Barbary Leopards | Phantom of the Atlas
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ค. 2022
- The ‘Barbary Leopard’ once roamed the Atlas Mountains of North Africa. But whatever happened to these leopards?
#leopards #barbaryleopard #africa #wildlife #nature #documentary #wildlifedocumentary #history #naturalhistory #leopard #africanleopard
Atlas Leopard Image by Djamila2014 Licensed Under CC BY-SA 4.0 (commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...)
In 2002 I was trekking in the Djebel Sahro, a remote range between the High Atlas and the Sahara. My companion and I had just crossed a steep ravine and were looking back at the rest of our party who were still descending into it when we saw a large black feline slink across the path just behind them. I initially thought it could only be a leopard but after my trip I did some research and decided it was more likely to be a serval. Melanistic servals are known to exist but are extremely rare., (one reference I've seen says only four have ever been seen in the wild,) whereas melanistic leopards are relatively common. The reference here to there being frequently observed in Morocco has made me think again that it could have been a leopard. Whatever it was, it was a very spectacular sighting etched on my memory ( and I've been lucky enough since to see wild leopards in Southern Africa and Sri Lanka,)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Which parks did you visit in Sri Lanka? Apart from Yala and Wilpattu, now leopards are observed in highland national parks. These leopards are larger than leopards at Yala and Wilpattu… some even say they are the largest in the world, but that hasn’t been verified yet.
@@AegleCreations Just Wilpattu and Yala and only saw Leopards in the former despite Yala having the reputation of having the densest population of leopards in the world! My best sightings of leopards have been on the two trips I've made to the Okavango delta in Botswana,(best place for Lions too.)
@@robertwood4681 I think the densest leopard population would be in Jhalana Leopard reserve of India... There are 30-40 Leopards in a Reserve that's barely 40 sq.km in size and right next to a large metropolitan city like Jaipur
Woww
Hello @robertwood4681,
I can assure you that what you've seen back in 2002 is indeed a black panther and not a melanistic serval. The novelist Patrick Adam has the same testimony of seeing a black panther in the same region back in 2003 ( black panther that jumped over his land rover), plus a couple of other testimonies back in that period in the same region, of a black panther ! There are a couple of Amouddou episodes talking about that (Moroccan wild and exploration show) ! I can also assure you that up to this day there are large felines (maybe even some undiscovered subspecies) roaming Morocco in the vast wilderness, and I'm not even mentioning the rest of North Africa. This undiscovered region needs more scientific expeditions in that regard ! These felines are rarer than Snow leopards or Amur leopards ! Best regards !
Thanks for this, in particular for highlighting the possible distinct features of the Barbary Leopard. I actually went on a university expedition 30 years ago to the Middle Atlas mountains of Morocco to investigate the Barbary Leopard. We didn't see any but we spoke to a couple of villagers that had had encounters, including one that had been attacked and showed us the gashes on the back of his shoulder. I think the most recent sighting had been about 4 years previous to our visit. So I was left believing that a very small population was possibly still clinging on at that time but the prospects were bad.
What was a mystery, however, was how they were described. When we showed images of animals to the villagers, they always seemed confident in pointing at an image of a leopard. However, those who could say more, described the leopard as being yellow, red and green, which was very confusing and I've questioned this to myself ever since. Could a leopard have any colour other than yellow and black, and surely green is a very unusual colour for any mammal ? Even if they were actually describing another unknown species of large cat, I had real trouble picturing any cat in those colours. However, seeing the landscape shown at 3.35, the red earth, green grass and straw colour of dried vegetation, yes, it would make sense for a predator to be camouflaged in those colours. Still, I've not come across anything about this strange topic since!
As regards the possibility of large size, I have just finished reading a huge book by a professional leopard hunter in Zimbabwe who is based in an area of relatively large leopards. He discusses this issue in depth and it seems clear that some regions harbour larger leopards than others, and mature, large male leopards in such regions can reach close to 200 pounds (is that right, kg, not pounds ? You say pounds, so I guess that's right).
I left the expedition feeling that the main threat was the proximity of the villagers to the forests. The villagers need to collect firewood which puts them in danger of the leopard, so there is always pressure on them to kill any leopards that live in the area. And this collection of firewood might also be unsustainable and destroying the forest that both need. So some way would need to be found to conserve the forests, while providing for the local people. Thanks for covering this fascinating topic.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Well, as for leopard sizes, 200 pounds would be the average size of a Jaguar. It’s not impossible for a leopard to reach that weight, I think, in extraordinary circumstances. But I think the official largest leopard weighed 96 kilograms (just over 200 pounds). But that would be a very large leopard indeed!
