Leopard Altynkoz has once again been spotted in the Ustyurt Nature Reserve

In March and May 2026, an old friend reappeared in the Ustyurt Nature Reserve—a male leopard first caught on camera traps back in 2024. He was later given the name Altynkoz following a children's drawing contest.

Interestingly, in April 2026, it appears this very same leopard was spotted and even filmed on a mobile phone by the staff of the Kyzylsai Nature Park. Thus, between March and May, Altynkoz covered a distance of at least 450 kilometers, traveling from the reserve to Kyzylsai and back. He took a roughly similar route in 2025. According to experts, the leopard regularly makes long journeys in search of a mate. Unfortunately, these efforts have so far been unsuccessful. Unlike males, female leopards are not prone to such long-distance travel, and we do not yet have confirmed evidence of female leopards crossing from Turkmenistan into the Kazakh part of the Ustyurt Plateau, though the possibility cannot be entirely ruled out.

Tracking the leopard's movements across the Mangystau region has been made possible through the successful collaboration between the staff of the Ustyurt Nature Reserve and the Kyzylsai Nature Park. This partnership began in 2023 as part of an international project to study and protect leopards in Kazakhstan, coordinated by the Public Foundation "Biodiversity Research and Conservation Center" (BRCC). You can learn more about leopards in Kazakhstan and the project to study and protect them here