This young Arabian leopard, without the intervention of the Kingdom’s little known but long established wildlife conservation program, would simply not exist. In 2003 one of the Middle East’s rarest predators, the Arabian leopard (Panthera pardus nimr), was almost extinct. The smallest member of the leopard family at only about 25 kg and with a cream to white coat, it once roamed the mountains of western Saudi Arabia. The find of a dead specimen in 1992, shot by a goatherd, changed the minds of conservationists’ who actually believed then it was extinct. Its decline was due to human population growth and its taste for easy prey in the form of goats and sheep. Eight years on the threat of extinction has receded, at least in Saudi Arabia. The efforts of the Saudi Wildlife Authority established in 1986 and the captive breeding program at the National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC) in Taif have brought this magnificent creature back from the edge and developed the basis for a breeding population. More on the work of the NWRC can be found at http://www.nwrc.gov.sa. (AN photo by Roger Harrison)