Also, if interested, you can watch this video for leopard size comparisons - th-cam.com/video/70miCVtZLWQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=Dpg5_5Amf2Btky7p
@@AegleCreations Thanks. If I remember right, the hunter in the book managed to kill several 190 pound leopards one year, which were at the top end of his range. However, he felt sure that a 200 pounder would not be out of the question for his area. He didn't weigh most of his leopards as it was very inconvenient to get all the equipment ready to weigh the body and therefore he felt that the official figures were conservative.
(2021) date unknown
An Algerian researcher in his channel named wild algeria he made a serie named the wild sawra " الساورة البرية" Wich contains 7 episodes in the 7th episode he took a video of an atlas leopard and still doing some research on it.
The leopards are incredibly beautiful, I really hoping we can keep them alive
Rumors here in Morocco that they found few years ago some traces of a leopard in the middle atlas.Hope they establish its real presence and try to rescue tge species. I still have have a photograph of my grand father and some french settlers that hunted one the last leopards probably early 50s after he wondered in a populated village. It was is a huge beautiful animal
Amazing, Great job!!! thanks for posting, from Lima-Perú!!!!
Hi,
Scientifists found leopard's scats in the range of Ahaggar in Algeria (2006)where the saharan cheetah still live.
There is a leaopard subspecies in Türkiye as well: Panthera Pardus Tulliana. Thanks to conservation efforts, it has made a comeback in recent years. Camera traps in eastern and southern parts of the country caught several leopards, called "pars" in Türkiye. The latest sighting shows that they are advancing towards the western coastal regions like Antalya, where they roamed during the Roman times. Indeed, Romans set special traps with live baits like goat in southwestern Anatolia to catch leopards, and they caught them on a regular basis and transferred to Rome for gladiator shows. That's why their population declined steeply during the Antiquity.
@Bobby The Crazy Bichon Frisé it the largest leopard subspecies in the world and the only leopard species to live in Europe
@Bobby The Crazy Bichon Frisé It live in far south Russia, with is part of Europe.
@Bobby The Crazy Bichon Frisé In European Russian that borders Georgia Armenia and azasdbejihn
thx!!!! a very interesting video.. i really hope that all the animals return to the Atlas soon! what a wonderfull world.
Here in Morocco they still looking at him in atlas mountains.. I hope they can find some of them.. French didn't kill just people they killed all animals here..
All colonialists from Europe did that. Fortunately Leopards still roam the Caucasus and parts of Eastern Anatolia there are rumors that in the wet and remote forests north of Izmir leopards, wolves, bears and even tigers roam that forest it's a rainforest like environment barely touched by humanity since medieval times, so it's possible.
😡
@@thomaszaccone3960 tiger..no...lion...i opp ...and alcephalus...and forgett politics...😴😇😨
If tigers would still roam there it would mean the rediscovery of the extinct Caspian tiger. But if Iam good caspian tiger range have never lived in the izmir region.
Sorry but Arabs killed animals as well ! Don’t blame it all on Europeans thank you
That area also used to harbor the Barbary lions...largest lion subspecies noted so far and males had manes that reached underneath their stomaches. There are some lions in certain zoos that are reported to be descended from the Barbary lions.
I heard that Any Barbary lions that are alive in capacity are hybrids lions or inbreds
Roman Empire started the job.
French Empire ended the job.
It would make sense that leopards living north of the Sahara would be a different sub-species than those in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially considering that Barbary Lions are believed to have been more closely related to Asiatic Lions than they are to surviving African Lions. Either way, I'd like to believe that there are at least a few leopards left in some remote part of North Africa, but without solid proof I'm reluctant to get my hopes up. After all, it's not just the direct overhunting of leopards (by colonists and locals) that drove their decline, but also the reduction of their natural prey (which is still a problem in North Africa).
Very good...😮
The decline of the Barbary Leopard's wild prey also increased conflict with humans through increased predation on livestock, dogs and poultry.
