Males dominate country’s Anatolian leopard population

ANTALYA

Camera-trap footage of the endangered Anatolian leopard has revealed that all 10 recorded animals are male, threatening the species' survival, while extensive efforts are underway nationwide to identify females, an official has said.

"Unfortunately, they are all male, except for one ambiguous photograph. This means males are currently present in our country, but it doesn’t rule out the existence of females," Wildlife Ecology and Management lecturer Yasin Ünal noted.

Research on the rare species has been ongoing in the country since 2010, Ünal noted, adding that a project supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK) was launched in collaboration with the national nature conservation body and Isparta University of Applied Sciences (ISUBÜ).

As part of the project, numerous camera traps were installed in the designated detection zones, Ünal added. "In line with this project, we believe there may be a female, a relative and even offspring of the Anatolian leopard."

Ünal further emphasized the possibility that more leopards could be present in several suitable habitats across the region.

"With this in mind, we set out on a mission and began utilizing the camera trap approach to conduct additional scans of this significant and stunning species in its possible habitats in the Mediterranean and Aegean regions.”

According to Ünal, there are already about 400 camera traps deployed in the field to identify more leopards, including females and offspring of the species.

Shown as vulnerable worldwide and critically endangered on the Mediterranean scale in the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN) Red List, the Anatolian leopard is an extremely significant creature in terms of biodiversity and Anatolian historical culture, Ünal emphasized. Their primary objective, in this respect, is to preserve this species and pass it on to future generations.

The endangered Anatolian leopard was captured in a photo in August 2019 for the first time in the country since 1974.