Regular readers of Arabian Wildlife magazine have been following
the ongoing saga of the Arabian leopard that was being exhibited
in dismal circumstances in the streets of Sana’a, Yemen.
It was in April 1994 that this leopard was first mentioned in
Yemen Times in an article by Dr. Denis Harvey: “…a leopard in
a cage less than six feet square. It is alive, and you can pay
five rials to look at it. Small boys poke sticks and throw stones
at it and it cannot move far enough even to take exercise. It
is slowly dying of neglect, malnutrition and exploitation…”
When the Arabian Leopard Trust heard about the Yemen leopard,
plans were made immediately to try to acquire this leopard for
the breeding programme. (One of the four objectives of the ALT
is to provide optimal conditions for captive endangered animals
to produce offspring, e.g. bring together lone specimens for the
purpose of breeding).
Unfortunately, the civil war broke out in Yemen and all plans
were on hold for a while. When the dust settled in Sana’a and
it was discovered that, surprisingly, the leopard was still alive
and well, renewed efforts were made to obtain an export license.
This proved to be extremely difficult, mainly because too little
was known about the ALT in Yemeni government circles. Officials
feared that the ALT was a front for animal dealers and repeatedly
refused our requests. A breakthrough came early in 1995, when
Dutch diplomats interceded and organized meetings with the Yemen
consul in Dubai and a visiting deputy minister of the Ministry
of Agriculture. A few weeks later, ALT-coordinator Marijcke Jongbloed
travelled to Sana’a to participate in an environmental workshop,
organized by the Environment Protection Council. During that visit,
EPC’s Dr. Mohammed al Mzashgari and his team of hardworking colleagues
set up meetings with all the concerned officials, which led eventually
to the signing of a breeding loan agreement between Yemen and
the ALT on March 13, 1995.
However, another hurdle remained. The owner of the leopard, a
tribal hunter, first upped his asking price to US $3000, and then
refused to sell at all. In spite of continued efforts by the EPC
team negotiations bogged down completely. Eventually, after a
great deal of effort and support by friends of ALT, this impasse
was solved and the leopard was acquired.
Although everyone who has been involved with this venture feels
that NO money should have been paid at all, in this case purchase
seemed the only option. Hopefully in the near future laws will
be implemented in Yemen that forbid the capture and trade of endangered
wild animals and the demeaning practice of putting wild animals
on show for entertainment will come to an end!
Following its acquisition, the leopard was collected and temporarily
housed – in his travelling box – at the Sheraton Hotel (the General
Manager generously gave up his balcony!). At this point the EPC
team came into action again, and within hours the travelling papers
were in order. All in all, by the time the leopard was air-freighted
to Dubai, the exercise cost ALT, with some help from its sponsors,
almost US $10,000 – a high price to pay for a cat! But given the
rarity of the Arabian leopard and his importance as a source of
wild genes for the breeding program, probably not too much.
The end result is all that matters. The leopard now resides in
what Christian Gross (who undertook the successful mission to
purchase the leopard and who is now caring for it ) calls his
5-star hotel!. He is remarkably tame, having responded immediately
to kinder treatment. The eye infection, that plagued him for years
due to the filthy conditions he was living in, subsided quickly.
He is younger than we thought, having been caught together with
his mother, who was killed at that time. He must have been less
than one year old then, and has probably been in captivity for
about two years. An official name was picked for him from a competition
among young ALT-members: Nimrod Felix – the first name a play
on the local Arabic word for big cat, nimr , and with the appropriate
meaning of ‘hunter’, while the second name is given in honour
of his country of origin (Arabia Felix) and indicating that he
is now a ‘happy’ cat!! But he responds only to Christian’s pet-name
for him – Noldi!
Nimrod Felix has now been joined by a female, kindly loaned from
the Breeding Centre in Oman, where three pairs of cubs have been
born in the last five years. Another unrelated male resides in
a private collection in Dubai, and can hopefully be mated with
offspring in the future.
In the wild, sizeable populations of Arabian leopards remain in
the Asir mountains in North Yemen and Saudi Arabia, in the Hadhramaut
mountains of South Yemen and the Dhofar area around Salalah in
Oman, with very small populations roaming the Musandam and Hajar
mountains of Oman and the UAE, and the Negev and Judean deserts
of Israel.