A smaller, paler leopard
Panthera pardus nimr lives only in the Arabian Peninsula and is smaller and lighter than leopards elsewhere. Apart from a band of gold along its back its coat is pale yellow or white, its eyes are blue, and a long tail balances it on rock. Males weigh about 30 kg, females about 20 kg.
It keeps to high mountains far from people and hunts at dusk and dawn. As its natural prey has grown scarce it has turned to livestock, and the IUCN has listed it as critically endangered since 1996. AlUla is an ancient habitat, where rock inscriptions record its presence, and the cat has also been seen in the Asir highlands.
Breeding for the wild
The Royal Commission for AlUla took over the breeding programme in 2020 with 14 leopards; by December 2024 its Arabian Leopard Conservation Breeding Centre housed 32. That summer it welcomed triplets, believed to be the first born together in captivity in the Kingdom, and six more cubs followed in 2025. The long-term aim is to return the leopard to the wild in AlUla once its reserves and native prey have recovered.
In 2019 the Arabian Leopard Fund was established in AlUla's Sharaan reserve at the direction of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The idea of a day for the species began with the Royal Commission for AlUla in 2022, and in June 2023 the UN General Assembly designated 10 February the International Day of the Arabian Leopard. The Prince Mohammed bin Salman Royal Reserve also lists it among the species it plans to bring back.