Young female leopard spotted in Azerbaijan

Over the past 10 years, WWF in partnership with IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group, together with National Governments, NGOs and experts from the region, has undertaken considerable efforts to assess the status of the Caucasian (Persian) Leopard and develop approaches for its conservation. During initial phase of the project implementation important positive results on the ground were achieved. Recently, National Action Plans for Leopard conservation were adopted by local governments of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia based on Regional Strategy developed earlier, elevating leopard protection to the national priority level.

This big cat, being one of the rarest species of the region, has been recently spotted by WWF’s camera traps in the Zangezur National Park in Nakhchyvan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan. Monitoring of this species is part of the National Action Plan for Leopard Conservation, implemented by WWF in cooperation with the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan. WWF monitoring process (especially camera-trapping of the leopard and hundreds of its prey and competitive species) was made possible through the support and active involvement of scientists from the Institute of Bioresources of Nakhchyvan Branch of National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan under the supervision of professor Tariel Talibov.

For many years this beautiful animal has not been seen in the area, making this fact a local sensation. The spotted young female seems to be bound to this region, leaving strong hopes that, with a bit of luck, the population of the Leopard will gradually re-populate Caucasus “governing” the place, as it was many years ago.