Pejman Akbarzadeh *

Dutch Persians Donated to Amersfoort Zoo because of Persian Leopard Protection in 2010; a fundraising project organized by Persian Dutch Network.

The story goes back to October 2010, when a rare Persian Leopard, which is currently on the endangered species list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, was born in Amersfoort Zoo in the Netherlands.The Dutch website DeStadAmersfoort published an interesting article about that.

According to Radio Zamaneh, "The Amersfoort Zoo staff has named the cub "Cyrus", after Persian Empire's founder, Cyrus the Great."

Currently 114 Persian leopards live in 54 zoos around Europe. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUNC) , the largest population of these leopards lives in the mountainous regions Alborz and Zagros in Persia (Iran) and is in the range of 550 to 850 heads.

In October 2010, Tehran-based ILNA reported the "killing of one these leopards in Iran. The culprits are currently released on bail."

From 200 to 300 of these leopards also live in Afghanistan but there is very little information regarding their situation. Smaller populations are also reported in Republic of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Georgia and Turkey. The situation of Persian leopards in Caucasus is highly critical and Russia has called for Persia's assistance for their protection.

In 1998, Persian Leopard Conservation Society, a non-governmental organization was established in Tehran through the efforts of IUNC member, Ali Aghili.

In recent campaign of PDN, 500 EUR was raised to donate to DierenPark Amersfoort Zoo. More fundraising projects to support Persian social, cultural and human rights projects are in process but according to PDN, "the most important issue is that how many people are going to support such project financially...".