South African documentary on Caucasian Leopard airs on Nat Geo Wild in December

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The film, The World’s Most Wanted Leopard, is part of the Mission Critical strand, which features powerful stories of the most incredible and most endangered animals on the planet. It follows Steirn and his team as they set out across the rugged and vast terrain of Azerbaijan in their quest to capture footage of the leopard, which is the largest sub-species of leopard in the world. It has never been substantively documented in the wild on film, with only limited still images and partial sightings via video camera traps in existence from other Caucasus regions.

Azerbaijan’s population has never previously been filmed, making this a groundbreaking expedition to document a species, which is officially denoted as critically endangered by the global monitoring organisation IUCN in its Red List of Threatened Species.

The film captures the hunt through Azerbaijan’s sub-tropical semi-desert heat, as well as freezing winters, as the team persevere in their mission to track down and film the beast in the isolated Hirkan National Park. Assisted by specialist support from Babakhan Rakhmanov, known locally as the Leopard Man, and Dr Victor Lukarevsky, a world-renowned Russian big cat specialist (BBC Operation Snow Tiger), the team used a network of cameras, planted in carefully targeted locations, to keep watch over the huge territory inhabited by the elusive animal.

Steirn, said, “Making this film has been a unique and incredible journey in search of a majestic creature. I have worked extensively across Africa but this was a very different experience for me and our team to go from Cape Town to the uncharted territories of Azerbaijan. It was a privilege to be granted access to the incredible Azerbaijan mountains with the support of local environmental bodies and trackers in an attempt to capture footage of this rare sub-species of leopard. The team and I were tested both emotionally and physically but we were thrilled with what we managed to accomplish. To know that the future of the Caucasian Leopard is now high on the agenda of key players in the region as a result of our film is extremely rewarding.”

Increasing global concern

The unprecedented footage has assisted in engaging and galvanising key conservation organisations in wider efforts to restore the Caucasian Leopard population across the region. These new initiatives follow the successful programme earlier this year, in the Caucasus biosphere reserve of Russia’s Sochi National Park, which saw the breeding and subsequent release into the wild of three Caucasian Leopard cubs, which was implemented by the Caucasus Leopard Breeding and Rehabilitation Centre.

Ginkgo Agency’s mission is to produce purpose-led, cause-related work that contributes to the global community. It recently launched Beautiful News, a digital platform dedicated to delivering an inspiring story each day that reflects the goodness of the South African people and celebrates their spirit and community. Other projects have included work for WWF South Africa, where Steirn is a photographer in residence, and a series of films highlighting conservation issues, such as the threat to tigers in Nepal and the plight of the Amazon rainforest, as well as several focused on rhino poaching. For more information, go to www.ginkgoagency.com.