SIS helps to save Arabian leopard.

Posted in: Sports, Health & Lifestyle
Written By: Huda al-Kibsi
Article Date: Nov 20, 2007 - 7:14:24 AM



The 1st annual Sana'a International School Walk to Save the Arabian
leopard took place on Sunday at the SIS campus near Shamlan.

More than 200 students and adults from SIS covered a total of 2450
kilometers on foot. Every walker had sponsors that will pay him or
her for each kilometer walked. At the end of the walk, this money
will be collected to support and help the Arabian leopard reproduce
in Sana'a and Taiz zoos. "Students have not finished collecting the
money they raised, but we expect individuals to have raised as much
as $4,000 for conservation," said David Stanton, a teacher at the
SIS.

Students at SIS have walked in the World Wildlife Fund Walk for
Wildlife every year for the past ten years. The WWF is no longer
sponsoring a walk, so the school is continuing the tradition with
the focus of fundraising efforts being something with local
relevance—the Arabian leopard.

This animal is almost extinct in the wild, with one or two small
populations still perservering in the Wada'a area of Sa'ada and
perhaps the Hawf Protected Area on the border with Oman. "From a
population of thousands of leopards in the past we now have a
population of about ten or less in Yemen," said Stanton. "If people
don't act quickly to save the Arabian leopard it will certainly
become extinct like the dodo, passenger pigeon and many thousands of
other species."

"I will walk as far as I can to collect money and help save the
Arabian leopard's life because it is becoming an extinct and
endangered animal," said Ahmed al-Akwa'a, 8.

The Arabian leopard is the second most endangered large cat in the
world, with fewer than 100 of these magnificent animals in
existence. Nine of these beautiful creatures are held in the Sana'a
and Taiz zoos where they are underfed, overcrowded, and receive
inadequate veterinary care, according to the Arabian Leopard Club of
the Sana'a International School.

They breed, but the offspring invariably die making these nine
animals useless to the continuation of their species. The long-term
goal is to ensure the survival of Arabian leopards in the wild. The
immediate aims are to improve the conditions in which the nine
captive leopards in Yemen are kept, and to initiate a publicity
campaign to gain support for leopards and their desperate situation.

The advantage of the initiative by SIS is that it is entirely
voluntary, so that 100 percent of the money raised will go towards
meeting the goals.

The Arabian leopard (Panthera pardus) is a smaller subspecies of
leopard than that of its cousins in Asia and Africa. This subspecies
is critically endangered and their populations are still declining.
Historically they have been persecuted and killed for pest control,
as well as hunted and it is still going on today.

A spate of killings by hunters in the early 1990's triggered a
conservation effort, spearheaded by the Arabian Leopard Trust, which
aims at preserving the mountain habitat and all its wildlife. On the
Arabian Peninsula the population is only around 100 leopards, and no
subpopulation is greater than 50 individuals.

In Palestine, there is between 15-18 leopards in all the Negev and
the Arava. The Arabian leopard lives in Palestine, Saudi Arabia,
UAE, Yemen, and Oman.

http://www.yobserver.com/sports-health-and-lifestyle/10013297.html