page_title: Persian leopard
section_title: Georgia
hierarchical_section_title: Persian leopard / Distribution and habitat / Georgia
caption_attribution_description: English: stuffed Caucasus Leopard (Panthera pardus tulliana) in Georgian National Museum
context_page_description: The Persian leopard, also known as the Caucasian leopard is a leopard population in the Caucasus, Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia. The Persian leopard was previously considered a distinct subspecies, Panthera pardus saxicolor or Panthera pardus ciscaucasica, but is now assigned to the subspecies Panthera pardus tulliana, which also includes the Anatolian leopard in Turkey. The Persian leopard is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, as the population is estimated at fewer than 871–1,290 mature individuals and considered declining.
  A phylogenetic analysis suggests that the Persian leopard matrilineally belongs to a monophyletic group that diverged from African and Arabian leopards in the second half of the Pleistocene.
context_section_description: Since 1954, leopards were thought to be extinct in Georgia – killed by hunters.
  There have been several sightings of leopards around the Tbilisi area and in the Shida Kartli province to the northwest of the capital. Leopards live primarily in dense forests, although several have been spotted in the lowland plains in the southeastern region of Kakheti in 2004.
  Leopard signs have also been found at two localities in Tusheti, the headwaters of the Andi Koysu and Assa rivers bordering Dagestan.
  In the winter of 2003, zoologists found footprints of a leopard in Vashlovani National Park in southeastern Georgia. Camera traps recorded one young male individual several times. This individual has not been recorded again between 2009 and 2014.
caption: A Caucasian leopard taxidermy in the Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi
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