During an ongoing population survey using camera traps in Sarigol National Park, some 100 km southwest of Tandoureh in North Khorasan province, a beautiful Pallas’s cat was photographed. The animal is seen to inspect the camera curiously before walking away, all in the middle of the day. The camera was located at the boundary of the national park, near the main village Esfarayen.

Classified since 2002 by the IUCN as a “Near Threatened” species, the Pallas’s cat roams highland plateaus and mountains in west and central Asia, feeding mainly on small mammals such as rodents. The species was first recorded some half a century ago from northeastern Iran, but recent reports from central and southern Iran indicate that it is more widespread than was previously thought.

Sarigol was known to host the Pallas’s cat, based on a blurred image taken by local experts a few years ago, but capturing them on camera traps is extremely difficult due to their small size and the unpredictable routes they tend to take. Two years ago another specimen was caught by local villagers before being released back to the wild by Sarigol rangers.