IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Lukarevsky, V.; Akkiev, M.; Askerov, E.; Aghili, A.; Can, E.; Gurielidze, Z.; Kudaktin, A.N.; Malkhasyan, A.; Yarovenko, Y.A. | |
| Status of the leopard in the Caucasus | |
| 2007 Cat News (Special Issue 2): 15-21 | |
There has been a huge decline in the former range of the leopard in the Caucasus, which is estimated to have once covered the whole region, except for steppe areas. More recent surveys, including those conducted by WWF since 2001 and others, based on searches for field signs, camera trapping and questionnaires have clarified the situation to some degree. These surveys have confirmed some surviving nuclei and identified possible sites and promising areas for further survey. The largest populations in the ecoregion survive in Iran, which seems to be a stronghold for the leopard in the region. The current presence of leopards in NE Turkey is not confirmed. Leopards have disappeared from the western part of the Greater Caucasus and are known from very few localities in the east. A few occurrences are known in the Lesser Caucasus, including Khosrov reserve and the mountain ridges along the border between south Armenia and Azerbaijan. Existing sites are fragmented and estimated numbers are very low, even down to a single animal in one case. Tentative estimates indicate not more than 15 leopards in the Greater Caucasus and up to 50 in the Lesser Caucasus and Iran. The viability of these small remnants, and the extent to which they are dependent on immigration from Iran is not known. |
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