An old male has been captured to become the third leopard fitted with a GPS satellite collar in Tandoureh. Early on the night of 5 February 2015, Borzou was captured in a snare trap in the north of the park, the closest trapping location to the Turkmenistan border. Weighing 57 kg, the leopard seemed healthy but with poor dental condition, likely due to aging. He was completely new to the Foundation team and had not been detected before in photographic records provided by rangers and visitors.

Safely sedated by Foundation-associated vet Iman Memarian, the anesthetizing procedure went smoothly and the collar was attached and activated. After 45 minutes the animal was given an antidote to reverse the anesthesia, and he then walked away.

Surprisingly, the collar did not send any GPS fixes for the first two weeks of deployment, when Borzou was moving around in nearby mountains. After two weeks had been spent trying to spot the leopard in the hope of recapturing it to fix the collar, the collar suddenly started to transmit data. We never found out why this happened, but after two weeks of attempts and frustration it was a wonderful moment when the collar started working. The probable cause of the malfunction was that Borzou was spending most of his time among rocks in heavily cloudy weather.