RIYADH: The Royal Commission for AlUla announced the birth of two female Arabian leopard cubs on Tuesday.
“We celebrate their arrival as we mark another milestone in our quest to restore the power of nature's balance in AlUla,” the commission said.
The cubs were born at the Prince Saud Al-Faisal Center for Wildlife Research as part of a captivity and breeding program that seeks to increase the number of Arabian leopards and resettle them in the wild, Saudi Press Agency reported.
Right now, the Arabian leopard is classified on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List as “critically endangered.” It is all but extinct in the wild.
Only a handful of the magnificent animals are thought to survive in the whole Arabian Peninsula, holding out in a last refuge in Oman’s Dhofar mountains.
The RCU’s strategy to preserve the Arabian leopard includes a variety of initiatives including the expansion of a breeding program through the opening of the Arabian Leopard Breeding Center in the Sharaan Nature Reserve, and the establishment of the Global Fund for the Arabian Leopard which the commission has allocated $25 million for.
The commitment to preserving the Arabian leopard runs deep in Saudi Arabia.In June 2016, Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, Saudi Arabia’s minister of culture and RCU governor, signed an agreement with Panthera, committing the commission to investing $20 million over 10 years to aid global conservation of the leopard and to revitalize the Arabian leopard population.
This year, the Kingdom celebrated its first Arabian Leopard Day in February.The special occasion — which will take place annually on February 10 — seeks to raise awareness of the endangered big cat.
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