For years, a leopard named Aren after the village where he was often seen roamed the mountain ridges and deep gorges of southern Armenia. The adult male had lost part of his left leg on a land mine along the border with Azerbaijan, forcing him to hobble as he searched for new territory to find a mate.
Last year, Aren traveled nearly 200 miles north into Georgia, where his three-legged odyssey was captured on a trail camera. To conservationists in Armenia, Aren's remarkable cross-border trek is a small sign of progress in protecting the endangered Caucasian leopard.
Armenia, considered a biodiversity hotspot, has protected nearly 13 percent of its territory. In the southern province of Vayots Dzor, the government and environmental groups created a 217-square-mile wildlife corridor for leopards and other threatened species including the Syrian brown bear, the Bezoar goat, and the mouflon. The total population of Caucasian leopards is between 750 to 1,044 animals across 11 countries.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing