Leopard traces found in Nakhchivan

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

Signs of leopard presence have been found in the Arazboyu reserve in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.

Spokesman for the Azerbaijani Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry Irada Ibrahimova said that some pictures of the leopard were taken by cameras installed in territory of the reserve.

There are a small number of the Caucasian leopards in the country and this is the fourth leopard traced in the territory of Nakhchivan, so far.

Earlier, photos of leopards were captured in September 2012, February-March 2013 and January 2014 in Zangezur National Park, as well as in October 2012 and in May 2013 in Hirkan National Park.

Zoologists claim that the process of returning Caucasian leopards to their habitat area in Azerbaijan has been intensified over the past four years.

Just a thousand years ago, this predatory beast lived in vast area throughout the Caucasus, but in the 20th century, the area of their living significantly reduced.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature recently announced that the number of Caucasian leopards is less than 1,000 across the Middle East and Asia, while their number is around 25 in the southwestern part of the Caucasus region, on the border between Azerbaijan and Iran.

Until the early 2000s, very little information about was available about leopards living in the territory of Azerbaijan. But, the studies of the past 15 years gave an opportunity for the national zoologists to discover their traces in Hirkan forest, Nakhchivan and Mingachevir water reservoir.

With the aim of protecting and increasing the number of wild nature, IDEA Public Association identified the Caucasus Big Five project which also envisages protection of Caucasian leopard.

Considering symbol of the Caucasus and the region’s main living beauty, leopards, are also protected, under the “Protection of Leopards” project, which hold various events aimed at public education, including summer camps, scientific seminars and workshops for students.

The future of the Caucasian leopard also took a step forward last year with the establishment of a conservation agreement between Panthera, the world's leading wild cat conservation organization, and IDEA.