Arabian leopard photographed by a camera trap in the Hawf Protected Area, Yemen. © FEW Yemen
If I told that you there are leopards on the Arabian Peninsula, would you believe it? There is indeed a subspecies of leopards called the Arabian leopard Panthera pardus nimr whose original distribution range stretched across the Peninsula.
The Arabian leopard roamed across the entire Arabian Peninsula in the UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon. Today, the leopards are extinct in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt and there have been few recent records from Saudi Arabia and none from the UAE. An assessment of the subspecies in 2006, lead experts to estimate the remaining Arabian leopard population to be around 50-200 individuals in the wild, occupying only 10% of their original range. The Arabian leopard is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List of Endangered species and the biggest subpopulation can be found in the Omani Dhofar mountains. Smaller subpopulations are thought to persist in some parts of Yemen. They live in some of the most arid regions which surprisingly lie next to cliffs that are seasonally covered in lush vegetation thanks to the southeast monsoon winds.
The Arabian leopard is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List of Endangered species and the biggest subpopulation can be found in the Omani Dhofar mountains.
A wadi near the Hawf Protected area that was scoped for signs of leopards with the aim of setting up camera traps
A hill not far from the wadi that was also scoped for signs of leopards with the aim of setting up camera traps
In 2010, after finishing my B.Sc in Biodiversity Conservation and Management, I traveled to Yemen at the request of the then director of a local NGO- Foundation for the Protection of the Arabian Leopard in Yemen (today known as FEW- Foundation for Endangered Wildlife in Yemen). As part of the project, I set up camera traps in the South-Eastern part of the country with the aim of detecting the presence of leopards. Although I never actually saw leopards and the signs I found were rather dubious, I did get a chance to learn about the people, their culture and the landscape they share with this charismatic species. I also learned about the place the Arabian leopard held in Yemeni society. After about four months, we finally got our first picture of an Arabian leopard in Yemen.
Today, the Arabian leopard population is in a critical state. This has now been compounded by the civil war in Yemen (See box).
What’s happening in Yemen?
Background: In 1990, North and South Yemen joined to form a single country- the Republic of Yemen. This was followed by a civil war in the summer of 1994 which resulted in the defeat of the Southern armed forces and the consolidation of power with the North. Tensions have been brewing ever since.
In 2015, a proposal under the transitional peace process to split the country into six federal regions was rejected by the Houthis and led to the dissolution of the government and the capture of the capital by the Houthi militias who were empowered militarily by a new alliance forged with the former president Ali Abdulla Saleh. The same year, Saudi Arabia led a coalition of forces that began carrying out airstrikes on Yemen to reinstate the government and neutralize the Houthi militia and military units that remained loyal to Saleh.
Forces at war: The main fighters in the current war are the Houthis, military units that remained loyal to the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, government forces that are loyal to the current President of Yemen Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and Allied forces led by the Saudis.
Conflict resolution: several rounds of peace talks have taken place but with no major breakthrough in sight.
It is now 2019 and the situation seems as precarious as it was when I first published the article in 2016. On June 15th, Saudi coalition bombed Houthi positions in Sana’a as tensions escalate on both sides. There seems to be no end to the war in Yemen.
We can only speculate as to the state of the wild leopard population in Yemen, but there are hopefully still some leopards in the Taiz Zoo. When talking about a wild population with less than 200 individuals, captive-bred animals become a beacon of hope. Taiz Zoo is unfortunately in the heart of the Houthi stronghold. The animals in the zoo- lions, leopards, hyenas, herbivores, birds are starving to death. Although I rarely make any noise about animal welfare issues as each situation is complex and different, with a population in such a critical state, I find it impossible to stay silent.
Animals in zoos in the midst of war have sometimes been rescued and evacuated with the help of foreign NGOs, animal welfare associations and in some cases the US Army. The zoos in Baghdad, Tripoli and more recently Gaza have received aid in the form of medicine, supplies, food and in cases where the situation was deemed too bad, the animals were evacuated. The situation in Yemen is different. It is near impossible to enter the country and evacuating the animals would require collaboration between local and international individuals and NGOs., which is currently not a viable solution.
The last stronghold of the leopards remains in the Dhofar Mountains of Oman where a research project has been ongoing for decades. Protecting this small population is vital. If not, this will once again be a case of ecologists recording the decline and loss of a subspecies rather than taking conservation action.
Acknowledgments: Thank you to Yasmine Al Eryani & Catherine Pittet for their advice about the political situation in Yemen.
Photos: Malini Pittet
Author
Malini Pittet began her career as a wildlife biologist, specializing in large felids conservation (leopards, jaguars, ocelots) working in the Amazon, Yemen, India, etc. Although she loved it, she was increasingly frustrated that important information was being buried in scientific papers without concrete action and change on the ground. She was also looking for ways to spread awareness about conservation; the success stories as well as the plights of wildlife worldwide. She decided to change her career and focus on wildlife photojournalism and travel consultation in an attempt to bridge this gap. Photojournalism gives her the opportunity to work with projects that are making a difference for endangered species. Travel consultation has given her the opportunity to bring people to places they would otherwise never choose to travel to.
Blog Design
Roopsha Sengupta is the Editor-in-Chief at ClubSciWri. She did her Ph.D. at the Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna and postdoctoral research at the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, UK, specializing in the field of Epigenetics. During her research, she was involved in many exciting discoveries and had the privilege of working and collaborating with a number of inspiring scientists. As an editor for ClubSciWri, she loves working on a wide range of topics and presenting articles coherently, while nudging authors to give their best.
This blog was originally posted on Malini’s own website.
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