Northward expansion of the Critically Endangered Arabian leopard in Dhofar, Oman

Abstract

The Critically Endangered Arabian leopard Panthera pardus nimr was believed to be absent from the Nejd region in Dhofar Governorate, Oman. However, a scat confirmed by DNA analysis in 2011 and camera-trap images from 2014 confirmed the presence of the leopard in this region. During 2014–2021, our camera traps documented at least eight individual leopards, demonstrating the species is resident and breeding in the region. This finding extends the Arabian leopard's known range in Oman by c. 40 km northwards. To improve detection probability, we recommend that camera-trap surveys for the leopard in the Arabian Peninsula are of at least 18 weeks duration. We advocate the designation of central and western areas of the Nejd as a National Nature Reserve, to protect critical habitat for the Arabian leopard and for other species in this region.

Full text

Northward expansion of the Critically Endangered
Arabian leopard in Dhofar, Oman
HADI ALHIKMANI*
,,
and K HALID ALHIKMANI
,,
Abstract The Critically Endangered Arabian leopard
Panthera pardus nimr was believed to be absent from the
Nejd region in Dhofar Governorate, Oman. However, a
scat confirmed by DNA analysis in  and camera-trap
images from  confirmed the presence of the leopard
in this region. During –, our camera traps docu-
mented at least eight individual leopards, demonstrating
the species is resident and breeding in the region. This find-
ing extends the Arabian leopard’s known range in Oman by
c.  km northwards. To improve detection probability, we
recommend that camera-trap surveys for the leopard in the
Arabian Peninsula are of at least  weeks duration. We ad-
vocate the designation of central and western areas of the
Nejd as a National Nature Reserve, to protect critical habitat
for the Arabian leopard and for other species in this region.
Keywords Arabian leopard, Arabian Peninsula, camera
trap, Dhofar mountains, Nejd, Oman, Panthera pardus
nimr
The Arabian leopard Panthera pardus nimr is the largest
extant felid species in the Arabian Peninsula and cur-
rently occupies just % of its historical range (Jacobson
et al., ; Dunford et al., ; Al Hikmani et al., b).
Arabian leopards face multiple threats, including persecu-
tion by people, habitat loss and fragmentation, prey scarcity,
capture for the illegal pet trade, and genetic depletion as a
result of the small population size (Al Jumaily et al., ;
Spalton et al., ; Al Johany, ; Al Hikmani, ;
Islam et al., ). The global wild population is estimated
to comprise – individuals, with the largest known
subpopulation in the Dhofar Governorate of southern
Oman (Al Hikmani et al., a,b).
In Dhofar, the leopard was once widespread throughout
the mountainous areas, including the northward draining
wadis of the Nejd region (Spalton & Al Hikmani, ).
The Nejd, north of the Dhofar mountains (Fig. ), is charac-
terized by a heterogeneous landscape of rolling plateaus, low
cliffs and wadis that extend northward to the Empty Quarter
sand desert. Prominent wadis in this area include Aydam
and Nakhur in the west, Marweet, Gharah, Amat and
Ghadun in the central area, and Andhur and Arah in the
east. The Nejd is arid, receiving , mm of rainfall per
year (Al Kindi et al., ), with sparse vegetation dominated
by thorn trees such as Vachellia spp. Annual temperature is
– °C in the winter (December–March) and – °C in
the summer (April–August). There are only a few villages
along the southern and northern fringes of the Nejd, and the
Jabal Samhan Nature Reserve occupies the easternmost area.
Anecdotal local reports of killing of leopards suggested
that the Arabian leopard may have been extirpated from
the Nejd, with any remaining individuals having been
pushed towards the southern slopes of the Dhofar moun-
tains (Fig. ). Camera-trap surveys in the central Nejd be-
tween  September  and  June , and in the
western Nejd between September and  December 
did not detect leopards, leading to presumption of their ab-
sence (Office for Conservation of the Environment, unpubl.
data; Table ,Fig. a,b). Surveys during – reported
scats and scrape marks in central Nejd but camera-trap de-
ployments did not record leopards (Mazzolli & Hammer,
; Mazzolli, ; McGregor et al., ). However,
DNA analysis of a single scat found in  confirmed it
to be that of a leopard (Mazzolli et al., ,), and
in  camera-trap images confirmed the presence of
leopards in the central Nejd (Mand F;Table ,Fig. a;
Al Hikmani et al., ). These findings prompted further
surveys to determine whether leopards are resident in the
area, or if their presence was a temporary expansion result-
ing from individuals dispersing from known populations in
the south.
During –, we conducted four unstructured
camera-trap surveys in the central Nejd (Table ,Fig. a).
On  February , a female leopard (F) previously re-
corded in January  in Wadi Amat (central Nejd) was
photographed again. This female was also recorded on 
March , March  (with a –month-old cub) and
 July . The same female, now with an adult cub, was
recorded further east in Wadi Ghadun in January 
(Plate ). Another female (F) was documented in the upper
reaches of central Nejd in October .Amaleleopard(M)
was recorded in Wadi Marweet in April , and a different
male (M) in Wadi Ghadun in August . Genetic analysis
of scats collected during – identified three individual
leopards in Wadi Amat (Al Hikmani et al., b).
During January–December , we conducted three
systematic camera-trapping surveys in the Nejd to assess
*Corresponding author, h.alhakmani@rcu.gov.sa
1
Office for Conservation of the Environment, Diwan of Royal Court, Muscat,
Oman
2
Royal Commission for AlUla, AlUla, Saudi Arabia
3
IUCN Species Survival Commission Cat Specialist Group
4
General Directorate of Environment, Environment Authority, Salalah, Oman
Received  May . Revision requested  June .
Accepted  October .
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use,
distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Oryx
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leopard status and distribution: western Nejd ( km

