Big cats in borderlands 453


movement of people, can create an impediment for the movement of large carnivores (Karlstetter & Mallon, 2014; Linnell et al., 2016; Trouwborst et al., 2017). Expansion of border security barriers is recognized as a threat to wildlife because they can cause mortality, obstruct access to season- ally important resources, and reduce effective population size and viability (Linnell et al., 2016). Range shifts across political borders induced by global climate change are also potential challenges for many species (Hannah, 2010). These challenges can add to the already precarious circum- stances of many large carnivores, which often occur at low densities and are prone to demographic and environmental stochasticity. Although its broad geographical range and charismatic


appeal make the leopard Panthera pardus one of the most potent mammalian ambassador species, it is experiencing a greater range loss than most other large terrestrial carni- vores (Wolf&Ripple, 2017). In Asia, leopard subspecies cur- rently occur in,16%of their historical range, with the only relatively large populations (400–500 individuals) occur- ring in India, Sri Lanka and Iran (Jacobson et al., 2016; Stein et al., 2016). Persistence of many small populations of leopards is dependent on source–sink dynamics across international borders (Khorozyan et al., 2014; Farhadinia et al., 2015; Rostro-García et al., 2016; Feng et al., 2017; Maharramova et al., 2018; Askerov et al., 2019). Various international legal instruments exist that have


a direct or indirect effect on the conservation of large carnivores, including the 1979 Bonn Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (Karlstetter & Mallon, 2014; Trouwborst et al., 2017). The Convention has evolved into an instrument focusing on the conservation of migratory wildlife crossing international borders (Trouwborst et al., 2017). Recent listing of the leop- ard in Appendix II of the Convention is a step towards ini- tiating global or regional agreements for the conservation and management of this species. However, it is not yet clear what regional and global challenges are faced by leop- ard conservation in Asia and what opportunities exist for overcoming them. Here, we highlight the importance of implementing


transnational strategies for the conservation of leopards that range across extensive areas in continental Asia. We focus on the conservation status and challenges of trans- boundary populations of threatened leopard subspecies, and identify initiatives with which conservation practi- tioners can facilitate effective transboundary cooperation for the conservation of leopards, and perhaps also other large mammals. Wereviewed the available literature to collate a dataset of


the population size and distribution of each threatened sub- species in Asia (Jacobson et al., 2016; Stein et al., 2016), and the legal status of the leopard in each country. The spatial metrics, specifically leopard range (extant and possibly


extant) overlapping with borderlands, and length of border lines, were calculated using QGIS 3.2.1 (QGIS Development Team, 2017). We assigned a range patch as transboundary if it overlapped with borderlands, which we defined as a buffer zone of 80 km from the borderline. We chose this size be- cause it is the maximum dispersal distance for leopards in Asia, recorded for the Persian subspecies using satellite telemetry in north-east Iran (Farhadinia et al., 2018). We acknowledge that this buffer is an approximation, but there are no similar data for the other Asian subspecies.


Transboundary ranges


There are six leopard subspecies across continental Asia (Jacobson et al., 2016; Stein et al., 2016). We focus on those subspecies that have transboundary populations and are categorized, or are being petitioned to be categorized, as En- dangered or Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: the Persian P. pardus saxicolor (Endan- gered), Indochinese P. pardus delacouri (Critically Endan- gered), Arabian P. pardus nimr (Critically Endangered), and Amur P. pardus orientalis (Critically Endangered) leopards (Table 1, Plate 1).


Persian leopard


The Persian leopard occurs across the rugged terrain of 13 countries in western Asia and the Caucasus, with a popula- tion of 800–1,000 individuals (Khorozyan, 2008) and.75% of the subspecies’ extant range within Iran (Jacobson et al., 2016). In 10 countries the Persian leopards’ range occurs exclusively in borderlands (Fig. 1, Table 2), with small pop- ulations of generally ,10 individuals (Askerov et al., 2015; Avgan et al., 2016). These appear to be sink populations on the brink of extinction (Askerov et al., 2015; Avgan et al., 2016; Stein et al., 2016; Maharramova et al., 2018), although under intensive conservation efforts they are able to recolonize suitable habitats (Askerov et al., 2019).


Indochinese leopard


The Indochinese leopard is probably extant in only 2–6%of its historical distribution in South-east Asia, and the remain- ing populations are small and isolated (Rostro-García et al., 2019). This subspecies has been extirpated in Singapore, probably extirpated in Laos and Viet Nam, nearly extirpa- ted in Cambodia and has a greatly reduced distribution in China, Thailand, Myanmar and Peninsular Malaysia (Rostro- García et al., 2016). Of the remaining extant and possibly extant distribution, 58% lies within borderlands (Table 1). With the exception of Malaysia, most of the remaining leopard range within each country is in borderlands (Fig. 1, Table 2).


Oryx, 2021, 55(3), 452–460 © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605319000693


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