On 30 September 2014, a prime male who was already very well known to visitors to Tandoureh was captured and fitted with a satellite collar. Bardia, who is 8 to 10 years old and has featured in numerous photos taken by visitors over the past five years, was safely caught in a snare trap in a location where he had been seen quite a few times before. He was fitted with a GPS satellite collar and then reverse-anesthetized so that he could walk away. His stomach was not empty when captured, and he started to kill large prey after one week.

Bardia was the second Persian leopard to be fitted with a satellite collar in Tandoureh, just four nights after Borna, the first leopard to be fitted. These two leopards show exclusive territorial behaviour, rarely entering each other’s range. Borna regularly visits the Chelmir recreational zone, where dozens of local families spend their weekends for barbeques and other outdoor activities, but no one has ever reported seeing him. The Foundation is hoping to collar additional leopards to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of their ecology and behaviour in Iran.