Yemen in 2010: from ghost to top cat

I recently received a scan of an article from a former colleague about a “Leopard trail run” published in the Omani Times. The Ministry of Tourism is organising a 50 km run/hike/walk in Jebel Samhan to raise awareness for the Arabian leopard. Having visited Jebel Samhan and worked on the Yemeni side of the range for Arabian leopard conservation, it made me wonder what the situation is like today amidst the war and suffering. It is encouraging to see that the peaceful Omani side is still keeping up the work with the Arabian leopards.

After three months of trapping, I finally managed to get a single image of the elusive Arabian leopard

I was a bit of a late bloomer when it came to academics and after spending time in the Indian jungle testing camera-traps and working as a guide, I decided to get serious. I finished my BSc (with Honours) in 2010 and although my professors were actively (almost aggressively) encouraging me to pursue a PhD, I needed time to weigh my options. Follow the obvious path which would ultimately lead me turning into a publication-producing machine, chasing grants and obsessively counting the number of citations my papers make. Or pursue an option where I could spend all my time in the field and make a visible, positive difference to one or more species and or protected area. I wanted to make this decision in the field- my first option was anywhere with a big cat conservation organisation but although my “experience quiver” was filled with interesting work it not enough to be recognised by the biggies. My second option was volunteering with Amur leopard research and conservation in the Russian Far-East and after three rejections based on my gender, lack of Russian language skills and the hardships of the landscape, I resignedly let go of that dream. And so, I went back to my parents’ house in one of the biggest and most polluted cities of India, biding my time and reflecting on my options. Simultaneously, my father received a request for camera traps from a gentleman in Sana’a, Yemen with the aim of determining if there were any Arabian leopards left in the country. If yes, he had a genial plan to save these little-known cats in a little-known country. Once the camera-traps were ordered and sent, a second request came. Did my father know anyone who could actually use these camera-traps? And so, against all odds, I made my way to this land, far away not only in distance but also in culture and anything I had ever known before. Although I had visited the country in 2008 with my mother, going to Yemen with the purpose of working was a very different prospect than that of being a tourist passing through.

The night before I flew to Sana’a, I called my brother Seb at 2am from Dubai where I was waiting for my visa and told him I was getting cold feet. In his typical humorous pragmatism, he turned me round, reassuring me that all would be fine. Thus, began my three-month adventure in the red mountains of southern Yemen, in search of a ghost. I still remember arriving at the rather unsophisticated Sana’a airport, being greeted by the most unlikely gentleman-David Stanton. A high school teacher turned crusader for the Arabian leopard cause, what he lacked in means he made up with bountiful enthusiasm. It was a veritable mission getting top quality equipment and a team together for this project, but he succeeded and did it all with a smile followed by an apologetic laugh. A student of his, barely out of high school would accompany me as a translator and the three of us along with all the boxes flew to Al Ghadya (pronounced Al Qaeda…bit weird for me at first!). Our first stop was a visit with the governor of the region. We were ushered into a large carpeted room lined with cushion seats, most filled with qat-chewing gentlemen. At the end of the room sat the Governor of the Province. Although most of the conversation was in Arabic, he appeared to be vaguely interested in the project, giving it his blessing and his protection. Our next step was a long car ride along the spectacular winding coastline to Hawf, our destination.  An empty house belonging to a family now living in Oman was to be our base of operations for the next three months.

The Hawf Protected Area is about 300 km², but after having visited it, there’s not much that shows that it is really protected. Local people have gardens and fields within the designated zone, and camels and goats roam freely competing for the scarce resources available with wildlife. There are no natural springs or waterholes; domestic animals used the same man-made water troughs as wildlife, making the threat of sharing diseases very real. My first weeks were a blur of line transects, setting up camera traps in places that showed signs of leopard movement, interviewing locals, and scouting every wadi for signs of leopards. The landscape was absolutely spectacular ranging from dusty mountain desert to lush cloud forest. Mountain ridges by the sea rose to above 1200 m a.s.l. making the transects difficult and dangerous in some places. I only had 12 camera traps to work with, this meant that I needed to be very sure about my placements and not waste time or location. Hundreds of small wadis leading to bigger valleys or shooting 100 m straight up into the clouds, make up the Hawf Protected Area. Based on discussions with the local chief, our small team of three (my translator Fadhl, driver Saad and I) explored as many wadis as we could, placing camera traps in locations which showed promising signs of leopard activity.

