persian leopard” does not sound that European, does it?

The world population size is around 1,000 (870 – 1,300) of which a mere dozen live in Armenia. A dozen wild cats of any species is not viable from a breeding standpoint. However, they can travel to Iran and meet their cousins there to produce some kittens! Corridors of land joining up reserves make small populations viable. This is one failing of the Indian tiger reserves. They are islands and the tiger populations are too small in each reserve.

Iran is really where most Persian leopards live (550–850). Also, there are an estimated 200-300 in Afghanistan and just 5 individuals in Turkey.

The Persian leopard is a subspecies of the common leopard and the largest. They are widespread across the planet but their numbers are declining.

Here is a video of the Persian leopard marking territory by scratching the ground made by the Iranian Cheetah Society (there are cheetahs in Iran too but not many). The heading picture is a screenshot in case the video fails.

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Euro-leopard? — 9 Comments

  1. I’ve only watched it 5x, Michael, but I will view it more. Where does this cat get his water? He looks hungry and thirsty. I have to surmise that if they have a camera up, then they are providing water. ?

    • Good point. These wild cat species get a lot of their water from the prey they kill because animals are 70% water. There will be some water somewhere as well.

  2. And I cannot see clearly the names of all of those ‘Cheetah’ protection orgs at the end of the clip…could you post a comment on this? TIA

  3. I did have a broken rib at the time, but that is no excuse, since I never asked for painkillers. That beautiful Persian leopard is female, no?

  4. Sorry. Beautiful, regardless of anything. Absolutely! [Have you checked them all out, b/c my Iranian friends may have a say in these orgs. I am going to blv that they are all good, until I hear otherwise.

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