Arabian Leopard - Distribution and Habitat

Distribution and Habitat

The geographic range is poorly understood but generally considered as limited to the Arabian Peninsula, including Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Until the late 1960s, the Arabian leopard was widely distributed in the Arabian Peninsula. It once existed in Haqel in the northern part of the Median Mountains, and in Hijaz and the Sarawat Mountains. It also existed in the northern Yemen highlands, in the mountains of Ras al-Khaimah, in the eastern region of the United Arab Emirates, and in the Jabal Samhan and Dhofar mountains in Oman. There was a very small population in Israel's Negev desert, estimated at 20 in the late 1970s.

In Saudi Arabia, the leopard's habitat used to extend for about 1,700 km (1,100 mi) along the rugged arid to semi-arid mountains along the coast of the Red Sea. During 1998 to 2003, more than 65 records were obtained from informants, but subsequent camera trapping failed to confirm leopard presence.

The Arabian leopards have been reported in Wadi Khatayn, south of Baljurashi in the Al Baha Province of Saudi Arabia, in 2002, and the species was confirmed by killings, several reports of sightings from different witnesses, livestock killed and the presences of tracks and signs. However, camera traps deployed there during 2002 and 2003 failed to obtain pictures of leopards.

A few individuals survive in the Judean Desert and Negev Highlands while in the Arabian Peninsula leopards are known from just one location in Yemen and one in Oman. The largest confirmed subpopulation inhabits the Dhofar Mountains of southern Oman. Camera trapping has identified 17 individual adult leopards since 1997 in the Jabal Samhan Nature Reserve. Camera trapping has confirmed the presence of 9–11 leopards in the mountains that run west of the reserve to the Yemen border.

Leopards occupy remote and rugged high-mountain areas that provide security and vantage points. In the arid terrain of their habitat, Arabian leopards require large territories in order to find enough food and water to survive. The male's territory usually overlaps those of one or more females, and is fiercely defended against other intruding males, although spatial overlap between male ranges is common.