[ti:The Struggle to Save Iraq's Last Persian Leopards] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]On a recent day, Bahez and Nabaz Farooq Ali [00:03.96]were on Bamo Mountain in Iraq's Kurdistan area. [00:09.00]The brothers hoped to make video recordings of a Persian leopard. [00:15.16]It is believed there are only about [00:17.84]1,000 of the animals left in the wild. [00:23.08]"Our grandparents saw some even during the day," Nabaz said. [00:29.04]Since then, the animals have almost all disappeared. [00:35.36]Most Persian leopards are in Iran and Afghanistan. [00:40.84]Iraqi Kurdish conservationist Hana Raza [00:44.60]estimates there may be 25 left in Iraq. [00:50.04]The International Union for Conservation of Nature [00:53.92]lists the animal as endangered. [00:58.52]Conservationists in Iraqi Kurdistan [01:02.08]support increased efforts to protect the leopard. [01:07.56]The animals are threatened by a severe loss of habitat, [01:12.04]human interference, hunting and the effects of war. [01:18.52]Soran Ahmed is a biologist at the University of Sulaimaniya. [01:24.72]He said about 10 different Persian leopards had been recorded. [01:31.08]But he added that 10 others have been found dead [01:35.36]in the last 10 years, two of them shot by bullets. [01:41.72]The Ali brothers had left their village of Horen [01:45.16]to escape former president Saddam Hussein's [01:48.44]violent campaign against the Kurds. [01:52.96]When they returned in 1991, [01:55.80]they found the village empty and partly destroyed. [02:01.32]"When people returned to…their villages, [02:04.12]they also started to hunt randomly," Nabaz said. [02:09.48]Hunting of the leopards' prey, such as wild goats, [02:13.80]helped lead to a decrease in their numbers. [02:18.44]Hunting of endangered animals is not permitted in Iraq's Kurdish area. [02:25.28]Anyone caught illegally hunting can be fined. [02:30.48]But forest police official Akram Saleh [02:33.64]said the laws can be difficult to enforce. [02:38.64]"The area is very large and we don't have [02:42.12]the necessary resources to cover it," he said. [02:46.84]"Hunters have better weapons, better cars than us." [02:52.68]In parts of Bamo Mountain, land mines have kept humans [02:57.12]and cows away from some areas where leopards live, Nabaz said. [03:03.52]The mines make researchers' work more dangerous. [03:08.20]Animals in the area are also affected. [03:12.96]Data from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) [03:16.28]show that the Kurdish area lost almost half of its forest [03:20.84]between 1999 and 2018. [03:26.04]That caused a severe loss in the leopard's habitat. [03:31.64]Razzaq al-Khaylani is a spokesperson [03:34.44]for the KRG board of environment. [03:38.20]He said a lack of public money for conservation [03:42.20]and conflicts in the area have stopped some efforts. [03:47.88]Soran Ahmed said, “Places like Bamo mountain, [03:51.72]if effectively protected, could become a breeding site for the leopards.” [03:57.88]He added, "We have to save them, [04:01.00]they are part of our culture and identity." [04:05.68]I’m Jonathan Evans. [04:07.80]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM