Breeding Back the World's Smallest Leopard in AlUla

The Arabian Leopard Fund was established to save the Arabian leopard, the smallest leopard subspecies in the world and critically endangered across the Arabian Peninsula, with only around 100-120 estimated left in the wild in Oman and Yemen. The fund supports a conservation breeding programme at the Prince Saud Al-Faisal Center for Wildlife Research in Taif, funds grants of up to $20,000 for leopard research and habitat protection, and runs public education and scholarship programmes to build local conservation capacity. The Taif breeding centre's population has grown from just 14 leopards in 2020 to 32 by late 2024, with litters including rare triplets born in 2024. Longer term, the fund's partners aim to reintroduce captive-bred leopards into protected habitat around AlUla.