A typical day began with breakfast early in the morning with the obligate La Vache Qui Rit cheese and flatbread. The heavy curtains in the house, typical of the region to preserve the privacy of women while in their homes, made the rooms stuffy and hot. Outside, even though it was only 7am, the temperature would already be above 30 degrees. Our driver arrived with his Hilux pick-up just after breakfast and the three of us would look at the map and discuss our plans for the day. This would inevitably end up with me pointing out a location on the map and the driver promptly going elsewhere! A daily ritual which happened every day for the duration of the project- something to do with the macho culture of the region. We would park the car at the mouth of a wadi and out came the GPS, camera, scale and other equipment. Eyes peeled, we would check every part of the wadi, including the caves and side valleys for any sign. In some places, we would come across goat herders or farmers and would chat with them asking about Arabian leopards and other wildlife in the area. These informal chats were important to understand the local perception about wildlife and leopards. On most days, we would head back to the village for lunch, an important requirement for Saad and Fadhl. On others, I was able to convince them to survive on fruits and snacks while we used the whole day to check out a wadi. Then came the long wait- hoping when we checked the cameras hoping that we trapped our elusive ghost.

My time in Hawf was not all work; it was punctuated with cultural highlights. Invitations to dinner with the local chief, weddings and of course the beach! Being a foreigner, I was designated a “third gender”. This meant that I could travel freely between the women’s side of an event to the men’s side without breaking any rules or traditions. With this privilege, I had a unique opportunity to see two very different worlds, one seen by the women and the other seen by the men. I couldn’t photograph any of the women but I was allowed to photograph girls who had not yet reached puberty, with some rather hysterical results in part thanks to a digital camera where pictures could be seen on the spot.

Towards the end of my trapping exercise, David sent two biology students from Taiz to learn all about the project so they could continue the fieldwork after I left. Although the two original students no longer have an active role in the project, a number of other volunteers and employees continue to set up camera traps in parts of Yemen which are safe to work in. Wildlife images from the region of Ibb can be enjoyed on the FEW Facebook page (Foundation for Endangered Yemeni Wildlife: https://www.facebook.com/yemenileopard/)

Although I gained significant experience designing camera trapping design and fieldwork in remote places, I also learnt a lot about myself and about the politics of conservation. If I had been a successful felid conservationist, I would never have found myself in a place like this. It is always the younger, less experienced wildlife biologists who find themselves on the edge, working with marginal species. Similarly, exposure for such species is almost non-existent. I remember shooting emails back and forth with a Features editor of the BBC Wildlife Magazine who refused to publish another article about Arabian leopards as they had already made a feature about the species two years ago. That being said, they had no problem publishing pictures and articles of lions and tigers regularly simply because of the charismatic nature of these big cats. So how does one make a ghost like the Arabian leopard charismatic? Seven years after my work in Yemen, I still don’t have an answer. Perhaps it begins with recognition of the species- its position as a top predator and an endangered species, from within the country. Yemeni officials have refused to include wild caught Arabian leopards in the regional Arabian leopard breeding programme. For many years now, regional breeding centres have worked hard to keep this breeding programme alive not only to maintain the genetic diversity in the species but to give a chance to the species to persist into the future. Captive breeding programmes serve as a safety net and are especially vital for species like the Arabian leopard whose numbers in the wild are around 200 individuals. which is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. A lack of cooperation and trust between conservation groups, general ignorance within the Yemeni population regarding nature and wildlife, and the little importance given to Arabian leopards on the global scale will certainly spell out a local extinction. 

While I was in Yemen, searching for this elusive cat, a film crew from England came to do a documentary about the species and the efforts for its recovery. We had a great time first in hawf and them across the border in Oman, meeting our counterparts also working hard to protect the few animals they have in the mountains not far from Salalah.

The Arab Spring began in Sana’a in early 2011 as the Yemeni Revolution and morphed into a civil war which endures even today. Taiz came under fire in 2015 with opposing forces trying to take control of the city. During this time, 28 Arabian leopards housed at the Taiz Zoo were in danger of starving as a result of the conflict. By early February 2016, six of the leopards had starved to death. In 2016, there were several discussions regarding the evacuation of the few Arabian leopards left in Taiz zoo. They were in a catastrophic state but were vital to the continuation of the species. Unfortunately, as Taiz took centre-stage in the civil war, the danger was high.  The NGO Four Paws had previously successfully rescued zoo tigers and lions from war-torn areas like Mosul and Aleppo and relocated them to safer places. There were talks for similar operations in Taiz to evacuate the leopards and bring them to a breeding centre like the one in Sharjah, thus integrating them into the International Studbook. The reluctance from the Yemeni side to see leopards taken to another country and the danger of carrying out such an operation made the evacuation impossible. In March 2016, 14 males and 12 females were still alive but the situation today is not known. The biologist who was liaising with the zoo is now a refugee in India. Today, the militia have recognised the importance of the leopards and are looking to use them for financial gain through trafficking.

With an unconfirmed estimated population of 250 wild individuals, the future of the Arabian leopard seems rather bleak. Successful conservation efforts and awareness building in Oman are a silver lining to this story but it may be too late for this fascinating sub-species that has adapted to living in one of the harshest environments.

Update: In 2019, Panthera and the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) initiated a historic partnership to recover the Critically Endangered Arabian leopard. The RCU has committed $20 million to leopard conservation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its historical range. We are looking forward to seeing the developments in the recovery of this rare and fascinating species!