@Matthew Zito, actually, the Lion (Panthera leo) originated exclusively from Europe with the closest known relative of the lion being the †European Jaguar (Panthera gombaszoegensis) and the most basal known lion subspecies being the †European Lion (Panthera leo fossilis), then followed by the split between two clades, the Panthera leo persica group and the Panthera leo leo group, the former known as the asiatic lions has two recognized subspecies: the Indian Lion (Panthera leo persica) and the †Ceylonese Lion (Panthera leo sinhaleyus), while the latter known as the african lions has nine recognized subspecies: the †Egyptian Lion (Panthera leo aegyptiaca), the †Barbary Lion (Panthera leo leo), the West African Lion (Panthera leo senegalensis), the Congo Lion (Panthera leo azandica), the East African Lion (Panthera leo nubica), the Ethiopian Lion (Panthera leo roosevelti), the Katanga Lion (Panthera leo bleyenberghi), the Transvaal Lion (Panthera leo krugeri), and the †Cape Lion (Panthera leo melanochaita), lions actually first appeared in Eurasia before ever being present in Africa.
@@indyreno2933 Many of these are no longer considered valid. The IUCN currently recognizes only two lion sub-species, a northern sub-species which include the extinct Barbary Lion, as well as surviving Asian and North African Lions, and a southern sub-species that includes South African and East African populations.
@Matthew Zito, again, the Lion (Panthera leo) originated exclusively from Europe sharing a more recent common ancestor with the extinct European Jaguar (Panthera gombaszoegensis), therefore there are only twelve recognized subspecies of lion, with the most basal being the †European Lion (Panthera leo fossilis), then followed by the split between two clades, the Panthera leo persica group or Asiatic Lions containing the Indian Lion (Panthera leo persica) and the †Ceylonese Lion (Panthera leo sinhaleyus) and the Panthera leo leo group or African Lions containing all the subspecies endemic to Africa being the †Egyptian Lion (Panthera leo aegyptiaca), the †Barbary Lion (Panthera leo leo), the West African Lion (Panthera leo senegalensis), the Congo Lion (Panthera leo azandica), the East African Lion (Panthera leo nubica), the Ethiopian Lion (Panthera leo roosevelti), the Katanga Lion (Panthera leo bleyenberghi), the Transvaal Lion (Panthera leo krugeri), and the †Cape Lion (Panthera leo melanochaita).
You should do the Saharan (aka Barbary) Cheetah as well.
If the Barbary Leopard is a subspecies then transplanting African Leopards in the Atlas Mountains should result in an approximate restoration.
@The Richest Man In Babylon there are wild herbivores in the Atlas. The problem is human settlement closeby
interesting facts. thx for sharing 👍
North african predatory fauna is profoundly intersting
Helpful video !
If the North African Leopards have been still living there, they have to be protected seriously...
Thank you for this research. Very interesting
Actually there is a documentary called Sahara the takes place in the Atlas Mountains and features the Barbary Leopard showing their still alive and well check it out!
The Barbary Leopards are still in the Atlas mountains in small numbers.
Incredibly footage.🏵
A small population has supposedly been found in the atlas mountains of both Morocco and Algeria
Last week In Algeria, someone photographed the Atlas leopard
Great channel 👌🏽💯
Thanks!
The leopard killed in Morocco was in 1955, not in "1995". The hunted leopard in the black and white photograph is not "large" in fact it is quite small. It is the perspective used to photograph it that gives the illusion of a bigger size. The leopard is close to the camera, the hunter stands a few feet behind it and the lens is a wide angle which makes objects near the lens appear larger. This is how hunting trophies give the false impression that they are much large than their actual size and weight. I would think the leopard in that particular photogaph is closer to 100 pounds, if that.
Hope they find a population of Barbary Lions somewhere there
Atlas mountain fauna is interesting its a mix of Europe and Africa. If Iam good from carnivourus mammals if the barybary leopard also disappered with the bear and the lion this species left in that région: the African Wolf, the barybary red fox, the striped hyena, white-backed honey badger, caracal, the european otter, the common polecat, the common genet, the mediterran weasel. From herbivore and omnivore its also interesting that the only native deer to Africa the barybary stag and the only native Sus genus pig the barybary wildboar alsó live in this region. Not mentionning the cuvier's the dorcas, rhim, mhorr and the red gazelle, or the barybary sheep.
I forgot the white-backed honey badger, the caracal, and Maybe the egyptian mongoose.
