Cameras trap two leopards in Azerbaijan's Zangezur National Park
By Nazrin Gadimova
Some pictures and videos of two leopards were taken using camera traps in Azerbaijan's Zangezur National Park.
Beautiful leopards, famous for their peculiar coloring, were seen in the forests of Azerbaijan.
The shots prove successful work on strengthening measures to protect wildlife in natural areas, as well as a safe environment for leopard to live and increasing of population of such cloven-hoofed animals like mouflon, which serve as leopard food.
The park, with an area of 42,797 hectares, is characterized by rich biological diversity, as it has 58 species of animals (35 of vertebrates and 23 of insects) and 39 species of plants, which are included into the Red Book of Azerbaijan. The National Park comprises such rare and endangered species as Anatolian leopard, the mountain sheep-moufflon, bezoar goat, white-tail sea eagle, golden eagle, and the little bustard.
Leopards truly enrich the wildlife, whether it is evergreen Caucasian forests or African prairies, and their color's pattern has long been a global trend, being used as by fashion designers, as well as in the interior.
The leopard, a member of the Felidae family with a wide range in some parts of Africa and tropical Asia, from Siberia, South and West Asia to across most of sub-Saharan Africa, is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List because it is declining in large parts of its range due to habitat loss and fragmentation, and hunting for trade and pest control.
The species' success in the wild is in part due to its opportunistic hunting behavior, its adaptability to habitats, its ability to run at speeds approaching 58 kilometers per hour its unequaled ability to climb trees even when carrying a heavy carcass, and its notorious ability for stealth.
In recent years, work carried out in the framework of the "Big Five" program, started by Vice President of Heydar Aliyev Foundation, initiator of the project IDEA (International Dialogue for Environmental Protection) Leyla Aliyeva, also gave its results. The program covers protection of five fauna species - bear, wolf, gazelle, eagle, and leopard, which are on the verge of extinction in the Caucasus.