Arabian leopard

Subspecies of mammals

The Arabian leopard (Panthera pardus nimr) is the smallest leopard subspecies. It was described in 1830 and is native to the Arabian Peninsula, where it was widely distributed in rugged hilly and montane terrain until the late 1970s. Today, the population is severely fragmented and thought to decline continuously. Previously in 2008, an estimated 45–200 individuals in three isolated subpopulations were restricted to western Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen. However, as of 2023, it is estimated that 100–120 in total remains, with 70 84 mature individuals, in Oman and Yemen, and it is possibly extinct in Saudi Arabia. The current population trend is suspected to be decreasing. Panthera pardus jarvisi, proposed by Reginald Innes Pocock in 1932, was based on a leopard skin from the Sinai Peninsula. In the early 1990s, a phylogeographic analysis was carried out based on tissue samples from Asian and African leopards. P. p. jarvisi was provisionally grouped with Panthera pardus tulliana, as tissue samples were not available. Genetic analysis of a single wild leopard from South Arabia appeared most closely related to the African leopard, and Molecular biologists tentatively proposed in 2001 to group the Sinai leopard with the Arabian leopard, as again tissue samples were not available.

The Arabian leopard's fur varies from pale yellow to deep golden, tawny or grey and is patterned with rosettes. Males have a total length of including long tails and weigh about ; females are long including long tails and weigh around It is however the largest cat in the Arabian Peninsula.

The geographic range of the Arabian leopard is poorly understood but generally considered to be limited to the Arabian Peninsula, including Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. It lives in mountainous uplands and hilly steppes, but seldom moves to open plains, desert or coastal lowlands. One individual was killed in the Elba Protected Area in 2014. Until the late 1960s, the Arabian leopard was widely distributed in the mountains along both the coasts of the Red Sea and Arabian Sea. In the United Arab Emirates, the Arabian leopard was first sighted in 1949 by Wilfred Thesiger in Jebel Hafeet. The exact status of the leopard in the country is unclear. It is either extinct or very rare in the eastern region, with occasional sightings being reported in places like Wadi Wurayah. Before the end of the 20th century, sightings were reported in the areas of Jebel Hafeet and Al Hajar Mountains. In Oman, leopards were reported to have occurred in the Hajar Mountains until the late 1970s. Leopards were also sighted in the Musandam Peninsula,

In Yemen, leopards formerly ranged in all mountainous areas of the country, including the western and southern highlands eastwards to the border with Oman. Since the early 1990s, leopards are considered rare and close to extinction due to direct persecution by local people and depletion of wild prey. There was a small population in Israel's Negev desert, estimated at 20 individuals in the late 1970s. Leopards were hunted until the early 1960s. By 2002, fewer than 11 isolated individuals were estimated to survive. Six males, three females and two unsexed individuals were identified in the country, based on genetic analysis of 268 scats collected. About five individuals were thought to survive in the Judaean Desert as of 2005. The last wild leopard in the Negev desert was sighted near Sde Boker in 2007, which was in a poor and weak shape; and the last leopard in the northern Arabah Valley was sighted in 2010–11. In Jordan, the last confirmed sighting of a leopard dates to 1987.

Arabian leopards are predominantly nocturnal, but are sometimes also seen in daylight. Scat analyses revealed that the main prey species comprise Arabian gazelle, Nubian ibex, Cape hare, rock hyrax, porcupine, Ethiopian hedgehog, small rodents, birds, and insects. Since local people reduced ungulates to small populations, leopards are forced to alter their diet to smaller prey and livestock such as goats, sheep, donkeys and young camels. Captive born Arabian leopard cubs emerged from their den for the first time at the age of one month. Cubs are weaned at the age of about three months, and remain with their mother for up to two years. The Arabian leopard is threatened by habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation; prey depletion caused by unregulated hunting; trapping for the illegal wildlife trade and retaliatory killing in defense of livestock. Among the products sold in the tent city of Mina, Saudi Arabia after the Hajj of 2010, skins of Arabian leopards that were poached in Yemen were offered. The leopard population in Saudi Arabia is affected by the decrease of natural prey species so that leopards increasingly prey on livestock. Local people therefore consider leopards a threat and kill them either by using poison or snares. The leopard population is close to extinction in the country. The Israeli West Bank Barrier, built by the Israeli government in the mid 2000s disrupts the migration of all terrestrial land animals between Israel and Palestine, therefore reducing animals' natural habitats and causing gene pools to be significantly shallower, which results in inbreeding and infertility. In the 1950s, the Arabian leopard population was already decreasing drastically due to habitat degradation and fragmentation, and killing of leopards and prey species.

The Jabal Samhan Nature Reserve was established in 1997 after camera trap records of leopards were obtained; in the following decade, 17 individual adult leopards and one cub were identified. At least ten wild leopards were live captured in Yemen since the early 1990s and sold to zoos; some have been placed in conservation breeding centers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Revenue from sources such as hunting rights and ecotourism, services such as roads and school employment in protected areas would encourage local residents to participate in leopard conservation. Furthermore, well managed protected areas will ensure the continued survival of the species until other factors enhancing its survival become effective. Public awareness, fruitful consideration of the needs of local people and ecological studies may take years to be useful. In Yemen, efforts are underway to conserve leopards at two sites, including Hawf Protected Area. In Saudi Arabia, authorities have undertaken efforts to create Sharaan Nature Reserve, a wildlife sanctuary for the leopard in the area of Al `Ula.

The first Arabian leopards were captured in southern Oman and registered in the studbook in 1985. Captive breeding was initiated in 1995 at the Oman Mammal Breeding Centre and is operated at a regional level on the Arabian Peninsula. Since 1999, the regional studbook is coordinated and managed by personnel of the Breeding Centre for Endangered Arabian Wildlife, Sharjah. as of 2010, nine institutions participated in the breeding programme and kept 42 males, 32 females, and three unsexed leopards, of which 19 were wild caught. This captive population comprised 14 founders that have an unequal number of descendants. In 2016, the leopards and other fauna were transferred from the breeding centre in Sharjah to Al Hefaiyah Conservation Centre in the eastern area of Kalba. In Yemen, leopards were kept at Ta'izz and Sana'a Zoos. Two cubs were born on 26 April 2019 at the Prince Saud Al Faisal Wildlife Research Center in Ta'if.

In February 2022, Saudi Council of Ministers declared February 10 as the "Arabian Leopard Day" in an effort to protect the species and raise awareness of their conservation status. In June 2023, The United Nations voted to adopt a resolution to officially designate February 10 as an international day for Arabian Leopards. On the second Arabian Leopard Day, which took place in February 2023, The Royal Commission of Al Ula created a $25 million fund to promote conservation efforts and signed a 10 year deal with Panthera worth $20 million.