Leopard Predation Thread

[AlexE]

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Capturing a problematic leopard in Iran-Turkmenistan Borderland

 Since August 2014, a leopard was known to attack domestic animals near a village, named as Tazeh Ghaleh in northeastern Iran. Located just a few kilometers from Turkmenistan border, the village is surrounded by rolling terrains with juniper trees sparsely distributed on slopes within Kopet Dagh region, one of global high biodiversity hotspots. Between midAugust and mid-December 2014, the leopard killed 15 herd dogs, which is equal to one animal per each 8 days.
During summer, small livestock such as sheep and goat were mainly killed, because most of the local herds spent overnight in the pastures. Since October, most herds concentrated their daily grazing around the village and kept their animals within properly-built corrals inside the village during nighttime. So, the leopard switched its depredation from livestock to dogs. Moreover, the leopard attacked three persons when they tried to approach it on the kill. Thus, the people were frightened and avoided to leave their houses overnight.
In October 2014, they reported the situation to the local authorities, seeking for a solution to stop losing the animals. Thus, Iran Department of Environment’s experts tried to apply a variety of methods to resolve the problem through keeping the leopard away from the village. Besides provision of necessary information, particularly with respect to encountering a leopard in the wild, they tried to make fire around the village, turning gunpowder around high risk places, aerial shooting to frighten the leopard, all seemingly not efficient to stop the leopard from killing dogs. Thus, translocation was considered in December 2014 as the final resolution which was based on the DoE’s initial perception that it is a young “inexperienced” male.
We deployed foot-snares and captured the leopard. Its teeth were yellow with wellworn canines and incisors. Most of lower incisors were missing, revealing that it is an old adult leopard, estimating between 10 and 15 years. Accordingly, it was concluded that instead fitting the leopard with a GPS collar for translocation to a nearby reserve, the leopard needs intensive veterinary care and treatment, if any chance of re-wilding is sought. Therefore, the leopard was translocated to Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Tehran for further maintenance and treatment. 

https://www.wildcru.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Persian-Leopard-Project-Annual-Report-2014.pdf

*This image is copyright of its original author

http://www.conservationleadershipprogramme.org/media/2014/11/000306_Iran_FinalReport_PersianLeopard.pdf Reply