)
north of Jabal Qamar, central Nejd ( km

) north of
Jabal Qara, and eastern Nejd ( km

) north of Jabal
Samhan (Table ;Fig. a–c). Cameras were spaced –km
apart and operated continuously with a s delay between
consecutive photos.
Across , trap-days, we recorded the leopard and 
additional species of wild mammals .kg (Table ).
We obtained four independent records of two individual
leopards, a male (M) and a female (F), in the western
Nejd north of Jabal Qamar, close to the border with
Yemen, on  January,  February,  March and  May
FIG. 1 Dhofar Governorate, Oman,
showing the Nejd region and the
location of Arabian leopard Panthera
pardus nimr records in western and
central Nejd. The leopard’s known range
in  is from Spalton & Al Hikmani
(), and the current range in  is
based on the IUCN Red List (Al
Hikmani et al., a) and this study.
TABLE 1 Camera-trap surveys for the Arabian leopard Panthera pardus nimr in the central, western and eastern Nejd during –,
with survey periods, number of camera traps used, leopard records in chronological order (Fig. ), effort and number of individual leop-
ards identified.
Camera-trap survey
(area) Survey period
Number of
camera
traps
Leopard
records
Effort
(trap-
days)
Number of
individuals
(ID)
1
Source
2004–2007 (Central) 20/09/2004–17/06/2007 8 7,222 0 Office for Conservation
of the Environment
(unpubl. data)
2008–2011 (Central) 03/02/2008–24/06/2008
17/01/2010–12/02/2010
08/02/2011–02/03/2011
5
7
14
712
135
143
0
0
0
Mazzolli & Hammer
(2008), McGregor et al.
(2011), Mazzolli et
al. (2013)
2013 (Western) 05/09/2013–30/12/2013 5 464 0 Office for Conservation
of the Environment
(unpubl. data)
2014 (Central) 31/12/2013–18/06/2014 5 1,2,3 170 2 (M1,F1) Al Hikmani et al.
(2015)
2015–2019 (Central) 11/01/2015–22/09/2015
28/09/2016–04/06/2017
18/09/2017–21/12/2017
17/06/2019–20/10/2019
5
8
7
5
4,5,6,7
8,9
10
11
1,230
1,967
649
618
2 (F1,cub)
3 (F1,cub,M2)
1 (F2)
1 (M3)
Office for Conservation
of the Environment
(unpubl. data)
2021 (Western) 07/01/2021–18/05/2021 20 12,13,14,15,17 2231 2 (M4,F3) This study
2021 (Central) 10/10/2021–08/12/2021 20 16,18 1154 1 (M5) This study
2021 (Eastern) 17/01/2021–25/05/2021 34 2,283 0 This study

