April–June 2005 Vol. 22 No. 2 pages 49-92 Endangered Species UPDATE Science, Policy & Emerging Issues School of Natural Resources and Environment THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Contributors Endangered Species Shushanik Asmaryan specializes in GIS studies of anthropogenic im- UPDATE pacts on the environment in Armenia. Science, Policy & Emerging Issues Mbayma Atalia Gbanzi: worked for more than a decade on the north- ern white rhinoceros in Garamba National Park, with the Congolese A forum for information exchange on endangered species issues Conservation Institute. He is current in charge of parks within the ICCN April-June 2005 Vol. 22 No. 2 main administration in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Jennifer Muladore .......................................................... Editor Zasy Ngisako Germain: is a teaching assistant with the University of Michele Tobias ............................................................... Editor Kinshasa. He works for the National Forest Inventory and Management Michela Gentile ........................................... Editorial Assistant Services [SPIAF] for over a decade today. He work has included field Andrew Strassman ...................................... Editorial Assistant inventories as well as remote sensing. Lauren Sullivan ...................................... Advertising Assistant Vanessa Tobias ............................................ Editorial Assistant Omari Ilambu: worked in surveys of western lowland gorillas, chim- Bobbi Low ......................................................Faculty Advisor panzees and elephants in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Emily Silverman .............................................Faculty Advisor Johannes Foufopoulos .....................................Faculty Advisor He recently coordinated Forest Elephant survey, with the Wildlife Con- servation Society, in the in the Salonga National Park for the Monitoring Advisory Board of Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE). Omari works currently for the Richard Block World Wide Funds for Nature, where he is the Park Advisor in the Sa- Santa Barbara longa Landscape, Democratic Republic of Congo. Zoological Gardens Susan Haig, PhD Bila-Isia Inogwabini’s previous work has included surveys of western Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, USGS lowland gorillas, chimpanzees and elephants in the eastern Democratic Oregon State University Republic of Congo, and bonobos in the Salonga National Park. He re- Patrick O’Brien, PhD cently worked in the Regional Forest Elephant Program, Central Africa, ChevronTexaco Energy Research Company with the Wildlife Conservation Society, where he has worked on the Jack Ward Thomas, PhD MIKE (Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants) surveys. Inogwabini Univeristy of Montana has an extensive regional conservation experience across Central Africa, Subscription Information: The Endangered Species UPDATE is and works currently for the World Wide Funds for Nature, where he is published four times per year by the School of Natural Resources the Manager a USAID-funded Project in the Lake Tumba Landscape, and Environment at The University of Michigan. Annual rates Democratic Republic of Congo. are: $78 institution, $33 individual, $25 student/senior, and $20 electronic. Add $5 for postage outside the US, and send check or Igor Khorozyan is a leader of the projects dedicated to research and money order (payable to The University of Michigan) to: conservation of the Persian leopard in Armenia. Endangered Species UPDATE Alexander Malkhasyan is a field biologist and expert in mammals and School of Natural Resources and Environment reptiles of Armenia. The University of Michigan 440 Church Street Andrew C. Miller is Chief of the Aquatic Ecology & Invasive Species Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1041 Branch at the U.S. Army Engineer R&D Center (ERDC), a research fa- (734) 763-3243; fax (734) 936-2195 E-mail: [email protected] cility for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers located in Vicksburg, Mis- http://www.umich.edu/~esupdate sissippi. Since the early 1980s he has conducted field and laboratory studies on the ecology and distribution of mussels, techniques for pro- Cover: Potamilus capax photo provided by Andrew C. tecting and improving aquatic habitats, and impacts of water resource Miller. developments in lotic systems in the central United States. The views expressed in the Endangered Species UPDATE Barry S. Payne is an aquatic ecologist at the ERDC. He has conducted may not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife numerous field and laboratory studies on the physiological ecology of Service or The University of Michigan. native and nonnative freshwater mussels in relation to predicting and The Endangered Species