Honey badger is found in the semitropical souss region and anti atlas
Recently, l announce to you that in the atlas mountains in morocco many people saw the atlantic lion, and the topic caused an uproar among citizens🇲🇦 ⵣ👍
Can you do a video on Ethiopia jungle lions next? They need recognition
I was in Marocco about 15 years ago. I drove with a taxi from Marakesh into the Atlas. It must have been around Kashba (Ski region) where the taxi driver told me, that he had seen a leopard crossing the street in front of his taxi some years back. It was there a little forest and with regards to the trails on the mountain ranges of the wild animals it made sens to me. He was credible.
Long ago all the animals in the Atlas Mountains lived together in harmony. But then, everything changed when the Roman Empire attacked.
The great SAARA...create the diference...The Eden Was Perfect...them came a specie ( Homo sapiens)....😈😢😢😢
These stories are so depressing. Leopards, lions, bears, elephants all gone.
How stupid can people be? What pleasure derives from killing an endangered species?
they don't see them as endangered animal but as threath and trophy that can bring fame and money (they're poor, and crime is already quite comon so, why not trying, nobody is gonna stop them if it's for a wild animal that nobody care and like anyway, plus it pay really well)
and they're not completly wrong on that they can be dangerous it's true, this doesn't justifie their extermination, killing, hate.
and human love to kill wild animals
we fear them and yet are fascinated by them, they thrive were we barely survive, we need society and are unnable to survive in the wild we need our little comfort and easy life, we think of ourselve as all powerfull since we created an ecosystem that revolve around us and forget that the real world is out there and since we forgot it it became scary to us.
wild animals make us remembrer our place, we are not the strongest, we are not predators or at the top of the food chain. And there's a bigger world, the real world, oustide of the wall of our cities.
were we disfigured and destroyed our ecosystem to create one were food is plentifull and prey don't run, were we are at the top, but wild animals they live with their ecosystem and not against it, and they easily overpower us, they're more efficient, stronger, we only survive because of our brain and a lot of luck (afterall each human specie went extinct, our fate won't be different).
we love and hate them for that, they inspire us and terrify us by there mere presence.
our reptilian brain still view them as threath, and ou society had cut us from all nature connexion, there's this unknown, this mystery about them.
An human hate the unknown, he hate to know he is not the center of the world
so to compare himself to the beats he admire for their strenght he kill them.
to show that he is stronger (even if he need an armor, spear, gun and sword), to erase the competition and threat as humanity don't accept that some thing don't obey to it.
a compulsive need of control, our opposition to nature and wilderness, our fear of the wild came from here.
we kill them to "prove" that we are better, we use their body as trophy, capture them and force them in cage to do trick to show our "domination" on nature.
we fight the beats, we had our rush of adrenaline, money, fame and nothing to eat the sheep or that could hurt ou children, it would make our ancestor and descendants proud.
Those are all the lies that our society and we told ourselves, that's why we kill elephant, gorilla, tiger etc.
by our pride, our "little" egocentric god complex and anthropocentrist view of the world.
we think that the earth is our, even when we are only temporary occupant, and because of this we expect that all thing should obey us, be at our dispotition, and that we have the right to kill them if they pose a minor inconvenience.
Hunting is not what damaged them the most (traditional hunting does damage species not because of the killing but because which individual in particular hunters aim to hunt, which is always the strongest and biggest one - that is not a good thing at all for any pack or the species in general). It was the lost of habitat and the Advance of humankind over their territory (devastating everything on its path) what delivered the fatal blow form which almost no animal kind is safe from. Overall only roaches, rats and boars benefit from us, the rest is heavily damaged.
@@hispacacciato3514
Megafauna mass extinction in early pleistocene.
This doesn't count ?ok
Hunting is the second most dammaging thing to nature, of all history.
The first thing were farmers, because they not only helped, encouraged the extermination of other specie
But they destroyed most habitats they can.
But
Bison, wolves, bears, tiger, elephant, thylacine, lion, leopard, painted Dog, jaguar, elk, moose, beaver, otter, seal, sea lion, great auk, quagga, dodo, and rhinoceros are extinct or endangered now because of hunting.
Traditional hunting don't pollute the ecosystem maybe, but it dammage the specie because it's not only 5 mens who want a big Buck to kill, but thousand of them, every years for centuries.
So i agree with you, that's what i've said
But the fact that the most threathening thing is farming does not excuse hunting for being the second most dammaging thing
men think its macho to kill dangerous animals. They want to prove themselves to women.
