MUSCAT: An Arabian leopard and her young cub were spotted in Jabal Samhan Nature Reserve in Dhofar Governorate recently. The image was captured by the camera traps set for the national survey that aims to improve the ranking of the environmental performance index of the Sultanate of Oman in biodiversity, in addition to building a national database for different species and updating their areas of existence and changes in them.
The Office for Conservation of Environment in the Governorate of Dhofar also spotted other species of the Nubian ibex and the Arabian wolf in the Reserve.
The Environment Authority in the Governorate of Dhofar is implementing a project to survey large mammals along the southern slope of the Jabal Samhan Nature Reserve. The project will continue until the end of the year.
The project provides data on the type and number of predators living in the area, through images collected through camera traps, and field surveys by the research team due to monitoring the increase in predatory attacks on citizens' livestock near the Jabal Samhan Reserve.
The project comes as a continuation of the efforts made by the authority to expand the knowledge on large mammals, especially those listed as threatened with extinction such as the Arabian leopard. The project aims to obtain accurate statistics for the enumeration of all types of medium and large-sized wild animals in order to identify areas of protection of the highest priority, in addition to publishing and documenting the biodiversity in the Sultanate of Oman. It is noteworthy that this project will continue its work until the end of 2024 in various governorates of the Sultanate of Oman by using camera traps, in addition to field surveys of project sites by a team of specialists. — ONA
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