🔖 Category: Wild Armenia without cuts
Real leopards live in Armenia! 🐆
Take a fire extinguisher, because someone is about to catch fire. Yes, you heard it right - this is not clickbait, not a story about animals escaping from a zoo, and not a joke...
🔖 Category: Wild Armenia without cuts
Real leopards live in Armenia! 🐆
Take a fire extinguisher, because someone is about to catch fire. Yes, you heard it right - this is not clickbait, not a story about animals escaping from a zoo, and not a joke about an energy drink with a jaguar.
Leopards have always lived here. This is their historical homeland. But poaching, alas, is common to many: most of the local megafauna - deer, bezoar goats and leopards - were exterminated for decades literally “for fun.” I see no other reasons for such barbarism.
But that's where the bad news ends. Thanks to the efforts of environmentalists and authorities, the population was able to begin to recover. And so far everything is going well.
What we have today:
✅ Numbers: About 10 individuals have now been recorded in Armenia (according to the latest data from camera traps). Each of them is worth its weight in gold.
✅ Where they live: Historically, this is the south - the rocky mountains of Syunik and Vayots Dzor (Khosrov Reserve, Zangezur Reserve). But hold on tight: recently a leopard was spotted even in the north, in Tavush! This is a real triumph - the beast is returning to its northern territories, where it has not been seen for decades.
✅ Who is hunted: The main dish on the leopard menu is a bezoar goat. Previously, the goats were almost killed, and the leopards simply had nothing to eat. Now the goat population has been restored, which means that the “spotted” goats have a chance to survive.
Don't worry, they don't attack people. Although it would be fair if they made an exception for those who like to shoot and added a two-legged sheep to the diet.
A joke, of course, but keep in mind: the fine for a leopard is now 100,000,000 drams (~$250,000) plus a real criminal sentence.
We’ll tell you about mountain goats separately, because there are secret places where you can see them with your own eyes.
P.S. For those who believe that “predators are evil”: without a leopard, the mountains turn into desert. He is the chief manager of the ecosystem, making sure that the goats do not eat all the greenery. Balance is everything.
📸 Photo: @wwf_armenia
#armtrips24
