Persian Leopard

One of the largest races of leopards, this long-haired subspecies was said to resemble the unrelated snow leopard when first described in 1929. Later, well-documented descriptions of animals from northern Iran helped develop this studbook. Subsequent animals came into captivity from the same region as well as the Kopet Dagh region of northeast Iran near Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.

Little field work has been done in any of these countries but no more than 2,000 individuals are thought to remain within this otherwise large, sparsely inhabited (human) area. At one time this race was very common in European zoos, with populations exceeding 200 individuals.

Sub-sequently, populations of this subspecies have declined in Europe and in January, 1999 the captive collection outside of range country zoos was 155 (82.73) leopards in 72 locations, nearly all of which are in Europe. In North America the population is less than 10 individuals maintained by eight zoos; due to a lack of space, this subspecies is being managed to extinction.

The founder size worldwide is only 10 and because of the political turmoil within its tri-country range - Iran, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan - additional founders have not been available to zoos from any of these countries. In Europe, the Munster Zoo supports the EEP for this race. IUCN lists this subspecies as Endangered and suggests that the Caucasian leopard, P. p. ciscaucasia , and Persian leopard are synonymous.

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