There have been few sightings of the endangered Persian leopard in the Caucasus region over the past 20 years: just three in Georgia and 10 in Armenia. But scientists and conservationists are alert to one Persian leopard in particular, whom they’ve named Aren and who is presumed to have journeyed 240 kilometers (150 miles) through cold, mountainous terrain with only three legs. This region of the world — made up of southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan — still contains decades-old minefields from prior conflicts, and it’s believed this is how Aren was injured.
Joining the Newscast this week to discuss her story for Mongabay is journalist Kayleigh Long, who explains how this leopard subspecies, Panthera pardus tulliana, persists in the region. She also describes how NGOs like NACRES, operating on extremely thin budgets, continue to monitor the big cats and provide what protection they can.
“WWF is also monitoring the leopards. They put some cameras out in the same area as NACRES. So it’s really difficult,” she says. “I mean, these guys … are doing things on an absolute skeleton crew. And that’s partly because of a lack of funding more generally. There’s been a kind of tightening of purse strings around the world.”
NACRES, founded in Georgia in 1991 as the Noah’s Ark Centre for the Recovery of Endangered Species and later renamed the Centre for Biodiversity Conservation & Research, has a staff of just three people, led by a zoologist named Bejan Lortkipanidze, who accompanied Long in the field.
“He’s extremely dedicated,” Long says.
“I said to him, ‘What would you do if you had unlimited resources?’ And he said he’d have a monitoring center set up, and he would like to prioritize … education and outreach. So going to villages and in remote areas like Tusheti region, and saying to people, ‘Here’s what you do if you see a leopard.’ And … mitigation measures for human-wildlife conflict to try and ensure that there aren’t these retaliatory or otherwise killings of leopards and other species.”
Along national borders in the Caucasus, landmines pose risks to humans and wild animals alike, as do fences. Thousands of kilometers of barbed-wire from the Soviet era still stand across parts of the Caucasus, and they can trap leopards, bears, and deer.
Despite the region’s challenges, the mere persistence of leopards and the dedication of NGOs operating amid increasingly difficult conditions after USAID’s shuttering offer a sense of hope, Long says.
“I think the stories that I’m trying to seek out are ones that reflect the possibility of a better, a kinder, and more just world. And I think when you look at things like borders, they can reflect the very worst of our instincts, or if people are able to cooperate and recognize that we are a part of nature and that this is our environment, we all have to get along with nature and with each other,” she says.
“Perhaps it’s naive of me,” she adds, “but … in times like this, I sort of think hope is a moral imperative.”
This article by Mike DiGirolamo was first published by Mongabay on 27 October 2026. Lead Image: A Persian leopard. Image via Peoples Trust for Endangered Species.
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