French colonialism was a fatal blow to North African wildlife
Nice video 👍
Thanks!
@@AegleCreations 🙌♥️
@@AegleCreations
you're Sri Lankan , Bro ?
I'm your neighbour from the North 😄
🇮🇳♥️🇱🇰
@@shatnermohanty6678 Yup. Sri Lankan 👍
It's all so sad man, harsh reality for these beautiful cats in a world overloaded by humans. Nice video anyway 👍
Thx!
Thanks for the real map of Morocco in 4:07 ^^
It is very important for us the Moroccans.
I am a Moroccan and I am not happy that the State is spending billions USD on a part of the country where people don't like us while real Moroccans lack jobs, food, security and infrastructure. They take our money and laugh at us in our backs. Also, no where is corruption deeper than in that region. Generals and military of all grades below all the way down to simple soliders are filling their pockets with State money. I love my country and my people and this opinion is unpopular but in my estimation sinking endless funds in the Western Sahara is ruining our country, starving our people and reinforcing the power of the military while weakening our monarchy for no good reason other than pride and vanity.
oso ona thanks
Good news there some of leopards in the Algeria west Sahara (named a sawra) but they are very rare
Thanks for this info .it always makes me very angry to hear that we humans shot thousands of these animals and for what and now there's none.how cruel we all are.
Actually the majority of mammals in Morocco are endangered
Early explorers were exceptionally sensational
Well that’s depressing
Actually they found one last year in Algeria
I guess the African wolf is now the largest predatory mammal in the Atlas.
There are still wolves there? Hope they protect them
@@thomaszaccone3960 Yes, there's an entire conservation project dedicated to them. Look up "Atlas Golden Wolf Project".
@@samrizzardi2213 Thank you!
AND striped hyena
striped hyenas too
Wakanda forever
We have leopards in Pali jawai dam area - Rajasthan - India
👍🏽❤
A new documentary made by an Algerian explorer proves that the Barbary Leopards are still surviving, as he documented bodies of Gazel eaten on top of trees which is certain behavior of the leopard. th-cam.com/video/HzNTp1X5Nto/w-d-xo.html
For me I hope for all my relations and not just the human kind.
The French killed all the animals in the Atlas Mountains including lions and leopards 😢
Watch this doucement (wild Algeria) toi wil see the barbarian léopard
One of the most big cat and they are killing him! We have to act!
Leopards are also called panther
North African Leopard
So did the British royal family in colonial India. After independence the Duke becomes head of WWF.
Sad and wonderful that we who live today are the last generation of humans to kill other species on preposterous scales, without care of their extinction, and we are also the first generation who cares so deeply and remorsefully for those crimes that enormous efforts are made to save whales, elephants, pangolins, rhinos and wolves, while unenlightened hunters and poachers still kill these precious beings.
Save the children, protect the women and vulnerable, preserve our flora and fauna.
I always wondered why we never heard of any big cat from Europe except in Siberia?
They must have killed them all, and did kill them in other parts of the world as well.
However, they killed people, animals, nature and yes they killed themselves as well..but unfortunately they are civilised and the rest of the world is not.
They killed everything. What a shames
The more I see these videos the more I despise whoever caused all these extinctions in my country. Be it locals be it colonists ! Seriously, bears lions leopards and God knows what else.
Sign of the times. Beautiful creatures disappearing and vermin multiplying
Clearly that, colonial is the reason why the all beautiful species become extinct !
So sick and tired of hearing that animals were a lot more diverse and widespread before people killed many of them. The Romans made an elephant species go extinct too unfortunately
Why are you speaking in the past tense? In Morocco they still exist. There are many Arabic documentaries about them. LMAO
north african countries could care less about their flora and fauna.
No there are many national parks. But the average person doesn't care thats right
The Atlas Mountains are devoid of predators and other animals.
Again, they did not live just in the Atlas Mountains. You also said this with the lions. North Africa is more than just the Atlas mountains I’m sorry to disappoint you.
First
it's fake the photo and originating from Algeria like the overwhelming majority of Barbary leopard photos
lol.
@@raiselghiwane7506 miskine valabas w'Allah
What makes you believe the photo is fake? There are still sightings and hard evidence (scat) that they are still in Algeria in the same region as the Saharan cheetah
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Alfred_Pease,_2nd_Baronet