The habitat of
P. p. tulliana in the
Greater Caucasus is
subalpine meadows,
temperate broadleaf and mixed forests and rugged
ravines from . In the
Lesser Caucasus and Iran it inhabits rocky slopes, mountain
steppes and sparse
juniper forests. though its presence in the Pontic Mountains was questioned in 2016 due to a lack of evidence. The leopard's preferred habitat is thought to be sparse forest areas, followed by rocky areas, agriculture and pasture areas, and
riparian zones. In southeastern Turkey, its presence was documented in the
Çınar district of
Diyarbakır Province and in
Bitlis Province. In 2018 and 2019, it was photographed on the northern slopes of
Mount Cudi in
Şırnak Province, which may be a corridor for movement between Turkey and Iraq. The leopard has also been photographed in the north-eastern province of
Artvin, which borders Georgia, but whether the animals are resident in the area is not known. In the Caucasus, leopards were sighted around the
Tbilisi area and in
Shida Kartli province in
Georgia, where they live primarily in dense forests. Several individuals were sighted in the lowland plains of the
Kakheti region in 2004. Leopard signs were also found at two localities in
Tusheti, the headwaters of the
Andi Koysu and
Assa rivers bordering
Dagestan. During surveys in 2013 – 2014, camera traps recorded leopards in 24 locations in southern Armenia, of which 14 were in the
Zangezur Mountains. In March 2007 and October 2012 an individual was photographed by a camera trap in
Hirkan National Park, and surveys in 2013-2014 recorded leopards in five locations within the park. Multiple leopards have been recorded in areas close to the Iran-Iraq border in
Zangezur National Park, including females with cubs. Leopards have been sporadically recorded in northern Iraq. In October 2011 and January 2012, a leopard was photographed by a camera trap on Jazhna Mountain in the
Zagros Mountains forest steppe in the
Kurdistan Region, and between 2001 and 2014, at least nine leopards were killed by local people in this region. Iran is a stronghold of the leopard in the region. The subspecies is more abundant in the northern than in the southern part of the country, and in the 2010s was recorded in 74 of 204 protected areas. The
Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forests along the Alborz Mountains are one of the most important habitats for the leopard in the country. Most leopards were recorded in habitats with temperatures of , a maximum of 20 days of ice cover per year, and an annual rainfall of more than . The Central Alborz Protected Area, which covers more than , is one of the largest reserves in the country in which leopards roam. Evidence for leopard reproduction was documented in six localities inside protected areas in the Iranian part of the Lesser Caucasus.
Salouk National Park, and
Tandooreh National Park. These included 10 cubs in seven families, highlighting that the
Kopet Dag and
Aladagh Mountains are important leopard refugia in the region. Between September 2014 and August 2016, two
radio-collared leopards moved from Iran's Kopet Dag region into Turkmenistan, revealing that the leopard population in the two countries is connected. In 2017, a young male leopard from Iran's Tandooreh National Park dispersed to and settled in Turkmenistan, and an elderly male Persian leopard was found to have moved from Iran to Turkmenistan in 2018. In Pakistan, leopards inhabit
Himalayan forests and
montane regions; leopards have been recorded in and around
Machiara National Park,
Pir Lasora National Park, and
Ayubia National Park. In
Kazakhstan, a leopard was recorded for the first time in 2000 in the
Jambyl Region. In 2007 and 2015, two leopards were killed in the
Mangystau Region farther west in the country. Between September and December 2018, camera traps recorded a leopard on a cliff in
Ustyurt Nature Reserve.
Historical range P. p. tulliana was most likely distributed over the entire Caucasus, except for the steppe areas. The northern foothills of the Greater Caucasus formed the northern boundary of its historic range. During surveys conducted between 2001 and 2005, no leopard was recorded in the western Greater Caucasus; it probably survived only at a few sites in the eastern part. In Armenia, people and leopards have co-existed since prehistoric times and in the mid-20th century the leopard was relatively common in the country's mountains. Stone traps for leopards and other predators dating to the
Roman Empire still exist in the
Taurus Mountains in southern Turkey. The last leopard in
Syria is reported to have been killed in 1963 in the
Syrian Coastal Mountain Range.
P. p. tulliana was once numerous in the
Aegean Region between
İzmir and
Antalya, with the
Beşparmak Mountains considered a stronghold. Several factors contributed to the decline of the leopard population in this region between the late 1940s and mid 1970s, including
deforestation, conversion of natural habitat to
orchards, road construction, and killing of leopards in retaliation for livestock predation. Since surveys were not carried out in western Turkey until the mid-1980s, biologists doubted whether leopards still survived in the region. Sighting reports from the environs of
Alanya in the south of the
Lycian peninsula suggested that a scattered population existed between
Finike, Antalya and Alanya in the early 1990s. Fresh faecal pellets found in
Mount Güllük-Termessos National Park in 1992 were attributed to an Anatolian leopard, but surveys in western Turkey between 2000 and 2004 found no contemporary evidence of leopards. Extensive
trophy hunting is thought to be the prime factor for the decline of the Anatolian leopard in this area. The leopard population in southern Russia had been reduced to two small and isolated populations by the 1950s, and by 2007, there were fewer than 50 individuals in the region. The political and social changes caused by the breakup of the
Soviet Union in 1992 caused a severe economic crisis and weakening of formerly effective protection systems; wildlife habitats were severely fragmented, leopards were persecuted and wild
ungulates were hunted. In addition, inadequate baseline data and lack of monitoring programmes made it difficult to evaluate declines of mammalian prey species. In the winter of 2003, zoologists found footprints of a leopard in
Vashlovani National Park in southeastern Georgia. Camera traps recorded one young male individual several times. The individual was not recorded again between 2009 and 2014, and a survey in 2019 found no leopards. Leopards also survived in northwestern Azerbaijan in the Akhar-Bakhar section of the
Ilisu State Reserve in the foothills of the Greater Caucasus, but in 2007 numbers were thought to be extremely low. In Afghanistan, the leopard is thought to inhabit the central highlands of the
Hindu Kush and the
Wakhan corridor, but none have been photographed. The long-lasting conflict in the country badly affected both predator and prey species, so that the national population is considered to be small and severely threatened. In the 1970s, the leopard's presence was recorded in Pakistan's
Kirthar Mountains, northeastern
Baluchistan and
Murree Hills. == Behaviour and ecology ==