M, male; F, female.
2 H. Al Hikmani and K. Al Hikmani
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. We recorded one male leopard (M) from the central
Nejd, on  November , but no leopards from the
eastern Nejd, despite its proximity to a known leopard
population in southern Jabal Samhan, and the absence of
geographical barriers to leopard movement (Spalton et al.,
; Al Hikmani et al., b). Two independent leopard
records from the central ( May ) and western Nejd
( August ) were obtained from opportunistic camera
traps deployed by wildlife rangers. In total, we recorded
 independent camera-trap detections of at least eight
individual leopards and a cub during –, providing
unequivocal evidence that the Arabian leopard is not
only resident but also breeding in the central and western
Nejd.
These records confirm the return of leopards to the
central Nejd, indicate its presence in the western Nejd for
the first time, and extend the species’known range in
Dhofar northward by c.  km, with the northernmost
confirmed record in Dhofar to date. Further northwards,
the habitat becomes open and with sparse cover, limiting
opportunities for further range expansion.
Given the absence of evidence of leopards in the central
Nejd during – despite camera-trap surveys, it is
likely that leopards were absent during this period. The
leopard records from camera traps placed in the same loca-
tion in , combined with evidence from  surveys
(Mazzolli & Hammer, ; Mazzolli, ; McGregor et
al., ), provide further evidence of the apparent return
of leopards to the central Nejd.
We recommend long-term monitoring of leopard popu-
lations in the central and western Nejd, and repeating sur-
veys in the eastern Nejd, north of Jabal Samhan. The eastern
Nejd is the larger of the three areas, and more camera traps
were deployed there than in the central or western Nejd, but
the number of effective trapping days ( days) was lower
than in western Nejd ( days), where we recorded
two leopards. Our survey in the eastern Nejd may also
have been compromised by the activity of frankincense
Boswellia sacra resin harvesters, recorded at  of our 
camera deployment sites, which could have resulted in leo-
pards avoiding this area at the time. The extent of favourable
leopard habitat and the abundance of prey species in the
eastern Nejd makes further surveys a priority in this area.
BasedonourleoparddetectionsinthewesternNejd,we
recommend a minimum camera-trap deployment period of
 weeks, to achieve a % probability of recording the pres-
ence of Arabian leopards in this region (Fig. ). This recom-
mendation has implications for surveying and monitoring
Arabian leopards and other threatened arid-adapted mammal
species across the Arabian Peninsula. In addition, and given
FIG. 2 Detailed locations of camera traps
deployed in the (a) central, (b) western
and (c) eastern Nejd region (Fig. )
during –. Numbers (Table )
indicate records of the Arabian leopard,
in chronological order (,January ;
, January ;,May ;,
February ;, March ;,
March ;, July ;, January
;, April ;, October
;, August ;, January
;, February ;, March
;, May ;, May ;,
 August ;, November ).
Sindicates the leopard scat from 
(Mazzolli et al., ), and S–Sare the
leopard scats from the – genetic
study (Al Hikmani et al., b).
PLATE 1 Female F(record number ;Fig. ), with an adult cub,
recorded in Wadi Ghadun in the Central Nejd on  January .
The Arabian leopard in Oman 3
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the conservation importance of the Arabian leopard, we
recommend designating the central and western Nejd as a
National Nature Reserve, to protect critical habitat. Such
a designation would also benefit other charismatic fauna
(e.g. the Nubian ibex Capra nubiana and Arabian gazelle
Gazella arabica) and flora such as frankincense and myrrh
Commiphora myrrha, bothofwhichareofregionaland
global interest.
Acknowledgements This research was supported by the Office for
Conservation of the Environment in Oman when it was under the
Diwan of Royal Court. We thank both organizations for their support,
and the following former Office for Conservation of the Environment
staff for their assistance with camera-trap surveys: Ali Akaak, Sadi
Zabanoot, Talal Al Shahri, Khalid Mohammed Ali Al Hikmani,
Nasser Zabanoot, Khalid Hardan, Ahmed Hardan, Abu Bakr
Bawazir, Amer Zabanoot, Said Mabrouk Zabanoot, Ahmed Al
Shahri, Ahmed Al Kathiri, Fahad Al Shaashii, Hamed Hawas,
Musallam Al Amri, Mohammed Hubais, Salim Al Amri, Suhail Bait
Said and Omar Al Kathiri. We thank Andrew Spalton and Jim
Labisko for their valuable comments and Alaaeldin Soultan for help
with the cumulative probabilities of detection analysis.
Author contributions Writing: HAH; study design, fieldwork, data
analysis, editing, revision: both authors.
Conflicts of interest None.
Ethical standards This research abided by the Oryx guidelines on
ethical standards.
Data availability Data are available from the authors upon reason-
able request.
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Species Red List category Recorded areas
Arabian leopard Critically
Endangered
West, Central
Caracal Caracal caracal
schmitzi
Least Concern Central
African wildcat Felis lybica
lybica
Least Concern West, Central,
East
Striped hyaena Hyaena
hyaena sultana
Near Threatened West, Central
Arabian wolf Canis lupus
arabs
Least Concern West, Central,
East
Blanford’s fox Vulpes cana Least Concern Central, East
Arabian red fox Vulpes
vulpes arabica
Least Concern West, Central,
East
Honey badger Mellivora
capensis
Least Concern West, Central
Indian crested porcupine
Hystrix indica
Least Concern West, Central,
East
Nubian ibex Capra nubiana Vulnerable West, Central,
East
Arabian gazelle Gazella
arabica
Vulnerable West, Central,
East
Cape hare Lepus capensis Least Concern East
Rock hyrax Procavia
capensis
Least Concern West, Central,
East
FIG. 3 Cumulative probability of camera-trap detection of the
Arabian leopard in the western Nejd.
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