ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Recently, I came across a study on the wildlife of the Bamo Mountains in the Kurdistan Region. Two biologists and conservationists from Sulaimani, Soran H. Ahmed and Soma I. Majeed, spent months monitoring the mammalian species in this region, making a remarkable discovery by recording eight species of wild mammals on Bamo for the first time.

Using trap cameras, which they described as "an ideal way to determine species diversity," the researchers observed species including wild goats, wild boars, Indian crested porcupines, European hares, red foxes, golden jackals, and the elusive Persian leopard.

Their study was conducted in two phases, with each yielding a different set of species captured on camera. Published in the Bulletin of the Iraq Natural History Museum in 2020, the research goes into intricate detail, such as the frequency with which each species was recorded. For instance, the crested porcupine appeared on camera 22 times, the golden jackal four times, while the red fox, wild boar, hare, and wild goat were each captured twice. The Persian leopard, however, appeared only once.

The Persian leopard is one of the world's rarest and most endangered wildcats. The study highlights that landmines, remnants of the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, are a significant threat to this species. They refer to an incident where “A Persian leopard was killed by a landmine near the village of Mortka, east of Darbandikhan Lake, in 2009.”

Notably, the vast majority of the footage (around 89 percent) was captured at night, with the rest recorded during the day. The researchers suggest that this nocturnal behavior could be due to disturbances or perceived threats during daylight hours, though other natural factors may also be at play.

Ahmed and Majeed also identified several threats to the wildlife in the region, including forest fires, landmines, poaching, and animal trafficking. These factors, they warn, could have led to a significant decline in the population size and distribution of many wild mammalian species, with some possibly already extinct.

Their descriptions paint a vivid picture of the Bamo Mountain environment, located just 17 kilometers east of Darbandikhan. It is described as a "transboundary monotonic mountainous habitat," characterized by rocky cliffs, mountain slopes, and oak-dominated deciduous forests.

One of their cameras was installed on a rocky cliff, about 1,558 meters above sea level. However, even their equipment was not safe from illegal hunters. In May 2017, during a second round of data collection, the researchers discovered that their camera had been stolen by a local hunter, forcing them to cancel their survey. The camera was eventually recovered after a year, thanks to the Forestry Police, but the memory card had been removed, leaving them with no additional data.

During their fieldwork, the researchers also gathered stories from local inhabitants, learning that hunters were responsible for some of the forest fires. According to the report, some hunters deliberately set fires to flush out game such as wild goats or birds, or to smoke out wild honey bees for easier honey extraction. Unfortunately, these fires often spread uncontrollably, causing significant damage to the natural habitat of the Bamo Mountains.