UPDATE was made possible in evaluating effects of water resource projects in medium to large rivers. part by Chevron Corporation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife He is the leader of a research team that focuses on freshwater inver- Service Division of Endangered Species. tebrate studies for the Aquatic Ecology & Invasive Species Branch at ERDC. 50 Endangered Species UPDATE Vol. 22 No. 2 2005 The Persian Leopard Prowls Its Way to Survival Igor Khorozyan1, * Abstract Alexander Malkhasyan2 The Persian leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor) is endangered Shushanik Asmaryan3 throughout its distribution area in the Middle East. In this article, we briefly describe its global range and then emphasize the status, distri- bution, and threats in Armenia. The principal factors jeopardizing the 1Freelance researcher of the Persian leopard, Yerevan, long-term survival of the Persian leopard in Armenia are disturbance, Armenia poaching, and wildfire. Currently, the work is underway to identify and describe the coarse-scale range, fine-scale range, and the Priority 2Ministry of Nature Protection, Leopard Conservation Areas (PLECAs) in the country. Because the Yerevan, Armenia leopard distribution is spatially exclusive of inhabited human se�le- ments, the fine-scale range is defined as the coarse-scale one without 3 Center for Ecological Studies, villages and towns. The statistical information on both ranges is pre- Yerevan, Armenia sented. Its comparative analysis has shown that the fine-scale range contains, with statistical significance, a smaller area of the mountain *Mashtotz Ave. 48/17 Yerevan 375009, Armenia meadows and much shorter lengths of the main asphalted roads than Tel. (374-10) 64-06-58, its coarse-scale counterpart. The PLECAs are areas of permanent [email protected] presence of the predator, which therefore must be granted the highest www.persianleopard.com priority for conservation. The first candidates for the status of PLE- CAs in Armenia are identified. Resumen El leopardo perso (Panthera pardus saxicolor) está en vías de extin- ción en toda de su distribución en el Oriente Medio. En éste artículo, describimos brevemente la distribución mundial y enfatizamos el estado, la distribución, y las amenazas en Armenia. Los factores principales que hacen peligrar a la supervivencia del leopardo perso en Armenia son los disturbios, el cazar, y el incendio fuera de con- trol. Ahora el trabajo está en progreso a identificar y describir la habitación de escala aproximada y la de escala precisa, y las Áreas Principales de la Conservación del Leopardo (PLECAs) en el país. La habitación de escala precisa se defina como la aproximada sin las pueblas y las aldeas, porque la distribución del leopardo no incluye espacialmente los asentamientos humanos. Se presenta la infor- mación estadística en ambas distribuciones. El análisis ha mostrado que la habitación de escala precisa contiene, con un significado es- tadístico, un parte más pequeño de los prados montañeses y unos tra- mos mucho más cortos de las calles principales que la habitación de escala aproximada. Las PLECAs son áreas de presencia permanente del depredador, y por eso se deben darlas la prioridad más alta por la conservación. Se identifican los primeros candidatos por el status de las PLECAs en Armenia. Vol. 22 No. 2 2005 Endangered Species UPDATE 51 Introduction leopard fur trade on the Kabul market The leopard (Panthera pardus) has been and overharvest during and a�er the traditionally recognized a common long-term civil unrest pose the greatest species due to its frequent appearance threat to survival of this predator in the in the popular wildlife TV programs. In country (Mishra and Fitzherbert 2004). practice, however, this wild cat can be In northeastern Iraq contiguous to regarded as common only in savannas western Iran and southeastern Turkey and tropical rain forests of Sub-Saharan and elsewhere in the country, the Africa where it is widely filmed and even leopard was considered rare as early as somewhere allowed for trophy hunting the late 1950s (Ha� 1959), and now this within the official quotas (Anonymous war-torn country is believed to no longer 2003). In the meantime, eight leopard contain this carnivore. The southern subspecies are listed in the 2004 IUCN edge of Turkmenistan holds 78 to 90 Red List of Threatened Species as leopards (Lukarevsky 2001). The most either “endangered” or “critically recent and highly mysterious case of endangered” and seven of them are killing an old male leopard in southern living today in Asia (IUCN 2004). Kazakhstan (Shakula 2004) raises an Without taking active, targeted, and important question about the cat’s status large-scale conservation measures, they in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan from where are in imminent danger of extinction the animal could have come,